Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska was born Helena Kowalska on August 25, 1905 in Poland. Her family was poor but deeply religious. She was third of 10 children. As a youngster she had a love of prayer, work, obedience and a concern for the poor.
After having a vision of a Suffering Christ and with a desire for a religious vocation she departed immediately to Warsaw to become a nun. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on August 1, 1925. On April 30, 1926 at the age of 20, she received her habit and took the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.
During her stay in the convent, she had many extraordinary gifts, such as revelations, visions, bilocations and hidden stigmata: participating in the Passion of the Lord.
The Lord chose Sister Faustina as the Apostle and Secretary of His Mercy to share the urgent message of Divine Mercy with our troubled world. Father Michael Sopocko, her confessor and spiritual director, advised her to write these messages down in a diary and later at the command of the Lord Jesus Himself.
She faithfully wrote down all the Lord’s wishes and described the encounters between her soul and Him.
In 1931, St Faustina had a vision of Jesus. “I saw Jesus dressed in a white garment. He held one hand raised in blessing and with the other, He was touching the garment at the breast. From under the garment came two rays of light, one red, the other pale.” (symbolic meaning red for blood of Jesus: pale for the water which justifies souls. (Diary 299)
As she knelt, Our Lord spoke: “Paint a picture according to the vision you see and with the inscription: 'Jesus, I trust in You'. I desire that this picture be venerated first in your chapel and then throughout the whole world.”
In His revelation to St Faustina, our Lord asked for special prayer and meditation on His Passion each afternoon at the three o’clock hour, the hour that recalls His death on the Cross. We are to spread the message of Divine Mercy.
Consumed by tuberculosis, she offered her suffering for poor sinners. Sister Faustina died in Krakow at the age of 33 on October 5, 1938. Her mortal remains rest at the shrine of the Divine Mercy in Lagiewniki near Krakow.
On April 30, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Sister Faustina. It was the first Sunday after Easter—the very day that is to be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday, according to the merciful Savior’s revelations to Sister Faustina.
The Image of Jesus, the Divine Mercy, is to have a special place of honor on the Feast of Mercy, a visual reminder of all that Jesus did for us through His Passion, Death and Resurrection….and a reminder, too, of what He asks of us in return….. To Trust Him and be merciful to others
Devotion to the Divine Mercy involves a total commitment to God as Mercy. It is a decision to accept His mercy with thanksgiving, to trust completely in Him and to be merciful as He is merciful.
In His revelations to St Faustina, our Lord asked for special prayer and meditation on His Passion each afternoon at the three o'clock hour, the hour that recalls His death on the Cross.
During this Coronavirus pandemic, let us have HOPE and pray for our Lord's mercy.
Which one of these scriptural verses would you like to hear our Lord say about us?
1. "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (Isaiah 29:13).
2. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." (Matthew 5:7).
Jesus I trust in You.
