Flora Cantábrica

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María Faustina Kowalska

“Paint a picture”

It was in the convent at Płock, where Sister Faustina arrived in the May or June of 1930, that her great prophetic mission was to begin. It was Sunday, 22 February 1931. In the evening when she returned to her cell, she had a physical vision of Jesus in a white robe. His right hand was lifted up in a gesture of blessing, and His left hand was touching His breast from which two rays, a red one and a pale one, radiated out. After a while Jesus said to her, Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: «Jesus, I trust in You». I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that venerates this image will not perish. I also promise victory over its enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I shall protect it as My own glory (Diary 47-48).

During her next confession she told her confessor about this incident. The priest told her to paint an image of Jesus in her soul. But as she left the confessional Jesus explained, My image already is in your soul. I desire that there be a Feast of Mercy. I want this image, which you will paint with a brush, to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy. I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine towards souls of sinners (Diary 49-50). On Jesus’ confirmation that He meant a material picture, she informed the local superior, Sister Róża Kłobukowska, about the situation, who demanded a sign confirming the truth of the visions. Jesus said to Sister Faustina that the sign would come with the graces dispensed through the picture. Sister Faustina was not good at drawing, so she asked Sister Bożenna Pniewska for help. I couldn’t paint, either, and I did not understand that she meant a new kind of picture, Sister Bożenna recalled, so I suggested I would offer her a choice out of the many fine holy pictures I had. She thanked me but did not take up my offer.

Word went round in the Płock convent that Sister Faustina had had a vision. The other nuns in the community became sceptical with respect to her. Some warned her of hallucinations, others declared she was hysterical and fantasising, and yet others acknowledged that she must be close to Jesus since she was bearing all this suffering with such calm. Yet, I resolved to bear everything in silence and to give no explanations when I was questioned, Sister Faustina confided in her diary, Some were irritated by my silence, especially those who were more curious. Others, who reflected more deeply, said, «Sister Faustina must be very close to God if she has the strength to bear so much suffering» (Diary 126).

But the greatest suffering was caused by the uncertainty as to where the visions came from. Her superiors directed her to priests, and the priests sent her back to her superiors. Sister Faustina wished a priest would come and resolve the question definitively and just say, Be at peace, you are on the right road, or Reject all this for it does not come from God (Diary 127). In this situation, she tried to avoid the Lord, and when He came she would ask, Jesus, are You my God or some kind of phantom? Because my Superiors say that there are all sorts of illusions and phantoms. If You are my Lord, I beg You to bless me. Then Jesus made a big sign of the cross over me and I, too, signed myself. When I asked pardon of Jesus for this question, He replied that I had in no way displeased Him by this question and that my confidence pleased Him very much (Diary 54

The lack of a permanent spiritual director and the inability to fulfil the tasks ascribed her made Sister Faustina want to back out of these supernatural inspirations, but Jesus patiently kept on explaining to her the magnitude of the work He had chosen her for. Know that if you neglect the matter of the painting of the image and the whole work of mercy, you will have to answer for a multitude of souls on the day of judgement (Diary 154), He told her. These words filled her soul with a terrible awe. She realised that she was responsible not only for her own salvation, but also other people’s, and so she resolved to do all in her power to fulfil His will or to make Him transfer these graces to someone else, since she was only wasting them.

In November 1932 Sister Faustina left Płock and returned to Warsaw for the “third probation” and to prepare for her perpetual vows. Her superiors sent her first to the Congregation’s house in nearby Walendów, where an eight-day annual retreat was just starting under the direction of the Jesuit Father Edmund Elter, a professor of ethics, homiletics and rhetoric at the Gregorianum University in Rome. During confession, he assured her she was on the right road, and that her relationship with Jesus was neither hysteria, nor delusion, nor daydreaming. He advised her to be true to these graces, urging her not to stay away from them but to entreat God for a spiritual director who would help her in understanding and carrying out Jesus’ wishes. After the retreat, she returned to Warsaw full of gratitude and spiritual joy to prepare during her third probation, along with two other sisters, under the direction of Mother Małgorzata Gimbutt, for the making of her perpetual vows.

Towards the end of April 1932 she came to Kraków for an eight-day retreat which was to be followed by her perpetual vows. Each time I call to mind, she confessed, that in a few days I am to become one with the Lord through perpetual vows, a joy beyond all description floods my soul (Diary 231).The ceremony for her perpetual vows was conducted by Bishop Stanisław Rospond on 1 May 1933. Sister Faustina, during this ceremony, commended to Jesus the whole Church, her Congregation, her family, all sinners, the dying and the souls in purgatory. She thanked Jesus for the unfathomed grace of being the bride of the Son of God and implored Our Lady for special care, reminding her of a new claim to her love. Mother of God, Most Holy Mother, You are my Mother in a special way now because Your beloved Son is my Bridegroom, and thus we are both Your children. For Your Son’s sake, You have to love me (Diary 240). The Bishop bestowed on her a ring with the name “Jesus” engraved on it as the sign of eternal nuptial. From that moment her union with God was closer than ever before. She felt that she loved God and was loved in return.