As I boarded the plane after the last Tolton tour, I was aching from head to toe. I just wanted to sleep. I sat next to the window, closed the shade, and shut my eyes.
During the scene where Faustina begs Jesus for the conversion of a soul for every stitch she makes, actress Jennifer Pagano crochets a little piece of needlework. After the show, she asks the Holy Spirit to show her someone to whom she should give it. Here’s what happened one night in San Clemente, CA:
Elena was not planning to come to see Faustina, but her boss had an extra ticket, so she agreed to go. She knew nothing about Saint Faustina or Divine Mercy, yet when the play began, she started to cry.
Father Mike had only been ordained a priest a year when he came to the performance of Maximilian: Saint of Auschwitz. Little did he know, as he entered the packed auditorium and found a seat, how God would use this play – and him – to bring forgiveness to two young souls.
The lights dimmed. Onto the stage stepped a sinister figure, who laughed as he told the audience how ridiculous it was for the child Raymond Kolbe, later to be known as Maximilian, to pray the rosary.
Over the past year I have traveled from east coast to west portraying Faustina, Messenger of Divine Mercy. Performing the show has been a powerful experience for me as an actress. By God’s grace, I have learned to appreciate the greatness of God’s gift of mercy.
I don’t like to be alone. Leonardo’s been on tour the last week, and I have been spending my evenings in our big empty house. I intend to read, to knit, and to clean.
But instead I watch TV.
It’s a temporary situation, but there is a an emptiness in my heart when he is gone. Which makes me think, morbid or not, of what it would be like if he were really gone, and I were truly on my own. So many people, so many of you are, I know. How do you do it?
With the Holy Spirit’s help, we are striving to capture, in cinematic form, the sorrowful mystery of the Scourging of Jesus.
Picture Faustina alone in her convent cell. All of a sudden, she is transported in a vision to the time and place of the scourging. Seeing her weep like the holy women of Jerusalem, Jesus looks up in great anguish.
“I suffer even greater pain than that which you see, my daughter,” He tells her.
As a recent college graduate, I packed up all my things and made the five-day drive from upstate New York to Washington State, to join the Saint Luke Productions team as the stage manager for Tolton: From Slave to Priest. Two years later, my time with Venerable Father Augustus Tolton has ended, and I'm the studio manager at our home office, supervising the touring teams. It’s been quite a ride!
