In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The life of Saint Faustina Kowalska is a life full of love and mercy.
She wanted the mercy of God to shine in her life in all its splendor and God chose her
to be an apostle and messenger of His mercy in the world.
Jesus appeared to her frequently and ordered her to paint an image of Him as she saw it,
with two rays coming out of His Heart.
This is the well-known image of the Divine Mercy.
Jesus showed her the chaplet of the Divine Mercy to pray especially for sinners and dying
people, promising many blessings to those who prayed it and also to those who were apostles
of Mercy.
Sister Faustina died at the age of 33 in 1938, but in such a short life she reached the highest
heights of mysticism.
After her death, despite some difficulties the devotion to the Divine Mercy has spread
throughout the world and some religious Congregations have even been founded to be apostles of mercy.
In those days Saint Faustina had an experience of God and on June 25th, 1925 she made a vow
of perpetual chastity.
She says: I turned to God with all my soul thirsting for Him.
That was during the octave of "Corpus Christi."
God filled my soul with the inner light so that I would know Him more deeply as the supreme
good and beauty.
I understood how much God loved me.
His love for me is eternal.
That was during the vespers.
With the simple words that flowed from my heart, I made the vow of perpetual chastity
to God.
From that moment I felt a greater intimacy with God, my husband; and I made a little
cell in my heart where I always met Jesus.
From that day on, Saint Faustina knocked more insistently on the doors of convents.
Finally, she was accepted in a convent with conditions.
She states: When the Mother Superior came to meet me after a brief conversation, she
ordered me to go to the Owner of the house and ask Him if He would receive me.
I immediately understood that I should ask our Lord Jesus Christ.
Very happy I went to the chapel and asked Jesus: "Owner of this house, will you receive me?"
One of the sisters in this house told me to ask You.
Immediately I heard this voice: "I receive you, you are in My Heart".
When I returned from the chapel, the Mother Superior asked me: "Well, has the Lord received you?"
I answered yes.
"If the Lord has received you, I also receive you"
Saint Faustina herself tells us: One day in the novitiate when Mother Superior had assigned
me to the girls' kitchen, I was very distressed because I was not in a position to carry the
huge pots.
The hardest thing for me was to drain the potatoes; sometimes half of them fell.
When I told Mother Superior she answered me that little by little I would get used to
it and acquire practice.
However, this difficulty did not disappear since my strength was decreasing every day
and due to lack of strength I would move away when it was time to drain the potatoes.
The sisters realized that I avoided this work and they did not know that I could not help
them despite trying with all fervor and without taking care of myself.
At noon, during the examination of conscience I complained to our Lord Jesus Christ about
the lack of strength.
Suddenly I heard these words in my soul: "From today it will be very easy for you.
I will increase your strength".
At night, when it was time to drain the potatoes, I ran first, trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ's words.
I picked up the pot with ease and drained them quite well.
But when I took the lid off to let the steam out, instead of potatoes I saw bouquets of
red roses in the pot, so beautiful that it is difficult to describe them.
I had never seen roses such as these.
I was surprised without understanding its meaning, but at that moment I heard a voice
in my soul: "Your hard work I transformed into bouquets of the most beautiful flowers
and its perfume rises to My throne".
From that moment on, I tried to drain the potatoes not only during the week assigned
to me in the kitchen, but also tried to substitute in this job for other sisters during their shift.
But not only in this job, but in every hard job I tried to be the first to help, because
I had experienced how much that pleased God.
Saint Faustina Kowalska herself says: Once I was in the kitchen with a sister and she
got a little angry with me and as penance she ordered me to sit at the table, while
she began to work hard, to fix, to wash, and I was sitting at the table.
Other sisters came and were surprised that I was sitting at the table.
Each one said what they wanted to say at that time.
One said that I was lazy, another one said that I was extravagant.
Others said what kind of sister would I be?
But I couldn't leave the table, because that sister ordered me and under obedience I had
to stay seated until she allowed me to leave.
Only God knows how many acts of mortification I did at that time.
I thought I was going to burn out of embarrassment.
God Himself allowed it at times for my inner formation, but our Lord Jesus Christ rewarded
me for that humiliation with great consolation.
During the blessing, I saw Him under an aspect of great beauty.
Jesus looked at me kindly and said: "My daughter, do not be afraid of suffering.
I'm with you"
May 1st, 1933 was the day of their wedding and Saint Faustina Kowalska said to Jesus:
“Today I leave my heart on the paten where Your Heart is placed, Jesus, and today I offer
myself together with You to God, Your and my Father, as a victim of love and adoration.
Your Heart from today is my property and my heart is Your exclusive property.
The simple memory of Your Name, Jesus, is a delight to my heart.
I could not live for an instant without You”.
And Jesus said: "My wife, our hearts are united for eternity.
Remember to whom you have consecrated yourself".
According to the custom of the Congregation, just before pronouncing the perpetual vows,
the sisters prostrate themselves before the altar and are covered with a cloak which is
a long piece of black cloth with a cross, which is also used to cover the coffin as
a symbol that the person dies to the world and all its seductions.
Meanwhile the Community recites Psalm 130, the same one as the "De profundis" meaning
“Out of the depths” which is also recited at funerals.
In those moments Saint Faustina tells us: "I begged the Lord to grant me the grace to
never offend Him with any sin, not even the smallest, nor with any imperfection voluntarily and consciously".
Saint Faustina Kowalska also made three special requests to our Lord Jesus Christ:
In the First request our Saint Faustina said: Oh Jesus, my beloved husband, I beg You for
the triumph of the Church, especially in Russia and Spain.
For the blessing for the Holy Father Pius XI and all the clergy.
For the grace of conversion for hardened sinners.
I ask You, oh Jesus, for a special blessing and light for the priests before whom I will
confess throughout my life.
In the Second request our Saint Faustina said: I ask You for a blessing for our Congregation,
put great fervor in the Congregation.
Bless, O Jesus, the Superior General, the Mother Superior, the entire novitiate, all
the Superiors and my dearest parents.
Grant, oh Jesus, Your grace to our students, strengthen them firmly with Your grace so
that those who leave our homes will no longer offend You with any sin.
Oh Jesus, I beg You for the country, defend it from the attacks of the enemies.
In the Third request our Saint Faustina said: Oh Jesus, I pray for the souls that need prayer
the most.
I beg You for the dying, be merciful to them.
I also pray to You, oh Jesus, for the liberation of all souls from purgatory.
The bishop said to Saint Faustina Kowalska when giving her the ring: I marry you to Jesus
Christ, Son of the Most High Father, who will keep you without any stain.
Receive this ring as a sign of the eternal covenant that you contract with Christ, husband
of virgins.
May this be for you the ring of fidelity, the sign of the Holy Spirit, so that you may
be called the bride of Christ, and if you serve Him faithfully, you may be crowned for
eternity.
Spiritual marriage is the highest degree of mysticism.
According to Saint John of the Cross, it is a total transformation in the Beloved, in
which both spouses give themselves by total possession of one to the other with a certain
consummation of union of love in which the soul is made divine as it is possible in this life.
This is the highest degree that can be reached in this life.
This spiritual marriage between God and the soul having been consummated, they are two
natures in one spirit and love.
March 26th, 1936, Good Friday, was the day of the spiritual marriage of Saint Faustina
Kowalska and she says: Jesus told me: My host, you are relief for My martyred Heart.
And He brought me into a very close union with Him and my heart joined His Heart in
a loving way and I felt the weakest beats of Him and He felt the beats of mine.
The fire of my love, created, was united to the burning of His eternal love.
This grace surpasses all the others with its greatness.
His triune essence enveloped all of me and I was completely immersed in Him.
I was immersed in an Immense Love and inconceivable torment because of His passion.
Everything that had to do with His being was also communicated to me.
Jesus had made this grace known and felt to me and today He granted it to me.
My heart is as in a continuous ecstasy, although externally nothing prevents me from dealing
with my neighbor or solving different situations.
And with this grace, a whole sea of light entered my soul regarding the knowledge of God and myself.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.