St. Faustina Kowlaska and Divine Mercy
Who Is St. Faustina? St. Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938 ) was a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. On September 13, 1935, Jesus revealed himself to her in a vision. Her feast day is on October fifth. Born as the third of ten children of a family of poor Polish peasants on August 25, 1905, Helena Kowalska felt the call to religious life from an early age. She lacked her mother’s permission and spent some time working as a housekeeper in order to provide her family financial support. At age nineteen she went with her sister to a dance at a local park and had a vision of the Suffering Jesus who spoke these words to her: “How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting me off.” Helena made arrangements immediately to leave by train for Warsaw, eighty-five miles from her home. There she went into the first Catholic Church she saw and asked a priest for advice on which convent she might enter. Only the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy accepted Helena, provided that she first earned enough money to pay for her religious habit. Taking the name Sr. Maria Faustina, her life as a religious would have been ordinary except for Jesus’ choice of her to be his “Apostle of Mercy.” She recorded Christ’s words in her diary, which she titled Divine Mercy in My Soul: “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 desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart.”[1] Sr. Faustina also wrote that Jesus told her to paint an image according to the pattern revealed in a vision to her, with the words “Jesus, I trust in You.” She was not an artist, and three sisters in the convent refused to help her draw. In 1934, her spiritual director, Fr. Michael Sopoćko, introduced her to artist Eugene Kazimierowski, who painted the image of Jesus and Divine Mercy as she described it to him. Fr. Sopoćko had Sr. Faustina evaluated by a psychiatrist who was associated with the convent to gauge her mental health. She was declared mentally sound, and Sopoćko fully trusted her visions. On September 13, 1935, Sr. Faustina wrote about a vision of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Jesus also revealed to Sr. Faustina mystical visions of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. These, too, are recorded in diary entries.[2] For example: On Heaven I saw its unconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great is happiness in God, which spreads to all creatures, making them happy; and then all the glory and praise which springs from this happiness returns to its source; and they enter into the depths of God, contemplating the inner life of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom they will never comprehend or fathom. This source of happiness is unchanging in its essence, but it is always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures. On Hell Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a great place of torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is. The kinds of torture I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it, a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is conditional darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses, and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are tortures designed for particular souls. These are torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. On Purgatory I saw my Guardian Angel, who ordered me to follow him. In a moment I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames, which were burning them, did not touch me at all. My Guardian Angel did not leave me for an instant. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God. I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls called Her “The Star of the Sea.” She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my Guardian Angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. [I heard an interior voice which said] “My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it.” Since that time, I am in closer communion with the suffering souls. St. Faustina died from complications of tuberculosis on October 5, 1938. She was only thirty-three years old. When a sister asked St. Faustina if she was afraid of death, she replied, “Why should I be? All my sins and imperfections will be consumed like straw in the fire of Divine Mercy.” The Chaplet of Divine Mercy The Chaplet of Divine Mercy was revealed to Sr. Faustina Kowalska comes from a vision of Jesus in which he told her to offer to God the Father the gift of his Body and Blood as a way to appease God’s wrath, specifically over a “most beautiful” Polish city which had fallen into sin. Jesus told Sr. Faustina to “unite yourself closely to me during the sacrifice of Mass and to offer my Blood and my wounds to my Father in expiation for the sins of that city.” Sr. Faustina prayed the following words, given to her by Christ: “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; for the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us.” This prayer remains central to the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, today prayed on the beads of a rosary. Sr. Faustina was questioned by her spiritual director, Fr. Michael Sopoćko, about the visions, and he recorded her response. When the Chaplet was printed on a holy card of Sr. Faustina after her death, Catholics around the world began to pray it for the benefits promised by Christ, specifically that everyone who recites it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Sr. Faustina had written these words of Jesus in her journal: “When they say this Chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand before my Father and the dying not as the just judge but the Merciful Savior.” Sr. Faustina also prayed in her own words to Jesus, “to be mindful of Your own bitter Passion and do not permit the loss of souls redeemed at so dear a price of Your most precious Blood. O Jesus, when I consider the great price of Your Blood, I rejoice at its immensity, for one drop alone would have been enough for the salvation of all sinners.” Pope John Paul II, the first Polish pope, opened an investigation into the life of Sr. Faustina in 1965 while he was the archbishop of Krakow. Pope John Paul II would eventually beatify Sr. Faustina in 1993 and canonize her in 2000. He also established the Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. Praying the Chaplet on the nine days before this Feast of Divine Mercy brings, in the words of Jesus to St. Faustina, “every possible grace to souls.” How to Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet You can use Rosary beads or special Divine Mercy Chaplet beads to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Opening 1. Make the Sign of the Cross 2. Pray an Optional Opening Prayer St. Faustina’s Prayer for Sinners O Jesus, eternal Truth, our Life, I call upon you and I beg your mercy for poor sinners. O sweetest Heart of my Lord, full of pity and unfathomable mercy, I plead with you for poor sinners. O Most Sacred Heart, Fount of Mercy from which gush forth rays of inconceivable graces upon the entire human race, I beg of you light for poor sinners. O Jesus, be mindful of your own bitter Passion and do not permit the loss of souls redeemed at so dear a price of your most precious Blood. O Jesus, when I consider the great price of your Blood, I rejoice at its immensity, for one drop alone would have been enough for the salvation of all sinners. Although sin is an abyss of wickedness and ingratitude, the price paid for us can never be equaled. Therefore, let every soul trust in the Passion of the Lord, and place its hope in his mercy. God will not deny his mercy to anyone. Heaven and earth may change, but God's mercy will never be exhausted. Oh, what immense joy burns in my heart when I contemplate your incomprehensible goodness, O Jesus! I desire to bring all sinners to your feet that they may glorify your mercy throughout endless ages (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 72). You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you! (Repeat three times.) 3. Pray the Our Father 4. Pray the Hail Mary 5. Pray the Apostles’ Creed Body 6. On a large bead pray the Eternal Father 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. 7. On the ten small beads of each decade say: For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. (Repeat for the remaining four decades.) Concluding Prayer 8. Pray the Holy God Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world. (Repeat three times.) 9. Pray the Closing Prayers Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. O Greatly Merciful God, Infinite Goodness, today all mankind calls out from the abyss of its misery to your mercy—to your compassion, O God; and it is with its mighty voice of misery that it cries out. Gracious God, do not reject the prayer of this earth's exiles! O Lord, Goodness beyond our understanding, who are acquainted with our misery through and through, and know that by our own power we cannot ascend to you, we implore you: anticipate us with your grace and keep on increasing your mercy in us, that we may faithfully do your holy will all through our life and at death's hour. Let the omnipotence of your mercy shield us from the darts of our salvation’s enemies, that we may with confidence, as your children, await your [Son’s] final coming—that day known to you alone. And we expect to obtain everything promised us by Jesus in spite of all our wretchedness. For Jesus is our Hope: through his merciful Heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to heaven (Diary, 1570). [1] St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, 1588. [2] The following three quotations are taken from St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, entries 777, 741, and 20, respectively.
