I walked into my dad’s bedroom to grab something and laying on top of his dresser was the divorce papers. I remember looking at the paper and seeing that the divorce was final. In a way, I cannot say that I was too sad. 
The fights, the late night arguments were over.
During this time, between the ages of 12 and 13, I found some new friends in my school, people that I had already known, but a little bit of a different crowd. Hanging out and talking, I remember during one of those conversations, one of my friends asked me how everything was going and I told her about my parents divorce being finalized. She said that she was sorry and some of my other friends that were there said the same. I told them that it was fine and that I know that God had a plan. Why I said that at that age, after the way that I was feeling, I do not know, but I do know that in each one of us, whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, God is there and there are some things that you cannot shake, no matter how hard that you try.
It was at that defining moment that I did not realize what would happen within that conversation. My friends began to ask me that if there was a God, where was He with so many bad things happening in the world, where was He when I had asked the arguing to stop with my parents?
I remember going home that night and thinking about those questions and then thinking about my childhood. Was He really there for me?
It was that night, in my little, unknowledgeable and simple way that I said, “Well God, if you don’t love me, how can I love you? My friends are right, you can’t exist. Look at these wars in the world, look at my life. How can you be real?”
During that time, I never knew God in the close personal way that I do today. What I knew of Him was that He existed and I knew that He was the creator of the world.
I was Baptized as a Roman Catholic when I was only a few months old. My family was never active in the Church. There was only a handful of times when we would go to Church and it was only Mom and us when we would go to visit Nana.
We never spoke of Jesus in our home but I would always see a picture of Jesus hanging up. My mother always had one above her bed.I would go to my mom’s bed just to sit and to look into the eyes of Jesus. Somethings so comforting to me and something that I still do today.
When my peers said, “how can God be real, he’s not real to us, where is he?” I remember feeling very indifferent to what it is that they were saying because when I looked into the eyes of Jesus Christ, in that photo hanging above moms bed, I knew what I felt was real. Being such a tender age and being at the age that I was changing in so many different ways and dealing with some other heavy issues in my life during that time, I see were Satan was trying to trap me. Because if he can get you when you’re young, that’s where he can try and take hold of you. All that he needs is that little doubt.
But don’t we all have that?
How many of us have doubted the truth of Gods existence when things in our life went down? Everyone may not have come out and said that they were an Atheist, but some of us have. Some of our crosses were that heavy – that to even think that God could be around and not help, was nonsensical.
At the age of 15 years old, God would have it that I would walk to the front Alter of a Roman Catholic Church, one stormy afternoon. A future blog to come about the journey to Truth.
How did I come back from this? I came back from this through the Blessed Mother Mary. I will write about that at another time, in another blog. But during that time of me being a self-proclaimed Atheist, Jesus had His Eyes on me.
I never picked up a book or ever studied Atheism but in my heart I was sad to know that God left me. Even during that time, I would still always go to stare at that picture hanging above moms bed.
While I knew of the Blessed Mother Mary, I thought she was just a woman that was someone who gave birth to a little boy and that little boy was really important and that’s all that I knew of our Blessed Mother at that time.
I went to Confession when I was in my 20s and I remember my Confession to the Priest about me being an Atheist for several years. What I learned is this is when most people fall in life, they fall in their teenage years because this is where they are most susceptible. And this is where the beautiful innocence of children can be had.
Almost always, the influence is done by our peers. In many other cases, it is because of a violation by an adult. I had my peers on one side talking in my ear and on the other side – an abusive home.
I have been wanting to write about this for so many years and as of late, God has been working on my heart about this.
When I found myself having a hard time writing about this, I went into prayer. I asked God, “why am I having a hard time writing about this? “God told my heart, “because you lack humility. ”
I was very taken aback by Gods Response. When I spent time in prayer with Him, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, what I discovered was this about myself, is that because I live, in a way, a public ministry life that spreads the word of Jesus Christ, Blessed Mother Mary, the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church – how would people look at me if I did come out and say that for several years as a child, I was an Atheist?
My husband knew, my children knew about this, I was honest with them because I wanted to let them know, that listen, when you’re in school, don’t be surprised if things start to happen – if you start to feel a certain way about God, come to mom and dad, but always, go to Jesus Christ – into a dialogue with Him so you can keep your mind and your heart set and straight in His Truths.
I sat down, opened my laptop and here is the end result.
If it is somebody who is struggling and thinking, how can I go back to God when I denied Him? Am I even worthy anymore? I was there before and I know how that feels and I can only tell you this, go to Confession, go in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
Know that you’ve been forgiven and live in Him today.
Everything in life is a stepping stone to bring us closer to Jesus.


Reality Meets Faith 