SAINTS & HEROES SPEAK

Blessed Faustina

Volume 4

Blessed Faustina

(August 25, 1905 - October 5, 1938)

Beatified on Mercy Sunday, April 18, 1993

Blessed Faustina was born on August 25, 1905 in the village of Glogowice, Poland and given the name Helen at baptism in the parish church of Swinice Warckie.

She lived but 33 years upon the earth but is already known as one of the great mystics of the Church. On occasion she has been considered comparable with, if not surpassing, even St. Teresa of Avila. This is perhaps because she is more contemporary, more easily understood and was instrumental in giving the world a much needed message for these times. Turning in trust to the Divine Mercy as contained in the Heart of Jesus--from which blood and water gushed forth as from a fount--is essential for times which have seen an almost total collapse of moral values and a spirit of atheism which would give us concentration camps, endless crimes against human life, drugs, and a crisis in the family.

PORTUGAL, POLAND AND MERCY

The "last vision" of Fatima (June 13, 1929) given Sr. Lucia of the Immaculate Heart concerned mercy associated with the Cross and the Holy Eucharist. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy), demonstrates God's mercy bestowed in these ways. The "last vision" reveals imagery representing the entire Blessed Trinity, the essential place of the Holy Eucharist in the life of the Church, the Immaculate Heart of Mary as mediatrix while Jesus is the essential Mediator, and has the words "Graces and Mercy" as of crystal clear water which ran from the Cross down over the altar.

When Sister Lucia was receiving the above revelation in Portugal, there lived in Poland at the same time a simple Polish nun, member of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy.

Through her God would make known His Gospel message concerning His merciful love for all mankind, and bestow new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy. This would be so that the world could rediscover ways of a religious rebirth. It is part of the program of the new evangelization of which Pope John Paul II speaks so often. He says that "the contemporary Church is profoundly conscious that only on the basis of the mercy of God will she be able to carry out the tasks that derive from the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and, in the first place, the ecumenical task which aims at uniting all those who confess Christ" (Marialis cultus 13). This second Encyclical to the world on the Mercy of God, was influenced no doubt by Blessed Faustina.

From the time Helen was seven years old she had heard in her soul the call to a religious vocation. Her parents, Stanislaus Kowalski and his wife Marianne, would not agree to her entrance into a convent. But her calling was clear. After seeing a vision of the suffering Christ, she entered the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on August 1, 1925. There she lived for 13 years known as Sister Faustina.

She stayed in a few community houses, the longest being in Cracow, Plock and Vilnus, where she worked as a cook, gardener and gate-keeper. Externally nothing revealed her unusually rich mystical life. While deeply concentrated, at the same time she appeared very natural, serene and full of kindly and unselfish love for all people.

The unusual graces given Blessed Faustina included visions, apparitions, hidden stigmata, the gift of prophesying and reading people's souls and the mystical espousal to our Lord. These gifts were directed to make known to her profoundly the secret of God's mercy.

Like Fatima, a message for the entire world, the Lord Jesus entrusted to Sr. Faustina a mission for all humanity: to make known again God's merciful love towards every human being; to pass on a new form of worship of God's mercy; and to inspire a movement of renewal in the spirit of evangelical trust in God and mercy for man.

When Helen Kowalska entered the Warsaw convent in 1925, she wrote in her Diary: "It seemed to me that I had stepped into the life of paradise. A single prayer was bursting forth from my heart, one of thanksgiving."

Still, Sr. Faustina faced temptations to look for another convent where she could find more time for prayer. Jesus appeared to her with His suffering face. "Who did this to you?" she asked. "It is you who will cause me this pain if you leave this convent. It's here I called you, and not elsewhere, and prepared many graces for you."

The religious community which Helen entered was engaged in the work of saving the souls of unfortunate girls and women, who of their own will wanted to change their lives for the better. At the time of taking the veil she received the name Sister Mary Faustina. On May 1, 1933, she made perpetual vows in Cracow. As the Bishop Stanislaus Rospond was placing the ring on her finger God pervaded her whole being. After final vows she experienced a more intimate relationship with God.

While being very recollected, silent, united with the Lord, she also succeeded in appearing natural, joyful, simple, prudent. Her fellow sisters saw her as outstanding in sensitivity, kind-heartedness and of great love for every soul.

As knowledge of the life and writings of Blessed Faustina become better known the world will be much richer in the knowledge of God's mercy.

Blessed Faustina will continue to work in the world as an Apostle of Mercy through her Diary. The Diary presents in an eloquent and convincing manner the infinity of the Divine Mercy.

The Diary, titled Divine Mercy in My Soul, encourages us to worship God and teaches forms of worship, and manifests divine interventions in answer to prayers of those who invoke Him. It teaches us a childlike and simple relationship to God. One who reads prayerfully Her diary discovers that union with God is possible for all of us at each moment. While living in the presence of God is a grace, that grace is obtainable through prayer and humble trust in God. The Diary encourages readers to live an intensive interior life. One also discovers practical ways to master the difficult art of love of one's neighbor.

YOU ARE TO SHOW MERCY ALWAYS

Jesus said to Blessed Faustina: "If, through you, I am demanding reverence for my mercy, you should be the first to distinguish yourself by this trust in my mercy. I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to flow from love for me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere; you cannot draw back from this, nor try to excuse or absolve yourself from it." Her calling was not only to make known the mercy of God to mankind but to practice mercy toward others herself.

She prayed: "O my Jesus, everyone of your saints reflects one of your virtues; I want to reflect your Heart, compassionate and full of mercy . . . Let your mercy, O Jesus, be impressed upon my heart and soul as a seal, and that will be my badge in this and the future life."

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a nun who scrubbed the floors of the convent, complained of her unworthiness to God who had called her to make known in the world devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Knowing she was uneducated and lowly, she asked our Lord to find someone more educated and of higher station. "I am so very lowly." Our Lord assured

her that He knew she was lowly. "If I could have found one more lowly than you I would have chosen that person for this mission.

In the 20th century God chose again for a world-wide mission a simple, uneducated but courageous religious, who put her boundless trust in God. She too was given a gigantic task: the mission to spread the message of mercy to the whole world. "I am sending you to all mankind with my mercy. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to my merciful Heart . . . You are the secretary of my mercy. I have chosen you for this office in this life and the next . . . that you may make known to souls the great mercy I have for them and encourage them to place their trust in the bottomless depths of my mercy.

The mercy of God is revealed in the Gospels, of course, but too often forgotten. It was Blessed Faustina's mission to stimulate faith in people regarding God's merciful love, while transmitting new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy, the practice of which is to lead to the rebirth of religious life in the spirit of Christian trust and mercy.

CONDITION ON DIVINE MERCY

Our Divine Lord Jesus attached promises to those who are devoted to the Divine Mercy but there was a condition to this. The condition of trust in the goodness of God and of mercy towards neighbor "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." This was reaffirmed in a vision Sr. Faustina had on February 22, 1931.

"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; my soul was struck with awe but also with great joy. 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 want this image to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter: that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy.' "

The image is related to the divine liturgy of the first Sunday after Easter. It contains the Gospel of St. John 20:19-29 where the Risen Jesus appears in the Cenacle on the first Easter Sunday and institutes the Sacrament of Mercy (Reconciliation, or as commonly known, "Confession"). The image represents Jesus bringing people peace through the remission of sins in the Sacrament He instituted on the evening of the day He rose from the dead.

Jesus had redeemed mankind at the price of His Passion and His death on the Cross. Now that the forgiveness of sins had been merited by His supreme Sacrifice of the Cross, Jesus would institute as His first act for His Church upon resurrection, the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance. Notice that the gesture of Jesus' raised hand is symbolic not simply of a blessing but more. The gesture of the raised hand reminds us of the priest as he grants absolution from sin in the Person of Jesus Christ whenever we make a good confession. "I absolve you from your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

EXPLANATION OF THE RAYS

The rays--reminders of the Blood and Water flowing from the lance-pierced Heart, and the scars from the wounds of the crucifixion in the hands and feet, all this recalls the events of Good Friday (John 19:17-18, 33-37). The image is in fact a summary of the Gospel of our redemption and the powers of the Church's sacraments which take away sin and bestow grace to the soul.

Jesus explained the two rays emanating from the area of the Heart, while the Heart is not seen, in this way:

"The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous; the red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls . . . Happy is the one, who will dwell in their shelter."

The two sacraments of Baptism and Penance cleanse the soul of sin while the Holy Eucharist nourishes the soul with great divine life which is sanctifying grace. The rays are a sign of the holy sacraments and the graces of the Holy Spirit, the biblical symbol of which is water, and the new covenant of God with humanity, which was sealed with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

The image then represents not only the Divine Mercy, but it has the role of a sign - to call to mind the duty of Christian trust toward God and operative love toward neighbor. Jesus specified that there must be the words together with the image: Jesus, I trust in You.

The promises attached to veneration of the image--understood as including Christian trust and mercy--are eternal salvation, great progress on the way to sanctity, the grace of a happy death, and whatever other graces people will ask of Him. "By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls; so let every soul have access to it."

Many attempts have been made by artists to paint the image as described by Blessed Faustina who cried when she saw the first attempt. "Who will paint You as beautiful as You are?" she asked Jesus. He answered: "Not in the beauty of the colors nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in my grace.

In Alexandria, South Dakota where is mid-America's Fatima Family Shrine, in the parish church under the patronage of St. Mary of Mercy, there is a life-size painting of the Divine Mercy, painted by the artist, Craig Michael Gallagher of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It was solemnly blessed on April 18, 1993, the Sunday after Easter and the very day that Sister Faustina was beatified in Rome by Pope John Paul II.

Our Lord first spoke about the institution of the Feast of Mercy in 1931 with regard to the realization of the image. "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."

GREATNESS OF FEAST OF MERCY

Jesus said: "I desire that this Feast be a refuge and a shelter for all souls, but especially for poor sinners.. .. Souls are being lost in spite of my bitter passion. I am giving them the last hope of salvation, that is, recourse to my Mercy. If they will not glorify my Mercy, they will be eternally lost."

The greatness of the feast is seen in the unusual promises which Jesus attached to it. He said: "Whatever soul will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion [for the Feast of Mercy] will obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day are open all the divine floodgates, through which graces flow. Let no soul fear to draw near to me, even though its sins be as scarlet."

To receive the great gifts there must be fulfilled the conditions of the Devotion to the Divine Mercy: 1. trust in God's goodness; 2. active love of neighbor; 3. the state of grace following holy confession; 4. worthy reception of Holy Communion on that Sunday.

Jesus said: "No soul will be justified until it turns with trust to my mercy, and this is why the first Sunday after Easter is to be the Feast of Mercy On that day priests are to tell everyone about my great and unfathomable mercy.

The first Sunday after Easter chosen as the Feast of Mercy points to the connection which exists between the paschal mystery of the Redemption and the mystery of Divine Mercy The connection is underscored further by the novena of Chaplets to the Divine Mercy that is to precede the Feast, and which begins on Good Friday.

Pope John Paul II, ever-consciousness of the power of turning to the Divine Mercy through our Mother of Mercy, in the Act--with the worlds' bishops--of the Collegial Consecration (or Entrusting of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary) on March 25, 1984, concludes with the words,

"Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin and the 'sin of the world,' sin in all its manifestations.

"Let there be revealed, once more in the history of the world, the infinite saving power of the redemption: the power of merciful Love! May it put a stop to evil! May it transform consciences! May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope!"

His recent encyclical on morality, Veritatis Splendor (Splendor of Truth) concludes with an instruction on and prayer to Mary, Mother of Mercy (see page 31). An age that has lost the very sense of sin would not invoke the mercy of God. Mary, Mother of Mercy then leads all her children to the Divine Mercy developing in them consciousness of sin and conversion from it.

Jesus told Sister Faustina who feared writing too much on the mercy of God: "My daughter, even if you were to speak at one and the same time in all human and angelic tongues, even then you would not have said very much, but on the contrary, you would have sung in only a small measure the praises of my goodness, of my unfathomable mercy . . . You are the secretary of my mercy. I have chosen you for that office in this life and the next life. That is how I want it to be in spite of all the opposition they will give you. Know that my choice will not change."

The mission which was given Sister Faustina to make known to souls throughout the whole world the great mercy of God is well grounded in the Sacred Scriptures and in the documents of the Church.

CHAPLET OF THE DIVINE MERCY & SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

Blessed Faustina had a vision of an angel which came to punish the world. She became terrified at this sign of divine anger She pleaded with the angel to hold off for a while so the world could repent. Then she beheld the Most Holy Trinity She did not dare to repeat her plea. Becoming conscious of the power of Jesus' grace in her soul, Blessed Faustina began to plead with God for the world, using the words she heard within her As she prayed thus she witnessed the angel of wrath being helpless to inflict punishment. The

Angel was not then able to mete out the just punishment for sins which the world deserved.

The following day as Blessed Faustina entered the chapel, the Lord Jesus taught her again how to recite the powerful prayer It was the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy prayed on one's rosary beads.

Our Lord Jesus taught the humble nun this form of prayer in Vilnius on September 13-14, 1935. It would be a means to obtain God's pardon and thus turn the divine wrath from the sinner Jesus attached to praying the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy special promises at the hour of death: grace of conversion and of peaceful passing to the next life. These promises can be obtained not only by persons praying this chaplet, but also by those who are dying when others nearby are praying the chaplet for them.

Jesus taught that everything can be obtained by praying the chaplet of mercy "It pleases me to grant everything [asked] of me by saying this chaplet provided that what they ask is in accord with my will . . . Priests will be recommending [the chaplet] to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Were there a sinner most hardened, should he recite this chaplet only once, he will receive grace from my infinite mercy"

In Poland Christmas is celebrated for two days, December 25th and December 26th. Both are kept as Holy Days of Obligation. In 1936 on the second day of the Feast, Sister Faustina went to confession and was given as penance the saying of the chaplet Jesus had taught her. In her Diary (848) she writes, "while I was saying the chaplet, I heard a voice which said, 'Oh! what great graces I will grant to souls who say this chaplet; the very depths of my tender mercy are stirred for the sake of those who say the chaplet. Write down these words, my daughter Speak to the world about my mercy; let all mankind recognize my unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of justice. while there is still time, let them have recourse to the font of my mercy; let them profit from the Blood and Water which gushed forth for them.'

"O human souls, where are you going to hide on the day of God's anger? Take refuge now in the font of God's mercy. O what a great multitude

of souls! They worship the Divine Mercy and will be singing the hymn of praise for all eternity."

Our Lord instructed Blessed Faustina to honor the hour of His death: "As often as you hear the clock strike the third hour, immerse yourself completely in my mercy, adoring and glorifying it. Invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners, for at that moment mercy was opened wide for every soul."

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the hour of great Mercy, prayer is to appeal to the value and the merits of Jesus' sorrowful Passion. "In this hour I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of me in virtue of my passion.... In this hour you can obtain everything for yourself and for others, for the asking; it was the hour of grace for the whole world:

mercy triumphed over justice."

PROCLAIMING THE DIVINE MERCY

Jesus gave a special promise for those who spread the message of Divine Mercy and devotion for it. "Through their entire life I shield souls, who spread the honor of my mercy, as a tender mother does to her infant; and at the hour of death I will not be a judge for them, but the merciful Savior.

"Priests can be encouraged in spreading knowledge of the Divine Mercy . . . Hardened sinners will crumble beneath their words, when they will speak about my unfathomable mercy, about the compassion I have for them in my Heart." The essence of devotion to the Divine Mercy requires trust in God and becoming ever more merciful to others oneself. The person must trust and practice works of mercy by deed, word and prayer.

Some may be confused in reading the Diary by the repeated requests of our Lord that Sister Faustina found "a new congregation." She herself thought at times of leaving the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy - a community she dearly loved and where our Lord in fact wanted her in order to accomplish this. The call of Jesus in this regard matured gradually in the holy nun's thinking. It evolved to a movement made up of active congregations of men and women as well as of lay people.

What has been developing is a supra-national community of people making up one family, joined by God in the mystery of His mercy. It is characterized by the desire to have imprinted upon their hearts and works the divine attribute of mercy and God's glory in all souls. This forms a community of people of various states of life who live by the gospel ideal of trust and mercy. The very lives of such people proclaim by deed and word the incomprehensible mystery of divine mercy. Thus they obtain through example and prayer Divine Mercy for the world.

SUFFERING IS A GRACE

A world bent on self-fulfillment with every kind of pleasure devoid of morality is greatly in need to discover the fullness of life with God where is to be found true happiness and peace. Suffering is not a curse but an opportunity. Union with God always is through the Cross. Suffering purifies the soul and makes it possible to have an ever greater share in divine life which is grace. This permits the soul to participate in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Early in life Helen Kowalska gradually learned to permit trials to be supernaturalized in her. It developed to maturity in the convent. "In the midst of trials I will strive to perceive the loving hand of God." She said "If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering . . . The more our love becomes pure, the less there will be in us for the fire of suffering to consume, and suffering will cease to be suffering for us: it will become a delight . . . By the grace of God, I now obtained this disposition of heart: that I am never so happy as then, when I am suffering for Jesus."

After the first year of the novitiate in the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy she experienced the "dark night" of the soul, unusual painful mystical trials. She later experienced spiritual and moral sufferings

associated with the realization of her mission which the Lord had given her. There is suffering of the soul as well as the body. Jesus said before they laid a hand on Him, "My soul is sorrowful even unto death."

SUFFERING FOR ABORTED BABIES

It happened on September 16, 1937 that Blessed Faustina wanted very much to make a Holy Hour before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. God had something else in mind. At eight o'clock she was seized with such violent pains that she had to go to bed at once. She was convulsed with pain for three hours until eleven o'clock at night. No medicine had any effect on her. Whatever she swallowed she threw up. At times, the pain caused her to lose consciousness.

Jesus gave her to realize that in this way she took part in His agony in the garden. Jesus allowed these sufferings in order to offer reparation to God for the souls of babies murdered in the wombs of wicked mothers. She went through these sufferings various times. They always started at eight o'clock in the evening and lasted until eleven. No medicine had any effect on her. When eleven o'clock came, the sufferings ceased by themselves and she would fall asleep. The next day she would be very weak because of the sufferings.

Blessed Faustina considered it a great grace to suffer for and with Jesus, yet the thought of the suffering for aborted babies caused her to tremble. The doctors could find absolutely no cause for the suffering of this kind. When she realized why the Lord Himself was causing the sufferings she wrote: "What it pleases God to send I will accept with submission and love. If only I could save even one soul [body of an unborn infant] from murder by means of these sufferings. On the day after these sufferings, I can sense the condition of souls and their disposition towards God; I am pervaded with true knowledge."

Jesus invited her to offer herself for the salvation of souls. "I need your sufferings to save souls; know that your silent martyrdom in complete

surrender to my will ushers many souls into heaven; and when it seems to you, that the suffering is surpassing your strength, look into my wounds.... The consideration of my passion will help you to rise above everything." In 1934 on Holy Thursday Blessed Faustina offered herself for sinners though an Act of Oblation after which she experienced many sufferings so that by this means she could help save souls.

In addition to sufferings of the spirit this Apostle of Divine Mercy suffered in body. Consumed by tuberculosis and consumption of the alimentary canal and by other sufferings which she accepted as a voluntary sacrifice for sins, she died in Cracow on October 5, 1938. She was 33 years old. Blessed Faustina is remembered especially with the picture of Jesus' mercy signed with the words, Jesus, I trust in You.

THE CHAPLET OF MERCY AND THE MASS

Praying the Divine Chaplet is a powerful way to address God the Father through our one essential Mediator and Savior, Jesus Christ. In praying the Chaplet our thoughts are turned to God the eternal Father. We approach the Father, offering Him the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of His dearly beloved Son, who is our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of the world.

What is offered in one's prayerful intention in praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is exactly what the Mass is. But in the Mass through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist the very Person of Jesus Christ acts. The prayers of the Mass are addressed to the Father. In every Mass the Sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated. The same Sacrifice of Calvary is offered here and now in the Eucharistic celebration.

The Sacrifice of the Mass is a Gift-exchange. We offer God the Father a Gift in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. The Gift offered is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ substantially the same as sacrificed on the Cross. Jesus is thus substantially made present on the altar as the Sacrifice is perpetuated. The Father accepts our Gift and offers us a return-Gift. The Gift returned is the real presence of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of His dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. We should be

conscious of this reality at each and every holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In this we participate consciously in the reality of the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Praying the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy can prepare us spiritually for the reality of the Mass. In fact, since the Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered at every moment of the day or night some place in the world, as we pray on our rosary beads to the eternal Father the chaplet, offering Him the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world, we can know that this is happening sacramentally in the world at the same time.

It was prophesied in the last book of the Old Testament before the coming of Jesus Christ: "From the rising of the sun even to its setting, my name is great among the nations; and everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering" (Malachi 1:11). The chosen people had made a sorry return for divine love. The author criticizes abuses and religious indifference in the community and prepared the way for necessary reforms. The writer of the book of Malachi foresees the time when all nations will offer a pure oblation (1:11) - a prophecy whose fulfillment the Church sees in the Sacrifice of the Mass wherein Jesus' Sacrifice of the Cross is perpetually offered.

Renewed devotion to the divine mercy through the practical means of praying the chaplet as taught to Blessed Faustina will do much to renew our spiritual lives today and draw us to a proper celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass.

DIVINE MERCY AND HOLY COMMUNION

Each one who receives Holy Communion in the Catholic Church receives the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This Sacrament gives us an increase in sanctifying grace which is a sharing in the life of God, entitling us to a higher and happier place in heaven for all eternity. Yet, the amount of grace received from the same Sacrament

varies according to the disposition of our heart. We should approach the altar with great faith and love in our hearts.

Sister Faustina tells us (Diary 1407) that one day when she was receiving Holy Communion she noticed in the ciborium a Living Host which the priest gave to her. Returning