On the 30th of April,
2000, Pope John Paul II canonized a fellow Pole who brought a message of mercy
to the world. Sr. Faustina Kowalska was
a Sister of Mercy in Krakow who had found her way to the convent after many
years of seeking permission to become a sister.
Faustina lived with her
family in Lodz and at the age of 7, Faustina felt, while in prayer before the
Blessed Sacrament, she was called to be a nun.
When she finished school at the age of 16 she asked her parents if they
would allow her to join the convent but they refused. Faustina went to work as a house cleaner to
support her family. At 19, she had her
first vision of Jesus as the suffering servant while she was at a dance. She was told by Jesus to go to Krakow and
join a convent. She packed her few
belongings and left for Krakow that night, where she entered the first church
she saw and asked the priest for assistance in finding a convent. He sent her to live with a trustworthy
parishioner who allowed her to live in her home while she went from convent to
convent seeking entry. Eventually the Sisters
of Mercy agreed to allow her to enter but first she had to pay for her habit. She took another job cleaning houses; a
portion of her pay from that job went to the convent to pay for the habit and
after a year she was able to enter the convent.
She continued to have conversations with Jesus who appeared to her often
for the rest of her life.
On February 22, 1931, Jesus appeared to Sr.
Faustina. He appeared with two faint
rays emanating from his heart, one red and one blue. Jesus explained that he was the King of Mercy
and that he wanted Faustina to paint an image of him as he appeared. She could not paint and spent the next three
years trying to find an artist to paint her vision. Eventually she found one who painted it as
she described and when she saw the finished painting she said it was exactly
like her vision. When the painting was
finished, she was instructed by Jesus to have the painting blessed on the
second Sunday of Easter which would become the Feast of Mercy for the
world. At her canonization, the Holy
Father declared this to be so. Sr.
Faustina’s visions were clear that the mercy of God is available to anyone who
sincerely seeks God. The image of the
Divine Mercy and its accompanying prayer in chaplet form is a meditation on the
profound mystery of God’s Mercy and God’s continued desire for a deep
relationship with his people.
Sr. Faustina died of
tuberculosis on October 5, 1938. Her
call to accept the Mercy of God still being heard today on the Second Sunday of
Easter, the Feast of Divine Mercy.
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