Flora Cantábrica

Tweet

María Faustina Kowalska

11. “My mission will not end at my death”

Sister Faustina’s prophetic mission was kept strictly secret during her lifetime. No-one knew about it except for Father Michał Sopoćko, Father Józef Andrasz, and some of her superiors. After her death, when World War Two came, Sister Faustina’s Vilnian confessor Father Sopoćko disclosed the name of the initiator of the devotion to Divine Mercy, which was spreading. His disclosure was followed by the same in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. Mother General Michaela Moraczewska visited all the Congregation’s houses and spoke on the great mission for which God had chosen Sister Faustina. What most struck me about Sister Faustina, she wrote after her death, and still strikes me today as an extraordinary phenomenon, especially in the last months of her illness, was her absolute self-oblivion for the sake of the dissemination of the worship of Divine Mercy. She never showed the slightest doubts as to the authenticity of her mission nor fear of death, she was absolutely engrossed in the leading light of her entire life – the devotion to Divine Mercy.

During the terrible war years the devotion to the Divine Mercy spread rapidly, bringing a ray of light and hope into the darkness. As the devotion became more and more widely known the opinion of Sister Faustina’s sainthood grew as well. Pilgrims started to come to her grave in the Łagiewniki Convent and pray for her intercession. In the convent chapel Father Andrasz blessed another picture of the Merciful Jesus painted in accordance with Sister Faustina’s instructions and started special services in honour of the Divine Mercy. They were attended by crowds from the City of Kraków and its environs. One of the people who came to worship before this image was Karol Wojtyła, a young labourer from the Solvay quarry which neighboured on the convent, who had already become familiar with the devotion to Divine Mercy in the forms of worship prescribed by Sister Faustina. After his ordination on the third Sunday of each month he celebrated Divine Mercy services in this chape

In 1965, as the Bishop of Kraków, he initiated a diocesan process for raising of Sister Faustina to the glory of the altars. This required a great deal of courage, as ever since 1959 there had been a notification by the Holy See in force prohibiting the spread of the devotion to Divine Mercy in the forms prescribed by Sister Faustina. The notification had been issued owing to an erroneous translation of her diary and resulting inappropriate forms of worship. Under Communism maintaining contact between Poland and the Holy See was not at all easy, and so it was difficult to refute the Holy See’s objections to the writings of Sister Faustina and the forms of worship. This period, which Sister Faustina had foretold, contributed to the theological analysis of her writings and the making of the right foundations for the practise of the devotion. Clear on the point that this situation was no obstacle to the initiating of a beatification process, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła lost no time and completed the diocesan stage, sending the documentation up to the Rome, where the Congregation for the Causes of Saints continued to examine the heroic virtues of Sister Faustina, and later the miracle wrought at Sister Faustina’s grave for Mrs. Maureen Digan from the USA.

On Divine Mercy Sunday, 18 April 1993, the Holy Father John Paul II raised Sister Faustina to the glory of the altars. During his homily in St. Peter’s Square, Rome, he referred to her words, I know very well that my mission will not end at my death, that’s when it will start. And he observed, That’s exactly what happened. Sister Faustina’s mission continues and is bringing wondrous fruit. How marvellously her Divine Mercy service is making its way around the world and winning so many human hearts! It is undoubtedly a sign of our times – a sign of our 20^th century. Alongside its achievements which have by far eclipsed those of previous ages, the balance of the century now drawing to a close also carried deep anxiety for the future. Where, if not in Divine Mercy, will the world find rescue and the light of hope? People of faith feel this perfectly we

After examining by the Holy See the next miracle of healing Father Ronald Pytel of Baltimore, MD, from incurable disease of the heart, the Holy Father John Paul II numbered her to the group of saints of the Catholic Church. The canonisation ceremony was held on the Feast of Divine Mercy, 30 April 2000, in St. Peter’s Square, Rome, and was attended by bishops and priests, nuns, and huge crowds of pilgrims from all over the world. Thanks to a satellite television link religious and lay pilgrims gathered in the Łagiewniki Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kraków could participate in the ceremony. Several decades earlier the event had been described by Sister Faustina: at once I saw myself in Rome, in the Holy Father’s chapel and at the same time I was in our chapel. And the celebration of the Holy Father and the entire Church was closely connected with our chapel and, in a very special way, with our Congregation. And I took part in the solemn celebration simultaneously here and in Rome, for the celebration was so closely connected with Rome that, even as I write, I cannot distinguish the two but I am writing it down as I saw it. I saw the Lord Jesus in our chapel, exposed in the monstrance on the high altar. The chapel was adorned as for a feast, and on that day anyone who wanted to come was allowed in. The crowd was so enormous that the eye could not take it all in. Everyone was participating in the celebrations with great joy, and many of them obtained what they desired. The same celebration was held in Rome, and the Holy Father, with all the clergy, was celebrating this Feast, and then suddenly I saw Saint Peter, who stood between the altar and the Holy Father. I could not hear what Saint Peter said but I saw that the Holy Father understood his words…(Diary 1044).

During that ceremony, held in the Jubilee Year, the Holy Father founded the Feast of Divine Mercy for the entire Church and passed on to the world the prophetic mission of Mercy for the third millennium of faith. I pass it on to all people, He said, so that they will learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their brethren. Two years later he made his second pilgrimage as Pope to the Łagiewniki Shrine, and in the basilica church he had just consecrated entrusted the whole world to the Divine Mercy. He said that he wanted the message of God’s merciful love preached here thanks to the mediation of Sister Faustina to reach all the earth’s inhabitants and fill their hearts with hope. He wanted that message to radiate out from Łagiewniki to the whole of Poland and the entire world, and Jesus’ promise to be fulfilled that a spark which would prepare the world for Jesus’ final coming would issue from this place (cf. the Diary, 1732). He asked people to kindle that spark of God’s grace and to transmit the fire of mercy to the world. For it was in Divine Mercy that the world would find peace, and mankind happiness.

Today there is probably no country left without an image of the Merciful Jesus. The Feast of the Divine Mercy has entered the universal Church’s liturgical calendar for good. The Chaplet to the Divine Mercy is recited even in obscure languages, and the prayer at the hour of Jesus’ death on the cross, the Hour of Mercy, is becoming more and more popular. The Apostolic Movement of Divine Mercy, the “congregation” based on Sister Faustina’s mystical experience and charism which Jesus asked her to found, today comprises a variety of congregations, associations, confraternities, apostolates and individuals joining in the accomplishment of her mission. They are bringing the message of Mercy into the world through the witness of their lives, works, words, and prayer. The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy has fully adopted Sister Faustina’s prophetic mission, and on 25 August 1995 recognised her as its Spiritual Foundress. Theologians inspired by Sister Faustina are examining the mystery of Divine Mercy; apostles of Divine Mercy from her school are training in the attitude of trust in God and mercy for their neighbour, love of the Eucharist and the Church, and learning the true veneration of Our Lady of Mercy. Many churches dedicated to the Divine Mercy, the Merciful Jesus, or St. Faustina are being founded in Poland and throughout the world. Numerous new Divine Mercy shrines have sprung up to preach the truth of God’s merciful love for each human being. Sister Faustina’s mission certainly did not end at her death. It is continuing and bringing forth wondrous fruit.