Sad commentary, call to write

I'm at school right now, subbing for a religion class of Senior girls. I decided to conduct a little informal research in the form of an oral questionnaire. There are 34 girls in this class today, and of those 34, only one had heard of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Then I explained to them what the image was, and most of then nodded as if they'd seen the image before. I asked them if they knew anything about it. Only this one girl could respond. Here's what she said:

Oh, isn't that where there is blood and water coming out? The water is because wasn't he given nasty water to drink? And the blood.... symbolizes something else.

I asked them where they had seen this image. Almost unanimously, they reported that they'd seen it at their grandmother's home. Many of these girls are being raised by their grandmothers, in fact, so it only shows that religious art and symbols, while present, may mean nothing to them.

I didn't lecture them on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but I encouraged them to ask their grandmothers about this devotion.

I am saddened, but I am also emboldened in my desire to write a book that renews the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for young women. I have already 58 pages written, but these pages need some significant work, by far. 

Perhaps this is where my gift of writing needs to be focused, rather than fiction and tales of the imagination. There's plenty of fiction and tales of the imagination in the world. As far as my research has shown, there is not much in the way of Catholic devotion aimed specifically at teenage/20s girls/women that isn't focused on Purity.

I talked to a publishing rep at the L.A. Congress last weekend, and she expressed some interest in this project. Perhaps God's been telling me all along where He wants my gifts to be placed. I've just been too distracted by my own imagination to hear Him.