There is little doubt that the Risen Christ chose St. Faustina to be His messenger of mercy. When I read her Notebooks, now published as the Diary of St. Faustina, I was awed by the theological and philosophical truths of the Faith, that are found in her writing. Most of what I know about God, and the things of God, come from years of formal study at several universities. I learned from Franciscan, Jesuit, Dominican, and the Spiritan Holy Ghost Fathers, professors, excellent teachers all, and I also learned from the self-study of the writings of the Theologians and Sainted Doctors of the Church. So to learn yet more, from this third grade educated farmer’s daughter, my cousin, comes as a bit of a surprise. Yet, admittedly, it is so.
And equally surprising is that there have been and are many accounts of graces, blessings and healing miracles, attributed to prayers said in her name, and requesting her intercession with the Risen Christ, she knew so well.
We all know the story of Father Ron Pytel, Pastor of Holy Rosary Church in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1995, Father was given less than a month to live by the renowned cardiologist who was his physician. His heart was weakened and damaged beyond surgical repair.
When they heard this news, his Parish Community prayed. They prayed the Mercy Chaplet. They asked, in Faustina’s name and through her intercession, that he be granted a miracle of healing.
The rest is history. Father Ron Pytel, a personal friend of mine, lived well into the twenty-first century. At the altar in Rome, in April, 2000, as Pope John Paul II pronounced the words of the canonization of St. Faustina, Father Ron Pytel was there at the Pope’s side, healthy and well, ready and eager to give praise and thanks for the miracle of healing he experienced.
The other major miracle, well documented, that led to the canonization of St. Faustina, is that of Maureen Dignan. Her condition, of hemolytic anemia and the edema that resulted, had already led to the amputation of one of her legs. If the condition remained unhealed, her death was certain; imminent. So, in 1981, with a great deal of trust on her part, she was taken by plane from Massachusetts, where she lives, – to Krakow, Poland. That was no small feat on the part of her husband and her confessor. It was winter, and winters in Poland can be long and tough. But somehow, her companions maneuvered her wheelchair from the top of the hill in Krakow, Poland, where the convent is located, to the valley below where at that time, Sister Faustina had been buried. (Faustina’s body has since been transferred and placed under the side altar in the main Chapel of the Convent.) … Again, the rest is history. Maureen’s health was instantaneously restored when her wheelchair was rolled onto the grave of St. Faustina. Even as I write this today, 2010, she is alive and well, and continues giving praise as she tells the story of her miracle of healing.
These and many more miracles stories can be told. But that’s not what the Risen Christ, St. Faustina and her friend, Pope John Paul II, are all about. That isn’t the essence of the Divine Mercy message.
Then, what is, you ask? It’s a reminder, asking each of us to develop a personal relationship with and awareness of Christ’s presence within self. God knows your need long before you pray and ask for His graces, blessings and miracles of healing. His intervention in your life will happen in accord with His will.
So much rests on the extent to which you believe and trust. There’s no doubt in my own mind that Father Ron Pytel had an ongoing, personal relationship with Christ, – both before, during and after his miracle healing.
And the same can be said of Maureen Dignan. She was praying for a miracle at a time when Sr. Faustina was not yet canonized; when the canonization of Sr. Faustina was not yet on the human horizon. It took a great deal of faith to make that leap of faith : to go on a wheelchair, to go from her home in Massachusetts, to pray at the grave site of this uneducated, farmer’s daughter in a distant convent cemetery, somewhere in Krakow, Poland.
One miracle that comes to mind that, I think, further demonstrates the depth of faith and trust that the one who prays for graces, blessings and miracles of healing needs: a woman whose life depended on going bi-weekly for dialysis decided to give up. It wasn’t worth all that bother. She was tired. She sensed her caretakers were tired. Having made this decision, she phoned and asked for prayer.
We talked, but her attitude was without faith. Try as I might, I knew my words were futile. I couldn’t reach her; I couldn’t change that basic attitude, “I give up. I’m tired,” she repeatedly said.
So I prayed and asked a few friends to pray for her, and then it came to me to phone Fr. Ron Pytel, who had just recently experienced a miracle healing. Having described the situation, I asked him to phone her and to pray with her.
Several hours later, the lady phoned. Her attitude was transformed. She said that, after talking with Fr. Ron Pytel, she had turned her life over to God and to St. Faustina. … The rest is history. The lady went for dialysis.
Exactly two weeks later, the National Organ Transplant Center phoned and informed her that she was a match to receive a new kidney. She was. She did.
And she lived for seven years after, giving praise and thanks to God and to St. Faustina.
So it is, that whether we are praying for another, or praying for oneself, both the one praying and the one being prayed for need to live, – knowing that each and all are on the way to personal resurrection. Both need to pray, “Thy will be done.” Graces, blessings, miracles of healing or no : His will is being done.
Source: Would I Live Differently If I Knew This Was My Final Earthtime Moment
By Sr. Paulette Honeygosky, vsc
Cousin of St. Faustina
