“Our Father’s Paternal Heart is a refuge, a fortress, and a sanctuary for us. It is an ocean of love and mercy, a sea of bliss, and a paradise for each and every child to return to, when he or she is left alone in a world of emptiness and false illusion. Our Father’s Heart is, as Christ showed us in Gethsemane, where we are to go when there is nowhere left to go and no one left to turn to. His Heart is, quite simply, our true Home, where we all are invited to return. This is the deeper mystery of the Father’s Heart, a mystery we are all called to seek and to find.

“Yes, our Father’s Heart is our Home, where we are called to return. It is a true, loving home, a real home; for the Father’s Heart is a house of comfort, solace, and rest. It is a house of protection – a place for the cold and the hungry and a place for the lost. We can go to the Father’s Heart in the daytime of our life, when we are weary, when we need encouragement, and are tempted to give up. We can go to the Father’s Heart in the night time of our life, when we are naked and scared, when we are alone and on our knees, and seek hope to prevent despair.

“And so now, our Father summons us, one and all, back to Him – back into His arms, into His Heart. He summons the knowing, the confused, the floundering, and the proud. He summons the blind and the deaf. He summons the wicked. He summons the unwanted and separated. He summons those who are in despair and panicking, those who are frightened and devoured by evil, those who are misguided, and those who are lost. Our Father especially seeks His little ones who are lost—lost to self, lost to power, lost to greed, lost to pride, lost to intellect, lost to disobedience, lost to wilfulness, lost to apathy, lost to self abuse, lost to self indulgence, lost to hate, lost to lust, lost in their faith and no longer believe in a heavenly Father who loves them and has never forgotten them; a Father who has never left them and will always welcome them home to rest in His forgiving, loving Heart. This is because no child is beyond the Father’s Paternal Heart” (Petrisko, T. W. [2014]. The Mystery of the Divine Paternal Heart).