An Arduous Journey Home

Mien Yockmann has spent the last six months editing the Faustina film.  Here he reflects on what this experience has meant to him:

If you were to tell me just a year ago that I’d be working for a Catholic organization on a film about a mystic saint, I would’ve looked at you cynically, and said, “Yeah, right!”

Yet that’s exactly where I am today.

It’s not that much of a stretch, I guess. I went to Catholic schools and was even baptized in the river Jordan in Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in my youth. But life has a way of taking you away from your roots and your faith. My wanderings found me dabbling in all manner of things that brought me to very dark places where I felt not even the light of God could reach me. Mine was an arduous journey back home to God’s grace. 

Working daily on Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy, I find myself transported back to the weekends and summers I spent helping the Little Servant Sisters at St. Joseph in Strawberry Hill, New Jersey near where I grew up. Like Sister Faustina, many of the Sisters were from poor Polish families. My rounds with them as they tended the sick and destitute taught me the true meaning of discipleship and working “in the trenches” to lighten the sorrows of the world.

Coincidence? Hardly. God’s mysterious ways become clear when your eyes are opened to miracles.

That’s what Saint Faustina is doing for me – she’s opening my eyes.  I’m deeply moved by her sacrifice, which inspires me to put my whole heart into this unique film experience. 

So thank you. Your generosity has made it possible for us to produce a film of captivating beauty. I am compelled to say a daily prayer of gratitude that I should be in such a fortunate and blessed position as its editor.