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October 5

St. Mary Faustina Kowalska

Life (1905-1938)

Sister Faustina was born on August 25, 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland of a poor and religious family of peasants, the third of 10 children. She was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of Swinice Warckie. From a very tender age she stood out because of her love of prayer, work, obedience, and also her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of seven she had already felt the first stirrings of a religious vocation. Helen made her first Holy Communion at the age of nine, which was very profound moment in her awareness of the presence of the Divine Guest within her soul. She attended school for only three semesters. After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent, but her parents would not give her permission. Being of age at 16, Helen left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów, Lodi, and Ostrówek in order to find the means of supporting herself and of helping her parents. Helen never lost her desire for a religious vocation. After being called during a vision of the Suffering Christ, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on August 1, 1925, and took the name Sr. Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years in several religious houses. She spent time at Krakow, Plock and Vilnius, where she worked as a cook, gardener, and porter.

Externally nothing revealed her rich mystical interior life. She zealously performed her tasks and faithfully observed the rule of religious life. She was recollected and at the same time very natural, serene, and full of kindness and disinterested love for her neighbor. Although her life was apparently insignificant, monotonous and dull, she hid within herself an extraordinary union with God. It is the mystery of the Mercy of God which she contemplated in the word of God as well as in the everyday activities of her life that forms the basis of her spirituality. The process of contemplating and getting to know the mystery of God's mercy helped develop within Sr. Maria Faustina the attitude of child-like trust in God as well as mercy toward her neighbors.

Sister Faustina was a faithful daughter of the Church which she loved like a Mother and the Mystical 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 Lord Jesus chose Sr. Maria Faustina as the Apostle and "Secretary" of His Mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message, which Sr. Faustina recorded in a diary she titled Divine Mercy in My Soul. In the Old Covenant He said to her: "I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart." (Diary, 1588). In an extraordinary way, Sr. Maria 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 more than 20 languages, including, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Castilian, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Ukrainian, Dutch and Japanese.

Sister Maria Faustina, consumed by tuberculosis and by innumerable sufferings which she accepted as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, died in Krakow at the age of just 33 on October 5, 1938, with a reputation for spiritual maturity and a mystical union with God. The reputation of the holiness of her life grew as did the cult to the Divine Mercy and the graces she obtained from God through her intercession. In the years 1965-67, the Investigative Process into her life and heroic virtues was undertaken in Krakow and in the year 1968, the Beatification Process was initiated in Rome. The latter came to an end in December 1992. On April 18, 1993 our Holy Father, John Paul II raised St. Faustina to the glory of the altars. She was canonized on April 30, 2000.

Source: https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/stfaustina/bio

Scripture. Ephesians 3:14-19

I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name: Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.

Writings

(Year A). + When pain overwhelms my soul, And the horizon darkens like night, And the heart is torn with the torment of suffering, Jesus Crucified, You are my strength. When the soul, dimmed with pain, Exerts itself in battle without respite, And the heart is in agony and torment, Jesus Crucified, You are the hope of my salvation. And so the days pass, As the soul bathes in a sea of bitterness, And the heart dissolves in tears, Jesus Crucified, you shine for me like the dawn. And when the cup of bitterness brims over, And all things conspire against her, And the soul goes down to the Garden of Olives, Jesus Crucified, in You is my defense. When the soul, conscious of its innocence, Accepts these dispensations from God, The heart can then repay hurts with love. Jesus Crucified, transform my weakness into omnipotence. With longing I gaze into the starlit sky, Into the sapphire of fathomless firmaments. There the pure heart leaps out to find You, O God, And yearns to be freed of the bonds of the flesh. With great longing, I gaze upon you, my homeland, When will this, my exile, come to an end? O Jesus, such is the call of Your bride Who suffers agony in her thirst for You. With longing, I gaze at the footprints of the saints Who crossed this wilderness on their way to the fatherland. They left me the example of their virtue and their counsels, And they say to me, “Patience, Sister, soon the fetters will break.” But my longing soul hears not these words. Ardently it yearns for its Lord and its God, And it understands not human language, Because it is enamored of Him alone. My longing soul, wounded with love, Forces its way through all created things (49) And unites itself with infinite eternity, With the Lord whom my heart has espoused. Allow my longing soul, O God, To be drowned in your Divine Three-fold Essence. Fulfill my desires, for which I humbly beg You, With a heart brimming with love‟s fire. (Diary)

Musical Selection

Collect

O God, who in a wondrous manner revealed the inexhaustible riches of your mercy in Saint Maria Faustina,

grant, we beseech you, that by looking with trust upon the pierced side of your Son

we may be strengthened to show mercy one to another

and, at length, sing forever of your mercy in heaven.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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