A Triple C Day!

One down 2 to go!

Confession - check!

Confirmation ~ about 7 hours away for the House Cat!

Communion ~ right after Confirmation.  What a blessed day we are having today!

I received special permission from The House Cat to share her patron saint report with you.  Keep reading if you'd like :)

ST. FAUSTINA


1905 - 1938
Name means: Fortunate (Latin)
Nickname: Apostle of Mercy
Patron Saint of: World Youth Day

Feast Day: October 5th

St. Faustina is well known throughout the world as the woman who communed with God and brought to others a deeper realization of His infinite mercy. She was born on August 25th, 1905, in Glogowiec, Poland, and baptized with the name Helena. At the age of seven, she received a definite call to a religious vocation. However, her parents refused her request to enter a convent at age18. From then on, she tried to ignore God's call, and forced her interests to focus on the world. But when the suffering Christ appeared to her, He asked her, "How long shall I put up with you, and how long will you keep putting Me off?" The next day, she left her home for the city of Warsaw in search of a convent. After more than a year, she was accepted into the order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In that order she was to spend the rest of her life, physically and spiritually communing with the Lord. During the next 13 years, she endured persistent illness (which became tuberculosis), and also personal injuries from inside the convent walls. She battled severe attacks of despair and spiritual dryness, and the overwhelming fear that Christ had rejected her. The challenges of propagating devotion to His mercy were also great, and spiritually and physically taxing. It was during these years that she wrote her Diary, out of obedience to her confessor. Our Lord also ordered her, saying, " . . . be diligent in writing down every sentence . . . concerning My mercy, because this is meant for a great number of souls who will profit from it." Through all her suffering and doubt Christ remained with her, and on October 5th, 1938, He took her to her eternal reward. Maria Faustina Kowalska was canonized on April 30th, 2000, by Pope John Paul II.


I have chosen St. Faustina as my patron saint because I feel that Jesus drew me to her in many ways. During my 7th grade year, I was able to make a holy hour each week. Throughout the time I spent at the chapel, I read St. Faustina's diary and felt closer to her each time it got into my hands. I admired her heroic charity, and also felt that she could help me to be humble during rebukes and not to defend myself so much. Also, I find myself fearing at times what my vocation will be, and what God's will is for my life. She endured a similar type of struggle, and the way that she participated in Jesus' grace to live out her vocation is inspiring and encouraging. Her gentleness and patience while suffering is something that I want to imitate as well. When I find myself going through dry spiritual periods and struggling to meditate, I know that she will help me, since she was attacked with these crosses. These are connections that draw me to St. Faustina, and inspire me to take on her name and cultivate a personal relationship with her. Even if I am not called to the religious life, as she was, I feel that she will stregnthen me to accept whatever God wants for me in life.

I plan to keep her diary close at hand, and to read it as often as I can. Also, I want to increase my recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and to continue to participate in the novena each year. I hope to compose a special prayer to her, and to pray it every day, along with the St. Gertrude prayer, as we share a connection in praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Reflecting her meditation, sorrow, and frequent visions concerning Jesus' passion, I hope to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries more fervently, to make the Stations of the Cross, and to watch the Passion of the Christ once a year. Through this, and Jesus' mercy, I pray that our relationship will grow and I will be brought to greater holiness for the rest of my life.
 
Saint Faustina ~ PRAY FOR US!