I came back to the Catholic Church in 1994 and my wife and regularly attended First Friday Masses from 1995 and 1996, and after that, we were committed to First Friday and daily Mass when we could make it. We discovered the joy of our Catholic Faith and were so grateful we returned to practicing The Catholic faith.

In the Fall of 2016, my wife and I enthroned our home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the invitation of a fellow parishioner. The following year in October 2017 my wife was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Over the course of the next 3 month, her condition deteriorated to the point where she had to be admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).  After 6 days it was evident that she was not going to recover, and that this was her last day. Neither one of us imagined that the end would come so quickly and we had not made any prior arrangements for a priest to administer Last Rites.

My son and his wife arrived to say their last good-byes, and in the flurry of all the activity to put my wife on hospice treatment for the rest of the day, I asked my daughter-in-law to step outside of the room and contact our parish for a priest.   She got their voicemail. As she was leaving a voicemail, a priest from our parish walked up to her – from literally out of nowhere – and asked her if she needed a priest. You can imagine our amazement. The priest administered Last Rites and an Apostolic Pardon.

I believe that this small miracle was God literally fulfilling one of the 12 promises of the Sacred Heart since we both fulfilled the First Friday commitment together the year before her cancer.

The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance; they shall not die … without receiving their Sacraments.” From Jesus to St. Margaret Mary

I found out later that the priest had been called earlier for a patient that was on the same floor as my wife, and as he was making his way to that room he sensed that my daughter-in-law was in duress and needed a priest. God moves in mysterious ways and I am thankful that Jesus Christ is faithful to His promises for honoring His Sacred Heart.

-Jeff Solinger