Skip to main content

Saint Faustina

Saint Faustina: Feast Day Oct. 5th

Saint Faustina is one of my favorite saints. Her burning  love for Christ, her devotion of offering up everything she did for the conversion of sinners or people she encountered needing prayers, and her true childlike humility before the Lord are just some of the saintly qualities of hers that I admire.

Make no mistake about it, Saint Faustina is the Apostle of Divine Mercy! I don’t know if you’ve ever read Saint Faustina’s Diary, but if you haven’t, you definitely should! Her writings are filled with beautiful words from Jesus about his offering of mercy to those who gaze upon and venerate his Divine Mercy image, which he instructed Saint Faustina to have painted. 

Since early spring 2019, my family and I have grown in our love for Jesus’ message of Divine Mercy. In 2019 we attended a special Divine Mercy Sunday (the Sunday after Easter) Mass with confession, adoration, and reception of the Holy Eucharist. Jesus told Saint Faustina that his mercy and graces flow upon those who go to confession and receive Holy Communion on Divine Mercy Sunday, and they will receive remission of their sins and pardoning from punishment. If you’ve never gone to confession and attended Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, please don’t miss receiving his beautiful gift. 

In the spring of 2019, my family also purchased a Divine Mercy image and had it blessed by our parish priest. We then formally enthroned it in our home on The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity which also happened to by Father’s Day that year. This year, 2020, on Divine Mercy Sunday we re-enthroned it together as a family. We now as a family try to pray at or close after 3:00pm (the hour of Divine Mercy) in front of our Divine Mercy paining. We pray the following prayer using the words under the paining and from the Chaplet of Divine Mercy Jesus taught Saint Faustina: “Jesus, I trust in you. Eternal Father, I offer you the body, blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Jesus’ Divine Mercy is a beautiful gift, and I believe it has helped grow and nurture my family’s faith in many ways. If you’re interested in learning more about Divine Mercy, I highly recommend reading Saint Faustina’s Diary or writings about Divine Mercy from Saint Pope John Paul II. Here also is further reading about the promises Christ makes for those who venerate and spread his message of Divine Mercy as well as an article about Saint Faustina and her feast day.


This is my family’s Divine Mercy painting. We hung it by our front door and at the bottom of our stairs leading up to our bedrooms. We see it first thing in the morning, on our way to bed, from the kitchen, and when we leave our home. If you and your family have or get an image of Divine Mercy, I highly recommend hanging your image somewhere where you will see it throughout the day and be reminded to say, “Jesus, I trust in you.” 

Celebrating Saint Faustina Through Food:

Since Saint Faustina was from Poland, and going along with the theme: “Make no mistake, Saint Faustina is the Apostle of Divine Mercy, we made Polish Mistakes for dinner. You can also make mint meringues, which are similar to “Divinities” but have less sugar, and call them “Divine Mercy Meringues.” 



Craft and Prayer Time:

Say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy together as a family. You can also listen to the beautiful song version of the chaplet below and sing together along with it. 


For a craft, draw and color a decade of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy on a large sheet of paper or poster board. Hang the chaplet your family makes together in a prominent place in your home to remind you to say the chaplet together as a family.



Additional activity:

Watch the cartoon video below, from EWTN, about Saint Faustina as a family.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful day celebrating Saint Faustina! Saint Faustina, pray for us!







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Saint Margaret Mary

Saint Margaret Mary: Feast Day October 16th  “Look upon yourself as a tree planted beside water, which bears its fruit in due season; the more it is shaken by the wind, the deeper it strikes its roots into the ground.” ~ Saint Margaret Mary ~ Faith is a gift—an undeserved and valuable grace granted by the Holy Spirit. Each of us has the capacity to seek The Way, The Truth, and The Life, for this longing has been inscribed within our hearts. Yet, in our free will, we have the choice and ability to ignore and turn from this divine call. Like the image of the tree Saint Margaret Mary describes above, if we seek Jesus and are rooted in our faith, nothing can shake us. Our water is the Church, and Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist, is who makes our roots deep and strong enabling us to withstand the winds of the world and produce good fruit in His name.  Jesus offers us so many opportunities to find Him, and so many ways to live with Him in Heaven. In the 1600s, He appeared to Saint Mar...

Baptism of the Lord

Baptism of the Lord: The Last Day of Christmas  “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11) Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. Since Jesus is God and, therefore, sinless and perfect, he didn’t need to be baptized, but by being baptized, he gave us a sacrament for adoption into his family—a means to become children of God. What makes the Sacrament of Baptism important? (1) Baptism claims us as children of God, forgiving us of our sins, (“I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”), it is the first sacrament of initiation into the Church and Her mission, and through Baptism, God gifts us with grace. What exactly is grace? The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it as: “Grace is favor, the free undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become children of ...

Saints Joachim and Anne

Saints Joachim and Anne: Feast Day July 26th Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus had grandparents? When God the Son took on human flesh, he also paced himself within the dynamics of the human family. Although there is no specific reference in the Bible to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents by name, the Church celebrates Jesus' maternal grandparents under the names Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. It took a special father and mother to raise, care for, and help prepare the Blessed Virgin Mary for her future vocation and extraordinary relationship with God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and her saintly husband, Saint Joseph; and those special parents were no doubt saints themselves. Speaking of Saint Joseph, his parents would also have been grandparents of the Lord. Celebrating Jesus' grandparents today, reminds us that grandparents are the keepers and transmitters of family history and tradition, and are the patriarchs and matriarchs of families, holding generatio...