The year was 1971, and it must have been a wintry month, as I was wearing the bright pink flowered flannel nightgown my mom made me. There were three things my mom did regularly; sew, cook and pray. This night we were praying.
Several times a week I would kneel beside my mom in her green and blue bedroom and pray the rosary with her. I was a little concerned that my older siblings would tease me, but it’s where I wanted to be.
This particular night, as my little illustrated booklet informed, we were supposed to meditate upon the ‘Sorrowful Mysteries’. (Each day of the week presented a different focus.) I knew in my head what the Passion of Christ was all about, and believed every bit of it. Before we started, my mom said to me, “Tammy, tonight think about how Jesus died on the cross for all of your sins, and thank him for it; he would have done it if you were the only little girl in the world.”
At the tender age of 7, I had already added plenty of sin to my account. Out of jealousy, I used to beat on my younger brother. I knew it was wrong and that it was sin. I also knew that even if I could quit sinning, these sins I already committed would never go away on their own.
I thanked Jesus with all of my being that night, for erasing these and all my future sins from my record. It didn’t matter that in my hand was a set of beads designed to direct prayer to a person that would never receive them. I was simply thanking my God for what he did for me. Unbeknownst to me then, at that very moment, I received eternal life.
Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born again.
- Jesus @ John 3:7
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