The tables were overflowing with canned goods, toiletries, and water bottles. A few feet away, boxes of donuts, breakfast sandwiches, and hot coffee waited for us. Smiling strangers welcomed us as we walked into this last-minute reception. We got a call the previous night saying that the community had heard they were hosting evacuees from Hurricane Milton and they were organizing a breakfast for us. “Where are you coming from?”… “Tampa,” we said. Their faces were moved with concern and compassion, waiting, wanting to hear our story… Did our house survive the storm? Have we heard from our family back home? They wanted to do something for us.

Four days before, we had boarded up our home, packed our belongings, loaded up the RV, and drove North. After days of praying and deliberating, we decided this was the right course of action for us. After two long days on the road, we arrived at our temporary home. An RV park in Alabama that welcomed evacuees from the storm at no cost. Not knowing what would happen, we needed the flexibility of an open-ended stay, a safe place to wait, a refuge from the storm. One of our sons stayed behind in Florida, so my body was here, safe, but a piece of my heart was back home.

The day the storm was set to make landfall was spent glued to the news, watching every wobble and bump. This was personal.  A Category 5 hurricane was on a direct path to our home. As I zoomed on the map and followed the dark line of its projected path, I knew the names of the streets. I knew where my family and friends lived. Streets I drove through every week, a concert hall I had sung in just the previous week, all in the path of this storm. I prayed everyone had found a safe place to shelter as we watched and waited for this terrible storm. Thankfully, our home was spared and so was our son’s. Our friends and family are safe, though some have different levels of damage to their homes. I find myself once again glued to the news, trying to get a good picture of the situation and figuring out when it is safe to start the trek back home. I see the flooded streets, and I know the places. Though I do not recognize all the faces, I see my neighbors. The phrase “hits close to home” takes on a new level of understanding… this is personal… this is close… this is home.

And I think of how this is with God. How He is with us in our suffering, because in Him, each one of our storms hits close to home. He knows our names, he knows each street we have walked on. He knows when our hearts are weary and heavy and burdened, and He wants to comfort us. 

When I walked into this unplanned reception prepared by strangers trying to comfort us, my heart was moved and I felt God’s love. I didn’t know how much stress I was carrying until someone offered to take a load off my shoulders. The kindness of strangers at a moment like this was a healing balm for my soul; their hearts were a place of refuge in the storm. May God bless them and protect them as they navigate their own storms. May they find friends and strangers to help them carry their loads. May we be Christ to each other on our journey home.

It has been a long time since I first discovered and read the diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul. Saint Faustina’s diary, along with Saint Augustine’s Confessions, are two works that helped open my eyes to recognize God’s desire to be in relationship with us. These works helped provide me, and countless others, with a window into what is repentance, forgiveness, hope, charity, obedience, and perseverance. The Divine Mercy described with simple words what a personal relationship with Christ can be for those of us who strive to invite Him into our lives, minds, and hearts, living with Him in the present moment.
 
It is in this deepening of the understanding of God’s Love and Mercy toward us, that we learn to live simply and faithfully, persevering in love, and trusting in Him who is Trustworthy.
 
October 5 is the feast day of Saint Faustina Kowalska.

Saint Faustina Kowalska, is known as the “Apostle of Divine Mercy,” and was born on August 25, 1905, in Głogowiec, Poland. From a young age, Faustina exhibited a deep spiritual sense and a strong desire to serve God. At just seven years old, she experienced her first vision of Jesus, which left a lasting impression on her heart.

Faustina's journey toward religious life began when she felt a calling to enter a convent. At 20, she joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw, adopting the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. During her time in the convent, she struggled with her health and faced numerous challenges. However, she held on strongly to her faith and commitment to serve God.

Her life changed in the 1930s when Faustina began receiving revelations about God’s mercy. In her diary, she recorded these encounters, emphasizing the theme of Divine Mercy and God’s infinite love for us. She had a vision of Jesus, asking her to promote the devotion to His Divine Mercy.

In 1931 Faustina had a vision of Jesus, appearing to her as the "King of Divine Mercy." He asked Faustina to have an image painted based on what she had seen, with the words "Jesus, I trust in You" inscribed at the bottom. This image has today spread around the world, symbolizing the message of hope and mercy that Faustina sought to spread.

Throughout her life, Faustina experienced intense spiritual trials, including periods of suffering and spiritual desolation. Despite these challenges, she remained committed to her entrusted mission, to encourage others to trust in God’s Mercy and seek reconciliation through the sacrament of confession.

Faustina’s diary serves as a profound reflection of her spiritual journey and the revelations she received. She emphasizes the importance of mercy, prayer, and the need for repentance. After many years of illness, Faustina passed on from this world on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33. 33 years old, just like Christ...

Faustina was canonized in the year 2000 by Pope John Paul II, giving us another modern Saint to call our own. Another great soul in Heaven to ask for help, but one who already knew of God’s Divine Mercy toward us while on earth and left us with great guidance and counsel.

I pray we all open our hearts and minds, that like Faustina, we get to see our Lord already beside us, walking with us. I pray we all fall to our knees in repentance for our sins, participate fully in the Eucharistic banquet, where we are restored and loved infinitely, and pray for the salvation of all the souls of the world.

​Let us pray:

Dearest Eucharistic Family,
 
As I prepare this reflection, I am on day fifty in the hospital, sleeping bedside by my husband as he heals from an open wound as the result of septic shock. It is quite surreal to think it was planned for me to pick him up from the airport at midnight after his family visit when I received a message about my husband being in the ER. After that, my rapid response was to catch a flight to New York without returning to Florida, for now. And here we are. I am typing, looking out at the East River in Manhattan, while my husband is sleeping in our hospital room.
 
It is all grace to endure the Cross, my sustaining power is the Eucharist. I find myself in constant conversation with Jesus. “What is going on now, Lord?” 
 
A dear friend reminded me to also take time to listen. Quiet time is so essential in our reception of grace. In this God has allowed me to remember the wonders of His love. Time to think of falling in love with Jesus. Praying His Passion, mourning Christ’s death, and finding the gratitude to live in the mystery of the Resurrection, especially through the gift of the daily Liturgy. 
 
Seeing through the eyes of heaven while enduring illness and even death transforms our existence into a living hope. Faith knows that we are living in a Divine plan. God is creating us, purifying us for salvation. In the silence we see and hear most of what the depths of our hearts know is true and holy. The Divine action of the Holy Spirit is our gift to be what we are called to be in Christ amid suffering. 
 
It is a blessing to have a beautiful Catholic Church one block from the hospital and get daily to 7am Mass. I was praying one morning and thought of my life right now like being in a movie waking up in a new land, an island, a new place. Where is my bed, my room, my home? 
 
Then I thought of heaven, and it made me smile. One day if salvation comes to me and you, we will be in heaven. And what must it be like waking up in a new land? A land that was revealed to us upon earth in the Sacred Host. A place that is revealed to us in the Sacraments. A place of belonging we find through our baptism, as children of Our Father. And in Reconciliation, to be free of our vices, to better strive for the good, the virtues of God’s love. The gift of the Eucharist reveals heaven mostly to us now with Christ’s beating heart in our existence through our receiving of His Body and His Blood. In the Sacrament of my marriage at this moment in time, the scriptures have come to greater life; the words promised 36 years ago, “In sickness and in health” are so very tangible.
 
The Kingdom of Heaven is with us now in the love we share. God’s love is revealed in our smiles even through tears. Revealed in our kindness even when we are wounded, and in sharing all we have received with those attracted to God’s Majesty.
 
Today, one of the nurses asked me to pray for her and received a prayer card from me for confession with the direction of the place of where to go, time, and how to... God allowed me to share the power of the sacraments and invite her to the grace she will receive. One soul at a time, one blessing, and the Kingdom grows here and now one heartbeat at a time.
 
 Jesus invites us to reveal the wonders of His love.
 
Obedience to my prayer life conditioned me for this Cross. It is an effort committed to our faith. I am forever grateful for the discipline that has given me the gift to help my husband carry this Cross of suffering. My imperfections are invited to be worked out this side of the heavens.