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Dear St. Faustina,
By now you’re probably aware of me.
It’s me, Kevin, the guy who has this devotion to you and to Divine Mercy and can get quite nerdy about it.
Ever since I first read about you and what the message of Divine Mercy is, I was hooked.“That,” I thought to myself, “that is what I need to latch onto, learn more about, and pray about.”
I have tried to do just that these past several years.
My devotion
In typical me form, I try to get the promise on Divine Mercy Sunday, I have the Divine Mercy Image hanging in my home and as my smartphone wallpaper, I pray the Divine Mercy Novena every year starting on Good Friday, I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet . . . not as much as I should, and . . . well I usually let myself get too busy to contemplate on the Passion of Jesus during the Hour of Mercy, 3 o’clock.
I have also acquired many books about you and the message and devotion of Divine Mercy. Some of them I’ve even read.
I owe a lot to you. If nothing else, because the word “trust” has a more prominent place in my life, as well as the combined words of “Jesus, I Trust in You” even if I do not always believe what I am saying when I say them.
Clearly there is some room for growth in my practice of this devotion, especially when it comes to fully embracing and understanding the message of Divine Mercy.
Your feast day
So your feast day was on October 5.
I guess that’s sort of a silly thing to celebrate, isn’t it? It’s the day you died in 1938 at the young age of 33.
In your Diary, you wrote that you were looking forward to death, or rather, you were looking forward to being in Heaven. So perhaps that is cause for celebration?
You were beatified in 1993 and canonized as a saint in 2000, so we can say with some pretty bold confidence that you are in Heaven.
I look forward to meeting you there someday.
Do you celebrate feast days in Heaven? Are they like birthdays up there?
Before I— God-willing — get to Heaven myself, I look forward to being the saint you were.
Through all of your sufferings, and you went through a lot of sufferings, your faith didn’t waver, but grew all the more.
You were a shining example of the “all-in” person I want to be when it comes to knowing, loving, and serving God.
So while you couldn’t have imagined your writings would affect someone born 45 years after your death, I just want to say thank you.
And, as I’ve implored you many times, St. Faustina, pray for us!
Sincerely,
Kevin
For more information on the message and devotion of Divine Mercy, go to https://www.thedivinemercy.org