Can you believe it?!

Helen Kowalska’s in a magazine!!

But I really meant this Helen Kowalska!

Helen, (the best golden-retreiver in the Universe) & I were just fortunate enough to be included in our Diocesean Faith Magazine along with her!!!

Faith Magazine of the Erie Catholic Diocese, the largest family publication in Northwest Pennsylvania, contacted us for an interview…and today the April edition was released with Helen & I in it!

FAITH Magazine was introduced in January 2005 by then-Bishop Donald Trautman. Today, Bishop Lawrence Persico serves as publisher of the award-winning magazine. All 62,000 Catholic households registered in parishes throughout the diocese receive the magazine, free of charge, every other month as part of a major restructuring of evangelization and communications strategies. Bishop Persico and the local parishes are committed to reaching out to every Catholic home with FAITH Magazine because they want to remind us that we belong to something — our local parish; and we belong to someone — Jesus Christ.

Why did the Diocese of Erie commit to FAITH Magazine?

Many Catholics attend Mass weekly and are active participants in their parishes. At the same time, a growing number of busy families and individuals find themselves participating in the life of the church less and less. Still others may have had a negative experience, become lukewarm or fallen away altogether. FAITH Magazine was created to reach out to all Catholics with stories of inspiration. The magazine is also designed as a formation tool, providing answers to common questions as well as a glimpse of international, national and local news.

The Diocese of Erie was the third diocese to affiliate with FAITH Magazine first published in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan in 2000. Today that number has grown to more than two dozen dioceses and institutions! You will find that the major feature stories, as well as local news stories, are based in the Diocese of Erie. FAITH Magazine is part of the diocese’s answer to Pope John Paul II’s call for a “new evangelization.” The magazine is designed to touch the hearts of people both within and outside of the faith.

(*information taken from the Faith Magazine web-site.)

I have never been shy regarding my devotion to the Divine Mercy.  And I truly enjoy cyber-journaling about my personal experience of growing closer to God as a result of this devotion.  I usually dedicate any journaling I do on Wednsedays to this topic, which you can easily find under the Divine Mercy heading of my toolbar. However, I was completely surprised & humbled when asked to participate in a publication sharing tangible ways to explore mercy more fully.

When Anne-Marie Welsh, editor of the magazine, interviewed me for the article I had not anticipated just how much JOY would leap out from inside of me, as we spoke of St. Faustina!  I felt like a giddy-school-girl introducing her new BFF from summer camp to the friends I already knew well!  Jesus said to St. Faustina: “Let no sinner be afraid to approach Me.”  And by the grace of God, THAT IS NOW ME!!! 

In Faustina’s “Diary,” Jesus invites each one of us to yield to His infinite mercy, to trust in His compassion and forgiveness. Great graces are promised to all those who proclaim His great mercy.  And so it is, that I am resting in the peace which comes from trusting His unwavering love for me as I strive to know, to love, and to serve Him, despite my human inclination of falling into sin.

“I shall protect them Myself at the hour of death, as My own glory. And even if the sins of the soul are as dark as night, when the sinner turns to My mercy, he renders Me the greatest praise, and becomes the glory of My Passion. When a soul praises My goodness, Satan trembles before it and flees to the very bottom of hell” (Diary, 378).

One of the many things I have discovered, through reading the Diary of St. Faustina, is that the simple message of mercy is this:

That God loves us, all of us, no matter how great our sins!

He wants us to turn to Him so that He may bless us,

He wants us to recognize His mercy, and allow it to flow through us to others.

(As St. Faustina did.)

In this way, all will come to share in His joy!

God wants us to approach Him.

We need only repent of our sins and ask for His Mercy.

Are you ready to completely Trust?

God wants us to know the graces of His mercy,

which are merely dependent upon our trust in Him.

Jesus, I trust in you!

Will you?

You never know…you may be in a publication with Helen one day too!!

hugs n’ blessings to all those who are trusting in Him!