The Life of Sister Faustina Kowalska.

Victor R. Claveau, MJ

The Life of Sister Faustina Kowalska.

Victor R. Claveau, MJ

Sister Mary Faustina Kowalska was a Polish nun, visionary, and mystic. By all accounts, she was an ordinary person, whom God chose to touch in extraordinary ways.

We do not have accurate and first-hand knowledge of her life. The chief source is her diary, which she wrote during the last four years of her life. For the most part, I am going to use her own written words to describe her life.

However, there is little in her dairy about her childhood and youth; the period before she entered religious life. It is true that in the first version of her dairy there was a much more exact discussion of those years, but unfortunately in the absence of her spiritual director, Fr. Michael Sopoćko, and misled by an evil spirit, Sister burnt her dairy. When she was ordered to rewrite the part that was destroyed, she did so in an abbreviated form, incomplete and chaotic.

In the early 1900’s, Our Lord gave many great mystical graces to Sister Faustina of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland. He also gave her a mission – to tell the world that He is Mercy itself, and that before He returns as a just Judge, He is coming as a merciful Savior.

Jesus called Faustina His “Secretary of Divine Mercy”, and commanded her to write everything He told her. In obedience, Faustina kept a diary, now called “Divine Mercy in My Soul”, and published by the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This printed diary fills over 600 pages.

Again and again, Jesus told Saint Faustina that this message would prepare the world for His final coming.

Sister Faustina led a seemingly ordinary life. However, her life was anything but ordinary. From the time she was a little girl to her death in 1938, her life was a constant dialog with Our Lord, Our Blessed Mother, the saints, and the angels. The devil tried on numerous occasions to dissuade her from her mission.

Misunderstood and persecuted by many of her fellow sisters, Sister led a hidden life of humility, suffering and prayer. So great was her sanctity, and so intimate her relationship with the Lord, that her diary is heralded by the Church as being “numbered among the outstanding works of mystical literature”. (Office of Readings).

Mary Faustina Kowalska, commonly known as Saint Faustina, was born Helena Kowalska (August 25, 1905, Glogowiec, Poland, then in the Russian Empire
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the day she was forever joined to her Spouse in heaven. She died in Krakow, Poland at the age 33, the same age as Jesus when He died)
Beatified: April 18, 1993
Canonized: April 30, 2000 by Pope John Paul II
Patronage: World Youth Day

Early life
Helena Kowalska was the third of ten children born to Stanislaus Kowalski and Mariaanna Babel.

She received the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion, as was then the custom, at the age of 9. The mystery of the Divine Presence hidden in the Blessed Sacrament had fascinated her since she was very young.

When she was returning home from church on this most special day, she asked another first communicant “Are you happy about today?” The little girl replied, “Yes of course, look what a pretty dress I’m wearing.” Helenka replied, “I am happy because Jesus has come to me.”

Helenka remained at home until she was sixteen, and having attended just three years of school, she started work as a domestic to help support her family. Around this time she was considering a vocation in the Catholic Church and believed that God Himself was calling her to be a nun.

She received the Sacrament of Confirmation at age 17 in 1922 at Aleksandrów, and it was during this time that the desire for a religious vocation crystallized. We don’t really know if there was a specific instance which motivated her decision, but we do know that the longing to serve God had been with her for a long time.

She often rose to pray in the middle of the night. When her mother told her to go back to bed, she said that an angel had awakened her and told her to pray.

Vocation

She had put off the decision to become a religious for a long time. In 1923, during a dance at Lodz, she suddenly saw Jesus and recorded this incident in her diary:

She Wrote:

“While everybody was having a good time, my soul was experiencing deep torments. As I began to dance, I suddenly saw Jesus at my side. Jesus racked with pain, stripped of His clothing, all covered with wounds, who spoke these words to me: “How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting me off?” At that moment the charming music stopped, the company I was with vanished from my sight; there remained Jesus and I. I took a seat be my dear sister, pretending to have a headache in order to cover up what took place in my soul. After a while I slipped out unnoticed leaving my sister and all my companions behind and made my way to the Cathedral of St. Stanislaus Kostka. It was already beginning to grow light; there were only a few people in the Cathedral. Paying no attention to what was happening around me; I fell prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament and begged the Lord to be good enough to give me to understand what I should do next. Then I heard these words: Go at once to Warsaw you will enter a convent there.”
(Diary, Notebook I, paras. 9&10)

Helenka was 19, and still a minor and needed her parents consent, which they refused. The reason that they gave was that they could not pay for the trousseau and dowry then required of novices. That was probably not the only reason as her parents were getting on in years and needed the extra money that Helena was providing.

She spoke to her confessor and he told her to go to Warsaw. Thus there was no choice – to Warsaw she must go. She decided to act courageously and quietly. She knew that she would have to disobey her earthly parents and obey her heavenly Father.

Helena left for Warsaw, and was accepted at the convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on August 1, 1926. In the beginning, convent life was difficult, as it is for most aspirants. She faced a life of disciplined obedience and asceticism.

She wrote in her dairy, “At the beginning of my religious life, suffering and adversities frightened me.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 56

At one point, she actually made a decision to leave the convent. Yet, she prayed fervently for God’s will. It was Jesus, Himself that cast out all doubts. Helena gives an account of this in her diary:

“I entered the cell full of anguish and discontent; I did not know what to do with myself. I threw myself on the ground and began to pray fervently that I might come to know the will of God… After a while a brightness filled my cell, and on the curtain I saw the very sorrowful face of Jesus. There were open wounds on His face, and large tears were falling on my bedspread. Not knowing what all this meant I asked Jesus, “Jesus, who has hurt you so?” and Jesus said to me, “It is you who will cause Me this pain if you leave this convent. It is to this place that I called you and nowhere else; and I have prepared many graces for you.”

The next day was confession day. I related all that had taken place in my soul, and the confessor answered that, from all this, God’s will is clear that I am to remain in this congregation and that I’m not even to think of another religious order. From that moment on I have always felt happy and content.
(Diary, Notebook I, para. 19).

She began her novitiate and received her habit on April 30, 1926, in Cracow. Dressed in a white wedding gown, Helena went to meet her bridegroom at the altar. She returned as Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.

Moved to the depths of her soul, Helena nearly fainted twice. The first time was when with the other postulants she was standing before the altar to accept the religious habit and to receive another name. The postulants knelt, but she slipped helplessly to the priedieu. The sisters surrounded her and helped her to rise, and the clothing ceremony went ahead normally. She became faint once more, when being dressed in her habit.

The reason she noted in her diary:

“The day I took the habit God let me understand how much I was to suffer. I clearly saw to what I was committing myself, I experienced a moment of that suffering. But then God filled my soul again with great consolations.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 22)

Two years later when she made her first vows, her parents were present. Still against their daughter’s decision, they hoped to persuade her to return home, but her happiness was so obvious and she was so radiant and in love with God, that despite their former attitude they looked at her in amazement. They had never seen anything like this before. Her father remarked,

“As she is in love with Jesus, let us leave her there. This is the will of God.”

Thus she had not only the consent of her parents, and their blessing, but their respect, and even their admiration for the path she had chosen for herself.

We know this from what Helena’s cousin, Sophie Rulka, had to say.

‘I remember that when Sister Faustina’s parents went to Cracow on the occasion of her first vows, they visited us, and they came again on their way back from Cracow. Her mother said, on the second visit, that they were left alone with Sister Faustina for some time. They walked around the garden, but Sister Faustina said very little and was engaged in prayer. Knowing that her father was displeased with the path she had taken, and that he would have sons-in-law and grandchildren through his other daughters, she said to him: “You see Daddy, the One Whose bride I am is my husband and your son-in-law.’ I remember that her father was very moved, and he and my father wept,’

The honeymoon lasted until the spring of 1927, when Jesus led the soul of His young bride into the dark night of the soul.

Perhaps this would be a good time to provide a general outline of what is meant by the expression “Dark night of the soul.” The vocabulary in which mystics describe these unique, intense, arduous and ultimately inexpressible experiences is, paradoxically the vocabulary of others, describing the extremes of sensual experience, for no other language seems adequate: cleansing “by Fire”. Torment. Loss, “death of the soul”, love “flaming”, consuming, mystical “marriage”, union, and “intimacy”.

To attain mystical experience, only the first step is man’s: he is then led on by God.

Carmelite, Sister Edith Stein, in her work “The Knowledge of the Cross” described this experience”

All that is dearest to the soul in the enjoyment of the senses is surrendered and a dark mystical night must be endured in which the soul lives without their help and comfort. This is called “the dark night of the senses”, full of severe spiritual and physical disturbances. Temptations, violent emotions even hatred of God are felt. The soul comes to know good and evil, and feels as though she stands before the judgment seat of God. Seeing her own nothingness in comparison with the Divine Reality the soul is terrified and paralyzed. However, the reward for this dark night is that the soul is cleansed and knows herself. By surrendering the sensual faculties, the soul can submit to the supremacy of the spiritual faculties. The soul then enters the “dark night of the soul”, the experience most terrifying and difficult to endure, even for the bravest of God’s lovers, without Divine aid. After cleansing comes enlightenment. The soul has sacrificed her prerogative of her own way of thinking and willing, and all the supports which make us self-sufficient, to take this next step beyond reason. The whole process of enlightenment takes place deep in the subconscious, but consciously the despairing human being is convinced of having lost God and been condemned. Yet, there begin to be glimpses, as the soul becomes more enlightened, which permit her to realize God’s nearness. But these are still intermingled with recurrent dark clouds.

These mystical nights pass eventually, to be rewarded by the loving union of the soul with God. The soul regains strength, attains peace and is constantly recollected in God. God fills her so completely that He shares with her some of His own nature – the soul becomes transformed by the divine. Mystical nights last a very long time, prolonged the more when the soul in the torment of purification and illumination resists or avoids the guiding hand of God.

In Sister Faustina’s case the process was astonishingly brief: altogether 18 months, for the whole second year of her novitiate and six months after her first vows, in 1927 and 1928.

This is what she wrote on the subject:

“Towards the end of the first year of my novitiate, darkness began to cast its shadow over my soul. I felt no consolation in prayer; I had to make a great effort to meditate; fear began to sweep over me. Going deeper into myself, I could find nothing but great misery. I could also see clearly the holiness of God. I did not dare to raise my eyes to Him, but reduced myself to dust under His feet and begged for mercy. My soul was in this state for almost six months. Our beloved Mother Directress [Mary Joseph] encouraged me in these difficult moments. But this suffering became greater and greater.
The second year of the novitiate was approaching. Whenever I recalled that I was to make my vows, my soul shuddered. I did not understand what I was reading; I could not meditate; it seemed to me that my prayer was displeasing to God.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 23)

“Every time I entered the chapel for some spiritual exercise, I experienced even worse torments and temptations. More than once, all through Holy Mass, I had to struggle against blasphemous thoughts which were forcing themselves to my lips.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 77)

“It seemed to me that by approaching the Holy Sacraments I was offending God even more…God was working very strangely in my soul. I did not understand anything at all of what my confessor was telling me. The simple truths of the faith became incomprehensible to me. My soul was in anguish, unable to find comfort anywhere.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 23)

The frightened Sister Faustina, unable to help herself went to the Directress of Novices and to her confessor.
Her Novice Mistress at once recognized the process which the soul of the novice was going through, calmed her and added:

“Know, dear sister, that God has chosen you for great sanctity. This is a sign that God wants to have you very close to Himself in heaven. Have great trust in the Lord Jesus.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 23)

Her confessor had the same attitude. Above all, he confirmed that these trials were from God, and that:

This is a sign, “he told me, “that God loves you very much and that he has great confidence in you, since He is sending you such trials.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 77)

Sister Faustina appeared deaf to the meaning of what was being said to her. Her suffering increased from day to day, until the crisis came. She writes:

One day, just as I awakened, when I was putting myself in the presence of God, I was suddenly overwhelmed by despair. Complete darkness in my soul. I fought as best I could till noon. In the afternoon, truly deadly fears began to seize me; my physical strength began to leave me. I went quickly to my cell, fell on my knees before the Crucifix and began to cry out for mercy. But Jesus did not hear my cries. I felt my physical strength leave me completely. I fell to the ground… I wanted to go to see the Directress, but was too weak, I wanted to shout, but had no voice.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 24)

Sister Faustina goes on at some length in her diary about the doubts and torments that assailed her during this time.

Luckily, when words of persuasion have no effect, there is one unfailing remedy in the hands of a consummate spiritual directress – it is obedience. When Sister Faustina lay helpless on the floor in her spiritual agony, a second novice entered. Frightened by the sight of Sister Faustina on the floor, she ran as fast as she could for the Novice Mistress who came at once, And as Sister Faustina writes,

“in the name of holy obedience ordered me to get up from the ground. My strength returned immediately, and I got up, trembling. The Directress recognized immediately the state of my soul.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 102)

“With kindly words she began to explain to me that this was a trial sent to me by God, saying, ‘Have great confidence; God is always our Father, even when He sends us trials.’ I returned to my duties as if I had come from the tomb, my senses saturated with what my soul had experienced.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 24)

There came a time when the clouds dissipated and Sister Faustina found herself in the dazzling radiance of God. From then onwards, her soul could contemplate God, and contemplation is nothing other than — as St John of the Cross says —the mysterious, peaceful, loving – pouring-in of God into the soul, which, when not prevented, inflames that soul with the spirit of love.

Sister Faustina opened herself completely to this Divine action within her.

Visions

Halfway through 1930, — about 18 months after experiencing the mystical darkness in Cracow, Sister Faustina found herself in Plock, assigned to work in the kitchen. It was here in Plock that she received from Jesus her chief mission. On February 22, 1931, when after finishing all her daily tasks and taken part that evening in the community prayers in the chapel, she was alone in her cell when Jesus appeared to her as the ‘King of Divine Mercy’… But let me pause and allow her to tell the story of the most important moment of her life:

She wrote:

“In the evening, when I was in my cell, I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand [was] raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale. In silence I kept my gaze fixed on the Lord. After a while, Jesus said to me, ‘Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and [then] throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 47, 48)

In this Jesus was giving Sister Faustina two tasks to accomplish: 1. To paint His portrait as she saw Him, 2. To undertake its propagation, commencing with the Congregation, and then to spread the devotion throughout the world.

Sister Faustina was astounded. First she was faced with a problem which appeared insoluble: 1. She didn’t know how to paint — how then could she produce the image which she had seen of the Lord? 2. She was a sister in a closed community and obliged to follow a strict inner rule and be obedient — how, then, could she propagate veneration for this picture throughout the world?

But the command had been given, so thought had to be given to fulfill it. First she concentrated on the painting. When she spoke of it to her confessor, he trivialized the affair by saying:

‘That refers to your soul, paint God’s image in your soul.”

Jesus protested at once:

When I came out of the confessional, I again heard words such as these, writes Sister Faustina, ‘My image already is in your soul. I desire that there be a Feast of Mercy. I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 48)

Jesus also expressed another wish, this time directed to priests:

I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine towards souls of sinners. Let the sinner not be afraid to approach Me. The flames of mercy are burning Me — clamoring to be spent; I want to pour them out upon these souls.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 50)

In this revelation, Jesus expressed His wishes in full. He requires the portrait be painted, but also the establishment of the Feast of Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter.

Once again Sister Faustina went to her superior and confessor. Both of them asked for a sign so that they might recognize Jesus more clearly in this matter. Sister Faustina began to have serious doubt about the voice of God in her soul and wanted to “run away from these interior inspirations.” But God again categorically protested and said “that on the day of judgment He would demand of me a great number of souls.”

Although Sister Faustina was very guarded about these visions, rumor spread. Rumor is always incomplete, with numerous gaps and many distortions of information. It was even said by the children of the town that when they stood in the street opposite the rooms of the nuns they saw rays coming from the room of Sister Faustina. A web of hints, vulgar curiosity, and sometimes mockery grew. Finally, suspicions of hysteria or mental disturbances were voiced. And these multiplied the more rapidly as she herself, when asked by Sisters to confirm the rumors circulating and to give more details, did not react. No matter to who Sister Faustina now turned, spiteful remarks, whispers and knowing half-smiles went with her:

She writes:
“I was regarded as one possessed by the evil spirit, and I was looked upon with pity, and the superior took certain precautionary actions in my respect. It reached my ears that the sisters also regarded me as such… and to regard me as a hysteric and a fantasist, and the rumors began to grow louder. One of the sisters came to talk to me in private. She began pitying me and said, ‘I’ve heard them say that you are a fantasist, Sister, and that you’ve been having visions. My poor Sister, defend yourself in this matter.’ She was a sincere soul, and she told me sincerely what she had heard. But I had to listen to such things every day. God only knows how tiring it was. Yet, I resolved to bear everything in silence and to give no explanations when I was questioned. Some were irritated by my silence, especially those who were more curious. Others, who reflected more deeply said, ‘Sister Faustina must be very close to God if she has the strength to bear so much suffering,’ It was if I were facing two groups of judges… There is no longer anything in me that escaped the sister’s judgment.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 125)

I could not see that everywhere I was being watched like a thief: in the chapel; while I was carrying out my duties; in my cell… There were times when I wondered whether I should undress to wash myself or not. Indeed, even that poor bed of mine was checked many times.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 128)

Used, until now, to living in an atmosphere of trust and the sense of inner freedom that this brings, Sister Faustina did not know how to steer a course between all of these complicated trails and sensational rumors. Everything around her seemed hard to grasp, incomprehensible and unimaginable, nor could she find herself in the midst of it all. She had so far lost herself as to no longer believe in her own common sense.

She wrote,
“One day, tired out with all these uncertainties, I asked Jesus, ‘Jesus, are you my God or some kind of phantom? Because my Superiors say that there are all sorts of illusions and phantoms. If you are my Lord, I beg you to bless me.” Then Jesus made a big sign of the cross over me and I, too, signed myself. When I asked pardon of Jesus for this question, He replied that I had in no way displeased Him by this question and that my confidence pleased him very much.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 54)
Sister Faustina continued to have doubts and did not cease to beg that the Lord would convince her of the genuineness of her revelations. She constantly renewed her pleas.

She writes:
“Seeing that I was getting very little help from people, I turned all the more to Jesus, the best of all teachers. At one time, when I was filled with doubts as to whether the voice I heard came from the Lord or not, I began to speak to Jesus interiorly without forming any words. Suddenly an inner force took hold of me and I said, ‘If you who commune with me and talk to me are truly my God, I beg You, O Lord, to make this ward go this very day to confession; this sign will give me reassurance.’ At that very moment, the girl asked to go to confession.

The Mother in charge of the class was surprised at this sudden change in her, but she undertook to call a priest immediately, and this person made her confession with great compunction. At the same time, I heard a voice within me say, ‘Do you believe Me now.” And once again a strange power pervaded my soul, strengthening and reassuring me to such a degree that I myself was surprised that I had allowed myself to doubt even for a moment.

But these doubts always come from without, a fact which inclined me to close up more and more within myself.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 74)

Finally, when Sister Faustina returned to Warsaw to undertake her third probation, which was required before she take her final vows, Jesus removed all doubts. This probation is the last stage in religious formation. It allows the nuns to review the experience of her life in the community and to review once more the call to vocation, before she makes the irrevocable decision to take final vows.

Here she went on an eight day retreat. She went with mixed feelings. She knew one thing, that in the interior confusion in which she had been living for the past two years she needed the special illumination of the Holy Spirit, to perform a proper examination of her life up to this point, and to be able to interpret the divine mission she had received and which she was yet to put into motion. She prayed fervently to receive this grace.
Jesus did not leave her without an answer.

She writes:

“Jesus told me that this retreat would be a little different from others. ‘You shall strive to maintain a profound peace in respect to your communing with Me. I will remove all doubts in this regard. I know that you are at peace now as I speak to you, but the moment I stop talking to you will start looking for doubts. But I want you to know that I will affirm your soul to such a degree that even if you wanted to be troubled, it will not be in your power. And as a proof that it is I that is speaking to you, you will go to confession of the second day of the retreat to the priest who is preaching the retreat; you will go to him as soon as he has finished his conference and will present to him all your doubts concerning Me. I will answer you through his lips, and then your fears will end.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 169)

When she went to confession she told the confessor her business in a spontaneous reaction. Without reflection or choosing her she poured out, feverishly, everything that had built up within her during those difficult years, just as her memory prompted her while she was waiting for confession. She poured out a chaotic mixture about the revelations in her mystic communion with Jesus, her own torment, her fear of others opinion, her helplessness and her pain, during that confession.

The priest quickly realized that he had an exceptional penitent. He stated:

“Sister, you distrust the Lord Jesus because He treats you so kindly. Well, Sister, be completely at peace. Jesus is your Master and your communing with him is neither daydreaming or hysteria or illusion. Know that you are on the right path. Please try to be faithful to these graces; you are not free to shun them. You do not need, at all, Sister to tell your superiors about these interior graces, unless the Lord Jesus instructs you clearly to do so, and even then you should first consult with your confessor. But if the Lord Jesus demands something external in this case, after consulting your confessor, you should carry out what He asks of you, even if this costs you greatly. On the other hand, you must tell your confessor everything. There is absolutely no other course for you to take, Sister. Pray that you may find a spiritual director, or else you will waste these gifts of God. I repeat, once again, be at peace; you are following the right path. Take no heed of anything else, but always be faithful to the Lord Jesus, no matter what anyone says about you.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 174)

Despite everything, Sister Faustina heard were still moments of doubt. She even tried to evade the demands of Jesus which were beyond her strength.

Jesus said, “Know that if you neglect the matter of the painting of the image and the whole work of mercy, you will have to answer for a multitude of souls on the day of judgment.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 154)

She wrote in her diary:
“After these words of our Lord, a certain fear filled my soul, and alarm took hold of me, Try as I would, I could not calm myself; I fell on my face before the Blessed Sacrament and said to the Lord, ‘I will do everything in my power, but I beg you to be always with me and to give me strength to do your holy will; for You can do everything, while I can do nothing of myself.’
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 154)

In this painful way, struggling with endlessly multiplying difficulties Sister Faustina gradually learned the truth that everything she received was through the grace of God, and that everything she was to do could only be done through God’s grace.

Just before she took her final vows Jesus clearly stressed the wish of his heart, that Sister Faustina should be joined to Him and required from her a decisive answer.

She wrote:

During the third probation, the Lord gave me to understand that I should offer myself to Him so that He could do with me as He pleased. I was to remain standing before Him as a victim offering.

A victim soul is a concept most clearly seen in Catholic theology. It is a soul or person chosen by God to suffer more than most people during life, and who generously accepts the suffering in union with the Savior and after the example of Christ’s own Passion and Death. God does not do this without the soul’s permission.

This was a role Sister Faustina voluntarily accepted.

She wrote:

At first, I was quite frightened as I felt myself to be so utterly miserable and knew very well that this was the case, I answered the Lord once again, ‘I am misery itself; how can I be a hostage for others? Jesus replied, I am misery itself; ‘how can I be a hostage for others.’ You do not understand this today. Tomorrow during your adoration, I will make it known to you.”…

“When I came to the adoration, I felt within my soul that I had entered the temple of the living God, whose majesty is great and incomprehensible… Although I saw nothing externally, God’s presence pervaded me. At that very moment my intellect was strangely illuminated. A vision passed before my eyes of my soul; it was like the vision Jesus had in the Garden of Olives. First, the physical sufferings and all the circumstances that would increase them; [then] the full scope of the spiritual sufferings and those that no one would know about. Everything entered into a vision: False suspicions, loss of good name… My name is to be ‘sacrifice’. When the vision ended, a cold sweat bathed my forehead. Jesus made it known to me that, even if I did not give my consent to this, I could still be saved; and He would not lessen His graces, but would still continue to have the same intimate relationship with me so that… God’s generosity would not lessen thereby. And the Lord gave me to know that the whole mystery depended on me, on my free consent to the sacrifice given with full use of my faculties. In this free and conscious act lies the whole power and value before His Majesty… At that moment I realized I was entering into communion with the incomprehensible Majesty. I felt that God was waiting for my word, for my consent. Then my spirit immersed itself in the Lord and I said, ‘Do with me as You please, I subject myself to Your will… I will be faithful to Your commands with the help of Your grace…’ Suddenly, when I had consented to the sacrifice with all my heart and all my will, God’s presence pervaded me. My soul was… inundated with such happiness that I cannot put in writing even the smallest part of it… I was extraordinarily fused with God. I saw that God was well pleased with me and, reciprocally, my spirit drowned itself in Him. Aware of this union with God, I felt I was especially loved, and in turn, I loved with all my soul… At that moment I felt totally transconsecrated. My earthly body was the same, but my soul was different; God was now living in it with the totality of His delight… A great mystery took place…between the Lord and myself.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, paras. 135-137)

A new intimacy therefore took place between Sister Faustina and God, having accepted her consent to join with His sacrifice for sinners, from that time on he led her ever deeper into the essence of this relationship. A few days after this revelation Jesus again appeared to her in the chapel.

She writes;
As soon as I entered the chapel God’s presence enveloped me. I was distinctly aware that the Lord was near me. After a moment I saw the Lord, all covered with wounds; and He said to me, ‘Look at whom you have espoused.’ I understood the meaning of these words and answered the Lord, ‘Jesus, I love You more when I see You wounded and crushed with suffering like this than if I saw You in majesty’. Jesus asked, ‘Why?’ I replied, ‘Great majesty terrifies me, little nothing that I am, and Your wounds draw me to Your heart and tell of Your great love for me’ I fixed my gaze upon His sacred wounds and felt happy to suffer with Him. I suffered, and yet I did not suffer, because I felt happy to know the depth of His love.”…
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 252)

Sister Faustina, led by her Divine Master, now became used to living always in the shadow of His suffering. Her understanding of this greatest mystery of God’s mercy grew ever deeper. She now understood that the essence of her intimacy with the Lord would depend on taking part in His Passion, and that it was precisely this which would be the core of her vocation.

One day Jesus appeared to her

“stripped of His clothes, His body completely covered with wounds, His eyes flooded with tears and blood, His face disfigured and covered with spittle. The Lord then said to me, ‘The bride must resemble her betrothed.’ I understood these words to their very depth. There is no room for doubt here. My likeness to Jesus must be through suffering and humility.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 268)

Jesus provided Sister Faustina with two visions, one in Warsaw and another in Cracow, of the confessor that He would provide to help her accomplish her mission.

This is when Father Michael Sopoćko entered into the life of Sister Faustina. He was to be a key figure in her life and the in the promulgation of the Divine Mercy message.

Thirty-three years after his death, Fr. Sopocko (1888-1975) — the great promoter of the Divine Mercy message and a confessor of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska — was raised to the honors of the altar at a special beatification Mass last Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008 in Bialystok, Poland. An estimated 80,000 people were on hand for the Mass, which was celebrated by His Excellency Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect for the causes of saints and a personal delegate of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.

On Dec. 17, the Vatican announced the approval of a miracle attributed to his intercession.

He was the man on the other side of the confessional window. An energetic, intensely spiritual priest who was happy in his pastoral duties. But little did Fr. Sopocko realize that in 1933, when he was appointed to be confessor to the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Vilnius, Poland, his whole world would soon be turned upside down.

Sister Faustina had prayed for a spiritual director, someone to help guide her, someone who understood that what she was experiencing was real. Father Sopocko was the answer to her prayers, and eventually he became the main promoter of her revelations, the very linchpin in the Lord’s call to spread Divine Mercy throughout the world.

Jesus told Sr. Faustina that Father Sopocko “is the visible help for you on earth,”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 53).

Indeed, he did just that. It was Fr. Sopocko, a well-trained theologian, whose research into the writings of St. Thomas and St. Augustine, among others, helped him to confirm the authenticity of Sr. Faustina’s revelations that God’s greatest attribute is mercy.

It was Fr. Sopocko who first instructed Sr. Faustina to keep her Diary. When Sr. Faustina told Fr. Sopocko of her visions of Jesus and His request for a new image to be painted and spread throughout the world, it was he who found the artist, Prof. Eugeniusz Kazimierowski, who would paint The Divine Mercy image.

He didn’t stop there. In actions that mark the beginning of the spread of The Divine Mercy devotion, Fr. Sopocko made sure The Divine Mercy image was displayed on the Sunday after Easter, 1935, over the famous Ostra Brama gate to the city of Vilnius. And in the nearby church, he preached the message of mercy.

Father Sopocko eventually suffered ridicule from spreading the devotion. But, during the 20-year ban of the devotion (1959-1979, due to faulty translations of the Diary), he took comfort in Sr. Faustina’s prophecy that the devotion would only seem to be “utterly undone” (see Diary, 378).

At first Sister Faustina was unable to be completely open with him and she wrote:

“I heard these words in my soul: “This is my faithful servant, he will help you fulfill My will here on earth.’ Yet, I did not open myself to him as the Lord wished, and for some time I struggled against grace. During each confession, God’s grace penetrated me in a very special way, yet, I did not reveal my soul before him…
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 362)

After almost a month of struggle with herself, Sister Faustina, finally uncovered the entire secret of her soul to Father Sopoćko.

She wrote:
“When I did bare my soul to this priest, Jesus poured an ocean of graces into it. Now I understand what it means to be faithful to a particular grace. That one grace draws down a whole series of graces.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 263)

The painting of the portrait was done over time.

Neither Sister Faustina of Father Sopoćko were satisfied with the painting. Sister Faustina wrote,

“Once, when I was visiting the artist who was painting the image and saw that it was not as beautiful as Jesus is, I felt very sad about it, but I hid this deep in my heart. When we had left the artist’s house, Mother Superior stayed in town to attend to some matters while I returned home alone. I went immediately to the chapel and wept a god deal. I said to the Lord, ‘Who will paint You as beautiful as You are? Then I heard these words; ‘Not in the beauty of the color, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 313)

Father Sopoćko asked Sister Faustina what the red and white rays meant. She said, Very well, I will ask the Lord.

During prayer I heard these words within me: ‘The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issue forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross. These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 299)

In this revelation Jesus repeats His request that the first Sunday after Easter is to be the Feast of Mercy. This is the first request in the matter which is made directly to Father Sopoćko. Sister Faustina is only the conduit. Here are the further words of Jesus:

“I desire that the first Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy. Ask of my faithful servant that on this day, he tell the whole world of My great mercy; that whoever approaches the Fount of Life on this day will be granted complete remission of sins and punishment. Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy. Oh, how much I am hurt by a soul’s distrust! Such a soul professes that I am Holy and Just, but does not believe that I am Mercy and does not trust in My goodness. My heart rejoices in this title of Mercy. Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 299-301)

It wasn’t until three years later that the image was permanently placed into a church.

Jesus continued to work in dramatic fashion in the life of Sister Faustina.

As I mentioned in the first half of this presentation, Sister Faustina surrendered herself to be a victim soul for the salvation of souls.

She wrote,
I began to experience inner sufferings. First, I was seized by depression and aversion towards the sisters, then a kind of uncertainty began to trouble me. I could not recollect myself during prayer, and various things would take hold of my mind. When, tired out, I entered the chapel, a strange pain seized my soul, and I began to weep softly. Then I heard in my soul a voice saying, “My daughter, why are you weeping? After all, you yourself offered to undertake these sufferings.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 596)

Sister Faustina could not make it alone and continually sought help from the Lord.

She wrote,

“O My Lord, I can see very well that from the time when my soul first received the capacity to know You, my life has been a continual struggle which has become increasingly intense. Every morning during meditation, I prepare myself for the whole day’s struggle. Holy Communion assures me that I will win the victory; and so it is. I fear the day when I do not receive Holy Communion. This Bread of the Strong gives me all the strength I need to carry on my mission and the courage to do whatever the Lord asks of me. The courage and strength that are within me are not of me, but of Him who lives in me — it is the Eucharist.
O my Jesus, the misunderstandings are so great; sometimes, were it not for the Eucharist, I would not have the courage to go any further along the way You have marked out for me.
Humiliation is my daily food. I understand that the bride must herself share in everything that is the groom’s; and so His cloak of mockery must cover me too. At those times when I suffer much, I try to remain silent, as I do not trust my tongue which, at such moments, is inclined to talk for itself, while its duty is to help me praise God for all the blessings and gifts He has given me.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 91-92)

Jesus replied,
“Do not be surprised that you are sometimes unjustly accused. I myself first drank this cup of undeserved suffering for love of you.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 289)

Sister Faustina could never get enough of contemplating God’s love. It was the guide which led her to develop her own. It is also a love which reveals itself in the acceptance of suffering. Thus it is not surprising that Sister Faustina came to love suffering as an infallible way of pleasing God.

She wrote:
“From the moment I came to love suffering, it ceased to be a suffering for me. Suffering is the daily food of my soul.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 276)

At the same time Jesus called her more and more insistently to take up the task she had been given. He therefore explains and encourages:

“I grant you as many graces as you can hold. As often as you want to make My happy, speak to the world about My great and unfathomable Mercy.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 164)

At the end of 1935 Jesus fully revealed His intentions about Sister Faustina:

“My daughter, look into the abyss of My mercy and give praise and glory to this mercy of mine. Do it in this way: Gather all sinners from the entire world and immerse then in the abyss of My mercy. I want to give Myself to souls; I yearn for souls, My daughter. On the day of My feast, the Feast of Mercy, you will go through the whole world and bring fainting souls to the spring of My mercy. I shall heal and strengthen them.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 206)

“I have inclined My heart to your requests. Your assignment and duty here on earth is to beg for mercy for the whole world. No soul will be justified until it turns with confidence to My mercy…”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 571)

The year 1935 was an emotional one for Sister Faustina. The Lord had most beautifully included her in His plans for salvation: she was not only to strive that the visible expression of the Divine Mercy in the form of the image revealed to her should be made available to the public and publicly venerated, and that Divine Mercy be honored in the establishing of its solemn feast on the first Sunday after Easter; she was also to remind those who had grievously sinned and lost hope of their salvation that Divine Mercy always awaits the sinner who has repented.

She wrote,
“When I became aware of God’s great plans for me, I was frightened at their greatness and felt myself quite incapable of fulfilling them, and I began to avoid interior conversations with Him, filling up the time with vocal prayer. I did this out of humility, but I soon recognized it was not true humility, but rather a great temptation from the devil. When on one occasion, instead of interior prayer, I took up a book of spiritual reading, I heard these words spoken distinctly and forcefully within my soul, ‘You will prepare the world for My final coming.’ These words moved me deeply, and although I pretended not to hear them, I understood them very well and had no doubt about them.” Once being tired out from this battle of love with God, and making constant excuses on the grounds that I was unable to carry out this task, I wanted to leave the chapel, but some force held me back, and I found myself powerless. Then I heard these words, ‘You intend to leave the chapel, but you shall not get away from Me, for I am everywhere. You cannot do anything of yourself, but with me you can do all things.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 429)

“Do not fear; I Myself will make up for everything that is lacking in you.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 435)

Sister Faustina’s great spiritual development did not go hand-in-hand with her physical vitality

In 1936, Faustina became ill, since believed to be tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has this specific feature: it can lie dormant in someone for years, inactive or weakly active, until favorable circumstances stir it into development. In Sister Faustina, those circumstances were now operative. As she notes in the Diary:

“When I fell sick after my first vows and when, despite the kind and solicitous care of my Superiors and the efforts of the doctor, I felt neither better or worse, remarks began to reach my ears which inferred that I was making believe,”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 67)
For three years the doctors treated her for nerves, and did not treat her lungs.

Tuberculosis is primarily known as a disease of the lungs. More rarely, and usually in secondary form, it attacks particular internal organs. In Sister Faustina it attacked the intestines. This form is especially hard to bear. The pains come in waves associated with the process of digestion. About two hours after a meal, when the food reaches the intestines, the patient writhes in pain. These pains can only be controlled by the strongest pain killers.

These sufferings were the lot of Sister Faustina. It is impossible to understand how she was even able to get out of bed, but in between these bouts of pain she tried to go about her normal duties. It was a heroism demanded of those who are tortured.

The most beautiful witness to Sister Faustina’s behavior at that time is given by one of the sisters, who worked in the infirmary,

“She would not submit to her illness, and whenever she was not confined to bed she went about her usual duties, trying to fulfill her obligations as best she could. Her cheerfulness, peacefulness and spiritual equilibrium in the face of the difficulties her illness brought her, were astounding. She never complained, though she was often obviously exhausted. She did not allow those around her to know what she suffered and even the superiors did not realize her state.”

She was moved to the sanatorium in Pradnik.

Dr. Silberg, the pulmonary specialist and director of the sanatorium where Sister Faustina lay ill, understood the behavior of Sister Faustina correctly.

He stated:
“It is very serious and incurable, but Sister Faustina is an exceptional religious, so I do not pay attention. Anyone else in her state would not get up to attend Mass in the chapel. I cannot forbid her to do so…Whenever I visit her she is always smiling. It is not easy to smile amidst such suffering.”

Her Diary reflects reveals her condition during this time,

“I find myself so weak that if it were not for Holy Communion I would fall continually. One thing alone sustains me, and this is Holy Communion. From it I draw strength; in it is all my comfort. I fear life on days when I do not receive Holy Communion. I fear my own self… From the tabernacle I draw strength, power, courage and light. Here I seek consolation in time of anguish. I would not know how to give glory to God if I did not have the Eucharist in my heart.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 1037)

Sister Faustina had found a suitable place to practice mercy and to teach it to others. She continued to spend much time in prayer, reciting the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and praying for the conversion of sinners. The last two years of her life were spent praying and keeping her diary.
In addition to the agonizing intestinal pain caused by the tuberculosis there were hidden pains with the features of stigmata.

By 1938, the disease overwhelmed her body entirely. The pains had various causes, and some were not caused by the disease. One of her sisters recalled,

Sister Faustina several times had some pains which were not physical and internal, the cause of which could not be determined by the doctor who was called. Sister Faustina afterwards told Sister A. who was infirmarian, that no one could cure her of these pains, because she was suffering for those mothers who destroy their unborn babies.”

Another kind of suffering with a mystical nature is recorded by sister Faustina in the Diary:

“At eight o’clock I was seized with such violent pains that I had to go to bed at once. I was convulsed with pain for three hours, that is until eleven o’clock at night. No medicine had any effect on me, and whatever I swallowed I threw up. At times, the pain caused me to lose consciousness. Jesus had me realize that in this way I took part in His Agony in the Garden, and that He Himself allowed these sufferings in order to offer reparation to God for the souls murdered in the wombs of wicked mothers. I have gone through these sufferings three times now. They always start at eight o’clock in the evening and last until eleven. No medicine can lessen these sufferings. When eleven o’clock comes, they cease by themselves, and I fall asleep at that moment. The following day, I felt very weak.
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 1276)

Sister Faustina prayed,

“Christ, give me souls. Let anything You like happen to me, but give me souls in return. I want the salvation of souls. I want souls to know Your mercy. I have nothing for myself, because I have given everything away to souls, with the result that on the day of judgment I will stand before You empty-handed since I have given everything away to souls. Thus You will have nothing on which to judge me, and we shall meet on that day: Love and mercy…”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 1426)

The shadow of death was drawing ever closed to Sister Faustina, and in the last months of her life in the sanatorium, she ministered to the dying. When she could no longer get out of bed, she was given the gift of bi-location. She knew when other patients where on the verge of death and prayed for their souls until she had an inner assurance that her prayers had been answered.

Sister Faustina knew why she was so certain that her prayers would be heard. God himself had assured her of it.

In 1933, God gave Sister Faustina a striking vision of His Mercy,

Sister tells us:

“I saw a great light, with God the Father in the midst of it.
Between this light and the earth I saw Jesus nailed to the Cross
and in such a way that God, wanting to look upon the earth, had to
look through Our Lord’s wounds and I understood that God blessed the earth for the sake of Jesus.”

Of another vision on Sept. 13, 1935, she writes:
“I saw an Angel, the executor of God’s wrath… about to strike the earth…I began to beg God earnestly for the world with words which I heard interiorly. As I prayed in this way, I saw the Angel’s helplessness, and he could not carry out the just
punishment….”

The following day an inner voice taught her to say this prayer on
ordinary rosary beads:

“First say one ‘Our Father’, ‘Hail Mary’, and ‘I believe’. Then on
the large beads say the following words:
‘Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement
for our sins and those of the whole world.’
On the smaller beads you are to say the following words:
‘For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the
whole world.’
In conclusion you are to say these words three times:
‘Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world’.

Jesus said later to Sister Faustina:
“Say unceasingly this chaplet that I have taught you. Anyone who says it will receive great Mercy at the hour of death. Priests
will recommend it to sinners as the last hope. Even the most
hardened sinner, if he recites this Chaplet even once, will
receive grace from My Infinite Mercy. I want the whole world to
know My Infinite Mercy. I want to give unimaginable graces to
those who trust in My Mercy….”

“At the hour of their death, I defend as my own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person…When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God’s anger is placated, and unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy will be moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My Son.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 811)

In praying the chaplet Sister Faustina was instrumental in saving many souls.

By June 1938, she could no longer write.

On the subject of death, Sister Faustina was not preoccupied with the threshold that she had to cross, but with the eternity which awaited her on the other side.

Her poetry is such an important part of her witness, especially in the last stage of her life, that it deserves some mention.

She wrote,

“I hasten on to the other world, to God alone.
Into the incomprehensible light, the very fire of love,
For my soul and my heart are created for Him.
And my heart has loved Him from my tender youth.”
(Dairy, Notebook VI, para. 1653)

And again she wrote.
“My day is drawing to a close, Even now I glimpse the refulgence of Your light,
O my God,
No one shall learn of what my heart is feeling;
My lips shall fall silent in great humility.
Even now, I draw nigh to the eternal nuptials,
To heaven unending, to spaces without limits.
I long for no repose or reward;
The pure love of God draws me to heaven.
Even now, I go to meet You, Eternal Love
With a heart languishing in its desire for You,
I feel that Your pure love, Lord, dwells in my heart,
And I sense my eternal destiny in heaven.
I go, O my bridegroom, I go to see Your glory,
Which even now fills my heart with joy,
There where all heaven is plunged in Your adoration,
I feel that my worship is pleasing to You, nothingness though I am.
In these last moments I know not how to converse with others,
In silence I await only You, O Lord,
I know the time will come when all will understand the work of God in my soul.
I know that such is Your will – so be it.
(Dairy, Notebook VI, para. 1653)

She died eighty years ago today, October 5, 1938.
When Faustina’s abbess was cleaning out her room she opened the drawer and found the paintings of the Divine Mercy.

Index of Forbidden Books
After the death of St. Faustina, the nuns at her convent sent her writings to the Vatican. Prior to 1966, any reported visions of Jesus and Mary required approval from the Holy See before they could be released to the public.[1]

In 1959, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani at the Holy Office included her works on a list he submitted to the newly elected Pope John XXIII. The pope signed the decree that placed her work on the Index of Forbidden Books and they remained on the Index for over 20 years. Father Sopoćko was harshly reprimanded, and all his work was suppressed. However, Eugeniusz Baziak, the archbishop of Kraków, permitted the nuns to leave the original picture hanging in their chapel so that those who wished to continue to pray before it could do so.

The current position of the Vatican is that misunderstandings were created by a faulty Italian translation of Sister’s Diary in that the questionable material could not be correlated with the original Polish version because of difficulties in communication throughout World War II and the subsequent Communist era.

Canonization and Institution of Divine Mercy Sunday

When Karol Wojtyła (the future Pope John Paul II) became Archbishop of Kraków, a new investigation into the life and diary of St. Faustina was launched, and the devotion to the Divine Mercy was once again permitted. Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, John Paul II’s successor as archbishop of Krakow, said that Faustina “reminds us of the gospel we had forgotten.”

Sister Faustina was beatified on April 18, 1993 and canonized on April 30, 2000.
Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated the Second Sunday of Easter (which is the first Sunday after Easter).

Sister Mary Faustina, an apostle of the Divine Mercy, belongs today to the group of the most popular and well-known saints of the Church. Through her the Lord Jesus communicated to the world the great message of God’s mercy and reveals the pattern of Christian perfection based on trust in God and on the attitude of mercy toward one’s neighbors.

Sister Faustina was a faithful daughter of the Church which she loved like a Mother and a Mystic Body of Jesus Christ. Conscious of her role in the Church, she cooperated with God’s mercy in the task of saving lost souls. At the specific request of and following the example of the Lord Jesus, she made a sacrifice of her own life for this very goal. In her spiritual life she also distinguished herself with a love of the Eucharist and a deep devotion to the Mother of Mercy.

The years she had spent at the convent were filled with extraordinary gifts, revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Passion of the Lord, the gift of bilocation, the reading of human souls, the gift of prophecy, or the rare gift of mystical engagement and marriage. The living relationship with God, the Blessed Mother, the Angels, the Saints, the souls in Purgatory — with the entire supernatural world — was as equally real for her as was the world she perceived with her senses. In spite of being so richly endowed with extraordinary graces, Sr. Mary Faustina knew that they do not in fact constitute sanctity. In her Diary she wrote: Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God (Diary 1107).

The mission of Sister Mary Faustina consists in 3 tasks:

– reminding the world of the truth of our faith revealed in the Holy Scripture about the merciful love of God toward every human being.

– Entreating God’s mercy for the whole world and particularly for sinners, among others through the practice of new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy presented by the Lord Jesus, such as: the veneration of the image of the Divine Mercy with the inscription: Jesus, I Trust in You, the feast of the Divine Mercy celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter, chaplet to the Divine Mercy and prayer at the Hour of Mercy (3 p.m.). The Lord Jesus attached great promises to these forms of devotion, provided one entrusted one’s life to God and practiced active love of one’s neighbor.

– The third task in Sr. Mary Faustina’s mission consists in initiating the apostolic movement of the Divine Mercy which undertakes the task of proclaiming and entreating God’s mercy for the world and strives for Christian perfection, following the precepts laid down by the Saint Faustina. The precepts in question require the faithful to display an attitude of child-like trust in God which expresses itself in fulfilling His will, as well as in the attitude of mercy toward one’s neighbors. Today, this movement within the Church involves millions of people throughout the world; it comprises religious congregations, lay institutes, religious, brotherhoods, associations, various communities of apostles of the Divine Mercy, as well as individual people who take up the tasks which the Lord Jesus communicated to them through Sr. Mary Faustina.

In an extraordinary way, Sr. Mary Faustina’s work sheds light on the mystery of the Divine Mercy. It delights not only the simple and uneducated people, but also scholars who look upon it as an additional source of theological research. The Diary has been translated into many languages, among others, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak.

Jesus told Sister Faustina,

“I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy towards your neighbor: the first — by deed, the second — by word, and third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for me. This means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 571)

Do we not have the same obligation?

We also have a responsibility before God to share the message of God’s Divine Mercy. Remember the promise of Jesus:

“I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory.”
(Dairy, Notebook I, para. 47, 48)

We are living in a time when our nation is under serious attack from evil forces.

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, I will hear from Heaven. I will restore the nation and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

I would like to suggest the following Prayer Strategies for Changing Our Church and Our World

Don’t hide the light of Christ. Jesus wants each of us to bring souls to Him and one day we will be held accountable for all the graces that He has poured out on us.

Thank and praise God for who He is and for the privilege of cooperating with Him in the exciting ministry of changing the world. That is why Jesus came as its Light. Then thank Him for what He’s already done in the nations.

Pray for an unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit in revival power to come upon God’s people.

Pray for God to unite the Body of Christ and family of man, Catholics with Protestants, Christians with Moslems, blacks with whites, young with the old, men with women, believers with unbelievers.

We need to humble ourselves before God and acknowledge that the body of Christ in our nation has sinned. We have allowed materialism, promiscuity, violence, and disobedience to overwhelm our land.

Try to attend daily Mass, pray the Rosary and make Eucharistic Holy Hours.

Pray for leaders that they may follow the inspirations of the Spirit.

Be willing to fast on Fridays.

Pray that terrorists may be brought to justice as swiftly as possible with a very minimum of violence.

Never allow hatred, bitterness or violence to permeate your heart. We are to overcome hatred with love and violence with forgiveness and peace.

Pray that the Word of God, once again, will be given its rightful place as the basis for the formation of just laws, and as the standard for moral values and behavior.

Unite to make this nation “a nation under God” once again.

Meditate upon Scripture and the New Catechism each day. They are God’s love letters to His people.

Teach our children that we need religion and morality to be the twin towers upon which this nation was built. Let them know that America has been under attack since 1962 when our Supreme Court took God away from our public schools; and since 1973 when our Supreme Court no longer upheld the God-given, self-evident, inalienable right to life of every American citizen, including the unborn.

Pray that God will change the movies, the music and the media that have been filling our minds and the minds of our children with so much violence, promiscuity and paganism.

Pray that God will send laborers into the fields to form apostolates and circles of prayer.

Ask God to stir spiritual leaders to teach people about the need to help the poor and needy.

Pray for great spiritual awakening to come upon the unconverted, motivating them to seek God.

Ask God to name the major principalities over the nations and cities and wage spiritual warfare as directed by the Holy Spirit.

Finish by praising God, declaring faith in His promise to restore our nation and heal our land.

Keep on persisting in intercession. Don’t let up. God will be faithful if we are faithful.

Reach out to your family, friends, and neighbors, with the message of God’s Divine Mercy.

Live the Catholic Life as an example to others.

The Eucharist is what sustained Sister Faustina, from the time of her first Holy Communion until she met her Bridegroom in heaven. Jesus told us that without eating His flesh and drinking His blood, we will not have life within us. This must be communicated to all non-Catholics around the world.