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

By Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet

Ave Maria Press, 2016

160 pages, $14.95

To order: avemariapress.com

 

 

In a vocation as demanding as motherhood, it’s not easy to find time to gain a true understanding of the Divine Mercy message, even during this Jubilee Year of Mercy. Thankfully, Michele Faehnle and Emily Jaminet, in their new book Divine Mercy for Moms, have taken the critical components of Divine Mercy and applied them to motherhood. Detailing simple, concrete means by which moms can receive and extend mercy amid their busy lifestyles, Faehnle and Jaminet ultimately reveal, “It’s not about draining your own limited resources, but about tapping into the heart of Christ.”

The authors, best friends with 11 children between them, serve on the Columbus (Ohio) Catholic Women’s Conference leadership team and are active throughout their diocese. However, as they indicate in the book’s introduction, “[W]e write to you not as ‘supermoms’ with perfect kids, but as those who are still navigating the path of motherhood and sanctity. It is through our personal imperfections, and those of our families, that we have learned mercy.”

As I read, I was intrigued by the similarities noted between St. Faustina’s lifestyle and that of motherhood: “[T]his great saint did many ordinary jobs that are much like the many roles of mothers. She was a childcare provider and a live-in nanny and worked at a bakery shop.”

The second chapter was invaluable for me in outlining the five specific elements from St. Faustina’s diary “that will help us mothers receive powerful graces from Jesus.” Referring to the image of Divine Mercy, Jaminet reveals her humorous side by saying that Jesus “gave us a ‘selfie’!” She also explains the importance of three o’clock, the hour of great mercy, asserting, “If I pause to think about Christ and what he did for me, the rest of the day will go according to his plan, which is far better than any I could formulate on my own.”

The remaining chapters are chock full of creative and inspiring examples of how mothers, in spite of their chaotic vocations, can carry out the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Many moms will be delighted to realize that they are already performing these works on a regular basis. For example, Faehnle explains how opening our homes to our children’s friends who have not been brought up in the faith is a way of practicing the corporal work of sheltering the homeless. She writes, “If we live out our faith, our homes can be spiritual shelters to those who come into them and learn about God.”

Faehnle and Jaminet empathetically reassure moms that leaning on Jesus’ mercy will enable them to live day in and day out with inner peace. “The more we turn to Christ with our hearts and strive to trust his will in our lives, the more we will receive the graces we need to live out our vocations as wives and mothers. Divine Mercy is not just a devotion, but a lifestyle we can depend on as mothers.”

Elizabeth Pardi writes

from Columbus, Ohio.