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    Divine Mercy for Moms: Sharing the Lessons of St. Faustina
    Divine Mercy for Moms: Sharing the Lessons of St. Faustina
    Divine Mercy for Moms: Sharing the Lessons of St. Faustina
    Ebook171 pages2 hours

    Divine Mercy for Moms: Sharing the Lessons of St. Faustina

    By Michele Faehnle, Emily Jaminet and Michael E. Gaitley

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    About this ebook

    Originating in the early twentieth century, the Divine Mercy devotion of St. Faustina Kowalska is one of the most celebrated of all Catholic devotions. In this, their first book, Catholic bloggers and speakers Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet break open the history, practices, and prayers associated with the devotion, guiding busy moms to receive God’s message of Divine Mercy and pass it on to others through their words, deeds, and prayers.

    In her famous Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul, St. Faustina Kowalska recorded a series of visions of Jesus where he revealed the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and promised that anything can be obtained with the prayer if it is compatible with his will. St. John Paul II formally established the Divine Mercy devotion and canonized Faustina in 2000. The Marians of the Immaculate Conception are dedicated to spreading the Divine Mercy devotion the foreword for this book was written by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC, author of Divine Mercy Explained and 33 Days to Morning Glory.

    In Divine Mercy for Moms, Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet of the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference—one of the largest annual Catholic women’s conferences in the country—draw upon their own experiences to introduce you to St. Faustina and her five essential elements of the Divine Mercy message:
    • The image of the Merciful Jesus
    • The Feast of Divine Mercy
    • The Chaplet of Divine Mercy
    • The House of Mercy
    • Spreading the honor of Divine Mercy
    With heartwarming stories and practical advice, this book reveals that mercy is not just a gift to be received in the confessional but a spiritual resource that strengthens those who extend themselves in word, deed, and prayer. Designed for personal or group study, Divine Mercy for Moms celebrates the infinite mercy of God and the role of Mary, the Mother of Mercy, in the lives of all believers.

    Divine Mercy for Moms was the winner of a 2017 Catholic Press Association Book Award: Family Life (Third Place).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAve Maria Press
    Release dateFeb 19, 2016
    ISBN9781594716669
    Divine Mercy for Moms: Sharing the Lessons of St. Faustina
    Author

    Michele Faehnle

    Michele Faehnle is a school nurse at St. Andrew School in Upper Arlington, Ohio, and the host of Answering the Call on St. Gabriel Radio. She is a contributor to CatholicMom.com, codirector of the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference, and coauthor of Divine Mercy for Moms, The Friendship Project, and Our Friend Faustina. Faehnle earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1999. Faehnle has spoken at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy and to several women’s groups and conferences, including 1:38 Women, Mothering with Grace Annual Mother’s Conference, Indiana Catholic Women’s Conference, and the online Catholic Conference for Moms. Faehnle has appeared on EWTN’s At Home with Jim and Joy and a number of Catholic radio programs. Along with her coauthor, Emily Jaminet, Faehnle received the Bishop John King Mussio Award from Franciscan University of Steubenvile, of which she is an alumna. She and her husband, Matthew, have four children and live in Columbus, Ohio.

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      Book preview

      Divine Mercy for Moms - Michele Faehnle

      I hope you will read this book and help save the world. We need you, Catholic moms! From your often overlooked love, God will grant us extraordinary gifts of grace in the present time of mercy.

      From the foreword by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC

      Author of 33 Days to Morning Glory

      "Divine Mercy for Moms makes what’s all-too-easily an abstract concept into a tangible approach. Roll up your sleeves and prepare to dog-ear your copy as your family life and personal devotion are challenged and enhanced."

      Sarah A. Reinhard

      Catholic blogger, speaker, writer,

      and author of A Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy

      "Divine Mercy for Moms is profound yet simple, compelling yet gentle. Sharing their own lived experience, the authors testify to the transformative power of the devotion in their families and marriages with encouragement that is candid, wise, and very practical."

      Nancy and Patrick Madrid

      Radio host and author of Why Be Catholic?

      "‘Jesus, I trust in you!’ Why is trust often such a stumbling block for today’s busy moms? Divine Mercy for Moms invites us into a profound consideration of the life and spirituality of St. Faustina Kowalska from the vantage point of motherhood. We moms are often called to be angels of mercy in our home as we—often literally—commit ourselves to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. And yet far too often, we neglect to appreciate that our home is our primary ‘mercy mission field.’ Let Michele and Emily introduce you to the beauty of St. Faustina’s Divine Mercy devotion and help you bring this amazing spiritual gift to life in your home. Perfect for small groups and anyone looking to draw ever closer to Jesus Christ."

      Lisa M. Hendey

      Founder of CatholicMom.com and author of The Grace of Yes

      Through engaging stories and practical applications (good for any busy mom), Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet show how the simple, ordinary tasks of motherhood can have extraordinary results when done with a heart that knows the power of God’s Divine Mercy. This book is a must read for any mom who has ever uttered the words, ‘Lord, have mercy.’

      Kelly Wahlquist

      Founder of Women In the New Evangelization and author of Created to Relate

      Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, Revised Edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, DC, and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      Passages cited from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul © 1987 Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

      ___________________________________

      © 2016 by Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet

      Foreword © 2016 by Michael E. Gaitley, MIC

      Afterword © 2016 by Lisa M. Hendey

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, without written permission from Ave Maria Press®, Inc., P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556, 1-800-282-1865.

      Founded in 1865, Ave Maria Press is a ministry of the United States Province of Holy Cross.

      www.avemariapress.com

      Paperback: ISBN-13 978-1-59471-665-2

      E-book: ISBN-13 978-1-59471-666-9

      Cover image Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska © Ivona Staszewski, available on shop.evonagallery.com and www.etsy.com/shop/Evonagallery.

      Cover and text design by Katherine Robinson.

      Printed and bound in the United States of America.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

      Contents

      Publisher’s Note

      Foreword by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC

      Introduction

      1. St. Faustina, Apostle of Divine Mercy

      2. Developing Trust in Jesus through the

      Divine Mercy Devotion

      3. Showing Mercy to Our Neighbor

      4. The Corporal Works of Mercy

      5. The Spiritual Works of Mercy

      6. Mary, Mother of Mercy

      Afterword by Lisa M. Hendey

      Appendix 1: Prayers

      Appendix 2: Thirty Days of Mercy

      Study Guide

      Notes

      Publisher’s Note

      Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet wrote this book as a joint project. They collaborated on the introduction, study guide, and appendixes. Michele penned chapters 1, 4, and 6; while Emily handled chapters 2, 3, and 5.

      Quotations from St. Faustina’s Diary follow a distinctive style: Plain text signifies Faustina’s own thoughts, bold type indicates words she received from Jesus, and italics denote Mary’s words to her. Parenthetical citations in this book refer to paragraph numbers from the Diary, rather than page numbers.

      Foreword

      Now is the time of mercy! Now is a time of great and extraordinary grace for the Church and the world. This was the insight of St. John Paul II for our time, something that has been repeated by subsequent popes.

      John Paul’s insight came from his assessment of our modern world. Specifically, while he clearly recognized the blessings of technology and science, he also recognized that, in many ways, the times we’re living in are marked by unprecedented evil. But for that very reason, the pope knew, God is also reaching out to our hurting, broken world, in a certain sense, more than ever.

      One of the most powerful ways that God is reaching out to us is through the Divine Mercy message and devotion that comes to us from St. Faustina Kowalska, about whom you’ll learn more in this book. Through her message, which reminds us that mercy is the central message of the Gospel, God seems to want to start a chain reaction. Having revealed his great mercy to us in a special way through the testimony of St. Faustina, though her, he wants to inspire countless more people to be living images of Divine Mercy.

      In this book, Emily Jaminet and Michele Faehnle refer to a beautiful prayer of St. Faustina, A Prayer of Transformation from Within. In this prayer, St. Faustina asks to be transformed into a living reflection of God’s mercy, specifically praying that her eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, and heart be instruments of God’s tender mercy. She essentially wants to be God’s mercy for the world, to be a channel of Divine Mercy, a place through which God’s mercy can pass through her heart and soul to everyone.

      Now, we might ask, Why did God put the desire of that prayer into St. Faustina’s heart? I believe he did so to reveal a key part of his strategy of bringing his gift of salvation to our world, in this present time of mercy. He wants to use not just Faustina but all of us as instruments of his mercy. More specifically, he wants to transform us into living images of Divine Mercy, so he can reach everyone with his tender love and save them.

      But he’s not looking for just anyone for this important mission. In fact, I believe that his first picks for this solemn mission, his desired special ops, are those who are most forgotten, overlooked, and underappreciated—the ones who, in the eyes of the world, don’t amount to much. And who are they?

      Well, I would argue that some of those who are most overlooked by the world, the ones who the world tends to scoff at are mothers, especially stay-at-home moms. Really. Modern pagans often don’t take motherhood as serious business. Of course, they probably recognize that it’s necessary for continuing the species, but it seems that they see it as something like farming: a dirty, difficult job, that somebody’s got to do—but who would want to? It requires an enormous amount of effort behind-the-scenes, lots of thankless self-sacrifice, and involves work that isn’t very glamorous.

      But you know what? What the world sees as unimportant is often most important to the Lord. And how important are mothers? Well, I believe that in this time of mercy, God wants to use them to save the world. I believe he wants to use such hidden souls to complete his strategy of bringing down mercy on humanity. How? Through their unseen merciful deeds, words, and prayers. So, for instance, they help save the world by praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy while picking up kids from school, by making acts of trust in Jesus in the midst of trials and crosses, and by taking up mundane works of mercy for children and husbands who may never fully realize their sacrifices.

      Now, while St. Faustina was not a mother in a physical sense, she was a powerful spiritual mother whose prayers and sacrifices gave birth to grace in souls. And how important was she? Well, Jesus said to her, "For your sake, I withhold the hand that punishes; for your sake I bless the earth" (431). And how important are you? Let me put it this way: If you live what’s in this book, Jesus will likely say the same thing to you!

      But you have to read the book. I mean, just as it takes special training to be transformed into a special ops soldier for one’s country, so it also takes special training to be transformed into a special ops soldier of mercy for God.

      This book provides such training. These authors have embraced and been deeply transformed by Divine Mercy. Believe me, I know. I knew both of them in college, and I can attest that Michele and Emily have been deeply and radically transformed by Divine Mercy! Moreover, they have a gift for sharing how the process works. Through relatable stories and very practical suggestions, they show the way to becoming a channel of God’s mercy to our families, our country, and the world.

      I hope you will read this book and help save the world. We need you, Catholic moms! From your often overlooked love, God will grant us extraordinary gifts of grace in the present time of mercy.

      Fr. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC

      Director of Formation

      Marian Missionaries of Divine Mercy

      Introduction

      For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world. (476)1

      Thousands of pilgrims to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, chanted all around me on Divine Mercy Sunday in 2014. The sun was high in the sky, and the mercy and love of God were palpable in the sunlight and in the voices filling the air. I (Michele) had always longed to visit the shrine, though I never thought I would get the chance. Yet there I was, thirty-five weeks pregnant and with my whole family; I had a hard time believing it was real.

      I was a pilgrim like all the others, but the Marians of the Immaculate Conception had also invited me to share my testimony of mercy and trust in God in a talk to the faithful who gathered on this significant feast day. I stared across the field filled with a sea of

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