The Story Behind Merciful Love Photography
Our name is inspired by Our Lady of Mercy, Saint Faustina, & Saint Therese. All three patronesses have interceded in our love story in beautiful ways.
The month before Jacob & I met each other, I started reading the Diary of Saint Faustina. Over the course of the next three years, I read a few pages of the diary before going to bed, & her words touched my heart in a unique way each time. As our relationship grew, so did our devotion to Saint Faustina. This eventually led us to read the book “33 Days to Merciful Love” (which is inspired by Saint Therese’s spirituality) and consecrate ourselves to Merciful Love on Saint Faustina’a feast day in 2020.
For many years (even before meeting Jacob), I had prayed to receive my Vocation on a Marian feast day. It was a little desire I told to Jesus with the trust & heart of a child. A month (or so) before our engagement, I learned that the feast of Our Lady of Mercy would fall on Saturday in the upcoming year (September 24, 2022). That same night I opened the Diary of Saint Faustina & my eyes fell upon the words "Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy." At this point, I was beginning the final notebook of the diary - which is over three-quarters of the way through! For the past two years, I had not known that this was the name of Saint Faustina’s order! I was in awe of the little way the Lord had been working through the desires of my heart.
Following our engagement, I asked my spiritual director if he was available to celebrate our nuptial mass on September 24. I told him about Our Lady of Mercy's intercession through Saint Faustina. He was quiet for a moment before telling me that the Catholic center at the university where Jacob & I met was built on the former parish boundaries of Our Lady of Mercy church - something I didn’t know until after we were engaged!
Finally, just to add to it all, about two months after our engagement Jacob moved into an apartment and as he was unpacking his things, he found a prayer card of Our Lady of Mercy tapped to the bathroom mirror with a third-class relic of Our Lady! As you might imagine, we quickly finalized our wedding date as September 24!
It is beautiful to be able to include this part of our love story in the name of our photography business. We could not imagine a better way to honor Our Lady. As well as pray for the intercession of these lovely women (Our Lady, Saint Faustina, & Saint Therese) for the couples we work with!
