Memorial of Saint Faustina Kowalska, Virgin
Saint Faustina - Secretary in Love
Written in secret, today known all over the world - the Diary is more than a record of the romantic love of Jesus and the Saint; the message of Divine Mercy is also a "lifeline" for people and in some sense - for God.
The Soul and Body of a Nun
It is worth getting acquainted with St. Faustina,with the Diary in one hand, and the biography of the Saint in the other. Thanks to this, we receive both the "soul" and "body" of the nun, which is more valuable because the chronology of events was not preserved in the Diary. This way allows us to compare her internal experiences with biographical data, so that we are able to follow her path towards holiness against the background of what is externally tangible: the time and places where she has been. With such precision that the climax - the mystical wedding - we can pinpoint to the hour - Good Friday, March 26, 1937, eleven o'clock (Diary 1055 – 1064).
This combination - invisible to many, the rich world of internal experiences with events and external places - is all the more shocking because we are dealing with a person almost contemporary to us: this is not a legendary description from ancient times, Saint Faustinadid not fall from the sky, but is from the earth, and is Polish. Perhaps also today, on the streets of our cities, there is someone who follows the Lord to the highest peaks of union with Him, and we pass by without realizing it; or maybe - hopefully! - it is the other way around: passers-by would be amazed if the secrets of our souls were revealed to them. Unless we were indicted by today's Ludwig Feuerbach epigons for whom God is the projection of man.
But believers are also reluctant to accept the truth of private revelations, as if God remained locked - and therefore safe, almost dead, "tamed" - in public revelations. Faustina was also seen as a hysterical and fanatic, and although she herself, too sensible and pragmatic, knew that she did not succumb to hallucinations, she nevertheless asked: “Jesus, are You my God or some kind of phantom? Because my Superiors say that there are all sorts of illusions and phantoms” (Diary 54). And even - on the advice of the alleged angel, as we know from the information of Fr. Sopoćko - she burned the first version of her memories. It took almost half a century for the revelations given to the Secretary of Divine Mercy (or rather to us through her) to be recognized by the Church.
A Democratic Saint
Faustina is one of the greatest mystics, whose experience can be juxtaposed - to see complementarity on the one hand, and on the other hand, differences in communicating supernatural testimony - with, for example, St. John of the Cross. Thanks to the education that he received, he was able to translate his experience into philosophical and theological language, while paradoxically, Faustina, the saint-simpleton seems to be more credible to her contemporaries in the sense that she neither received education (three grades of primary school!), nor did she know the theory of mysticism, so everything, what she wrote down, she based only on her own experiences and its interpretation by spiritual directors. And yet the theologians of spirituality do not doubt that it is the same path: Faustina and John of the Cross: from the night of the senses and the soul, through the spiritual engagement, to the spiritual marriage, that is, the deifying union of the soul with God: "our hearts are fused as one" (Diary 1024).
At the same time, what is worth emphasizing, Faustina seems more "democratic" like God who does not reserve access to himself to the privileged caste. Not everyone will reach for the author of The Way to Mount Carmel, but everyone will benefit from the Diary, both simple and those with professors' titles (if only they remained God's simpletons). In the Diary they learn that the path to deification - during which God is so closely united with man that, although the man does not cease to be a creature, but could become "like God" - is the union of the human will with the Divine. But let us give the floor to the author of one of the most widely read books in the world, who felt that she was transformed into Him, according with the prayers for deification that she prayed to Him. She saw the path to the greatest possible closeness of creation to the Creator not in revelations or gifts, but in love and the resulting obedience to God's will: 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. God never violates our free will. It is up to us whether we want to receive God’s grace or not. It is up to us whether we will cooperate with it or waste it. (Diary 1107)
Faustina the Bride
The reading of private revelations must also be accompanied by the awareness that they are not forced upon the visionary, but rather the fruit of divine-human cooperation. Pope Benedict XVI, as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
emphasized that the visions are never "ordinary" photographs "of extraterrestrial reality, but also express the possibilities and limitations of the perceiving subject", they are therefore "a synthesis of the stimulus coming from High and the possibilities that the perceiving subject has," or, in other words, "the subject participates to a significant extent in shaping the image of what appears to him."
This does not diminish their truthfulness. Paradoxically, the credibility of the revelation understood in this way may even increase, which can be seen as the "incarnation" of the supernatural into the world of a given person and their sensitivity. It is worth observing from this perspective the touching romance in the relationship between Jesus the Bridegroom and his bride, affectionately called by him "my Faustina".
Sister Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament can stop her work to go to the chapel and ask Jesus about what to do with the cow so that the meat does not spoil; in turn, the Beloved turns the potatoes in a pot too heavy into roses for his beloved (Diary 65). He calls her the delight of his heart, delights in the smallest of her deeds, and above all in her heart, which he calls his heaven; in turn, he wants to fulfill her every request; even though he would like to – oh, the wisdom and humility of God! - show justice, her trust prevents him from doing so (one of the theological mysteries-pearls: "For your sake I will withhold the hand which punishes; for your sake I bless the earth." - Diary 431).
It was for her that he created a beautiful world, which she learned about meeting Him on the shores of the lake, while during another tête-à-tête the Devotee proposed to create a new world for her, even more beautiful; in love with her, he enjoys her love, which is so nice to him, " the fragrance of a rosebud at morningtide, before the sun has taken the dew from it" (Diary 1546). He connects with her as closely as with any other creature, and as befits a man in love, he is jealous of her: when she chooses something that he does not like, he, as he himself says, takes her heart to stay with him; when she brings flowers to someone for whom her heart is too attached, He reproaches her.
He proposes to her: "I want you to be My Spouse” (Diary 912), but then later He will remind her to whom she swore love. The idyllic picture painted in the previous paragraph must therefore be complemented with the trait of participation in the suffering of the Crucified; the bride will not abandon her Bridegroom, from whom she will hear: " I have been waiting to share My suffering with you, for who can understand My suffering better than My spouse?" (Diary 348). She will experienced dying in soul and in body; and perhaps the most shocking and "spectacular" is the contrast between the "otherworldly" being intimately associated with the Lord.
King of Mercy, no indulgence
The election of John Paul II was a turning point in the history of the development of the to devotion the Divine Mercy, whose apostle, in accordance with the will of Merciful Jesus, was a simple sister. The mission of St. Faustina continues after her death and will, of course, continue as long as people need the "rescue" of mercy; and therefore - to the end of the world, that is, in the language of the Diary, before the Just Judge comes.
For contemporaries who are so easily confused with concepts, it can be a shock, so it is worth emphasizing what should be obvious: mercy does not equal indulgence. The appearing Jesus dictated to his assistant: “If they will not adore My mercy, they will perish for all eternity. Secretary of My mercy, write, tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near. "(Diary 965). Therefore, it is better to meet the King of Mercy, either in a private room or in a sanctuary in Christ the King in Hollywood, where the image of Merciful Jesus is located. The more that, according to Jesus' words, it was precisely Faustina who was chosen to prepare the world for His final coming. We will live, we will see, or: we will die and we will see the Lord; one of the other.
A short biography of St. Faustina Kowalska
Maria Faustina Kowalska (born Helena Kowalska) was born on August 25, 1905 in the village of Głogowiec as the third of ten children. Her parents were farmers - Stanisław Kowalski and Marianna. Two days later she was baptized by the parish priest, Fr. Józef Chodyński in the parish of St. Casimir in Świnice Warckie and received the name Helena.
At the age of 7, little Helena heard a voice in her soul calling her to a more perfect life for the first time. She made her first communion at the age of 9. At the age of 12, she began attending primary school in Świnice and attended there for less than three years, then at the age of 16 she went to work for wealthy families in Aleksandrów Łódzki. After a year of working in Aleksandrów, Helena returned to her family home and announced that she is going to the convent, but her parents strongly opposed it.
At the age of 17, in order to continue helping her parents, she found a job in a shop. At the age of 19, she had a vision of a martyred Jesus who ordered her to enter the convent. She went to Warsaw to look for a place in the convent, but she was ordered to work for a dowry. Therefore, she worked for a year as a domestic help and on August 1, 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw.
In the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, she spent 13 years of her life working in the kitchen, garden, bakery and at the gate. During that time, she stayed in many houses, Warsaw, Płock, Vilnius and the longest in Kraków. At that time, she experienced a lot of suffering, dryness, temptation, and in addition she suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. She endured much suffering as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, but her life was rich not only in thorns, but also in many extraordinary graces such as revelations, ecstasies, the gift of bilocation, hidden stigmas, reading human souls, mystical engagements and weddings.
Sister Faustina's task was to convey to the whole world the message of Mercy, which resembles the biblical truth about God's merciful love for man, calls to entrust to Him and to love others. Through Sister Faustina, Jesus passed on new forms of worship: the image signed with the words Jesus, I trust in You, the Feast of Mercy, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the prayer performed at the time of His death on the cross, which is called the Hour of Mercy. To each of these forms of worship and to the proclamation of the message of Mercy, Jesus attached great promises on the condition of simultaneously trust in God and rendering mercy to others. Sister Faustina died at the age of 33 on October 5, 1938 in the convent in Kraków-Łagiewniki. Sister Faustina's mission is continued by the Apostolic Movement of Divine Mercy, which proclaims the message of Mercy to the world through the testimony of life, deeds, words and prayers. On April 18, 1993, Saint John Paul II raised her to the glory of the altars, and on April 30, 2000, she was included among the saints of the Church. Sister Faustina's relics are in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george