January 4, 2025

Longtime broadcaster pens second book about God’s grace

REGIONAL
Story and photo by David Martin

CHICOPEE-  Longtime broadcaster and local author Denis A. Dion, whose initials spell DAD, has written a new book, “Grace is the Love of God Within Us.” Dion is a parishioner, lector and Eucharistic minister at St. Anne Parish in Chicopee. He had a 47- year career as a radio and television broadcaster, retiring from Western Mass News in 2004.

He said he had received a compliment when writing a reflection about a passage in the Gospel to which he responded “I was led by the grace of God.” This led to him thinking about the many people in the Gospel who respond to God’s grace and how they can be looked at as examples for others to follow. Thus, the idea for his latest book was born.

“That came about in a period of two or three years just thinking about various things, various people that I have come in contact with who through some difficult times and through the grace of God came out very well on the other end,” Dione said.

“I write about 350 to 400 words every morning about reflections of the Gospel. My morning prayer is reading scripture. I just come across so many people in these passages that have difficulty and through the grace of God became holy. The disciples, when Jesus chooses the first four disciples, they were just fisherman. He said ‘come follow me’ and they just dropped everything and they went. That kind of thing can only happen through the grace of God,” said Dion.

Dion said it was important to start with Mary, who was full of grace, especially when considering this time of year with the Nativity and celebrating the birth of Christ. He added that she must have had a huge amount of trust at such a young age when responding to God.  Dion said the determination and perseverance of the Magi to find their way offering their gifts to the Christ Child is also an amazing story. They traveled so many miles in a caravan that probably required a lot of money and preparation to follow a star. He said they had a tremendous amount of faith and courage.

The book is divided into four parts based on the most religious celebrations throughout the year. Part one is Advent Christmas; part two is Lenten season; part three is Holy Week; and part four is Easter.

“As I said, I started with Mary, so that event was the perfect opportunity to talk about Christmas and also her cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah and also John the Baptist, who was the last of all the profits. From there it just seemed like a graduation into the Lenten stories. The woman at the well was the first one and then the man born blind and followed by the raising of Lazarus which is the beginning of Jesus’s final trip to Jerusalem where there is a whole crowd waiting for him to give him palm branches and treat him like a king. Those are my three favorite stories in the book. Along the way you have all the disciples. Thomas of course stands out because he does not have enough courage to believe, so he was known as the doubting apostle. So all of that fell into place as I went along, again guided by the grace of God,” said Dion.

Dion sent his completed manuscript to Father John Lessard, the director of Canonical Affairs for the Diocese of Springfield, who made suggested edits. Dion is hoping the book will touch people and make them aware if they are called upon to do something, they will find the strength and willpower to accomplish it by asking for God’s grace.   

His first book, entitled “Who Moved? When You Feel Distant from God Who Moved?,” was released during the pandemic.

“The first book is more talking about how God has intervened, how I had fallen away from or just felt distant from him and then all of a sudden I realize where am I going here in life and I worked my way back. Sometimes you feel distant from God you wake up in the morning and say what am I doing where am I going? Who moved? I’m the one who distanced myself. God does not distance himself from us. He does not move. He is there and we work our way back and one of the great stories of that in scripture is the prodigal son’” said Dion.

Both books are now available from Amazon as either kindle or paperback.

A video version of this story will be on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22 NEWS.