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 him,
with two rays, white and red, coming out of his Heart.
It is the well-known image of the Lord of the Divine Mercy.
Jesus taught her the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, also called the Divine Mercy Chaplet,
to pray especially for sinners and dying people,
promising many blessings to those who prayed it
and also to those who are the apostles of mercy.
God gave her great charisms to fulfill her mission,
but, above all, he gave her a total surrender and a trusting abandonment to His love.
Our Lord Jesus requested the institution of the Feast of Mercy in the Church,
the Sunday after Easter.
Pope Saint John Paul II instituted it.
Pope Saint John Paul II was very devoted to Sister Faustina since he was young and worked in a factory.
The brother of Saint Faustina Kowalska, named Stanisław Kowalski stated:
Saint Faustina Kowalska had a devotion to the Guardian Angel.
While at home, she taught the younger siblings the prayer of the guardian angel.
When I told her about the dangers that happened to me at work,
she reminded me that my angel took care of me in all dangers that I faced.
Let's look at some cases of the apparitions of angels,
which Saint Faustina Kowalska tells us about in her Diary:
On the day of Saint Michael the Archangel I saw this great guide next to me
who said these words to me:
“The Lord recommended me to take special care of you.
You need to know that you are hated by evil, but do not fear.
Who is like God!"
And he disappeared. Yet I feel his presence and his help.
Realizing how dangerous it is to be at the door today
because of the revolutionary disturbances
and the hatred that bad people have towards convents,
I have gone to speak with our Lord Jesus
and I have asked him to order that no bad person dares to approach the door.
I heard these words:
"My daughter, the moment you went to the door
I put a cherub on top of the door to watch over it;
stay calm."
When I returned after the conversation I had with the Lord,
I saw a little white cloud and in it a cherub with his hands together as to pray,
his eyes like lightning; I understood that the fire of God's love burned in that gaze.
Another day, I saw one of the seven luminous-looking spirits next to me.
I saw him continually next to me, when I was on the train.
I saw that on every church we passed, there was an angel;
but in a paler light than that of the spirit that accompanied me on the journey.
And each of the spirits that guarded the temples bowed before the spirit that was by my side.
In Warsaw, when I entered the convent door, the spirit disappeared.
I thanked God for His goodness, for giving us angels as companions.
Oh, how little the people think that they always have such a guest by their side
and, at the same time, a witness of everything!.
One night, when from my cell I looked at the sky and saw a splendid firmament
strewn with stars and the moon,
suddenly a fire of inconceivable love for my Creator entered my soul,
and without knowing how to bear
the desire that had grown in my soul towards Him,
I fell face down to the ground humiliating myself in the dust.
I adored Him for all His works and when my heart could not bear what was happening in Him,
I burst into tears.
Then the guardian angel touched me and said these words:
"The Lord makes me tell you to get up off the ground."
I did it immediately, but my soul had no consolation.
The longing for God invaded me even more.
One day when I was in adoration before the blessed sacrament,
and my spirit was as if it were in agony longing for Him
and could not hold back the tears,
I saw a spirit of great beauty, who said these words to me:
"Do not cry, says the Lord."
A moment later I asked, "Who are you?"
And he answered me:
"I am one of the seven spirits that day and night are before the throne of God and they adore Him without ceasing."
However, this spirit did not alleviate my longing,
but rather increased in me a greater longing for God.
This spirit is very beautiful and its beauty is due to its close union with God.
This spirit does not leave me for a moment, it accompanies me everywhere.
The next day, during Holy Mass,
before the elevation of the Holy Host,
that spirit began to sing these words:
"Holy, Holy, Holy."
His voice was like a thousand voices, impossible to describe.
Suddenly my spirit was united to God,
in a moment I saw the greatness and holiness of God
and at the same time I knew the nullity that I am of myself.
I knew more clearly than at any other time in the past,
the three divine persons:
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
However, His essence is One, as well as His Majesty.
My soul relates to the three persons of the Holy Trinity,
but I can't explain it in words.
The soul understands it well.
Anyone who is united with one of these three persons,
by this very fact,
is united with the entire Holy Trinity,
because their unity is indivisible.
That vision, that is, that knowledge flooded my soul with unimaginable happiness,
because God is so great.
Today, I have not even been able to go to Holy Mass
or approach Holy Communion
and, amid the sufferings of the soul and body, I repeated to myself:
“The will of our Lord Jesus be done.
I know that Your generosity is unlimited”.
Then I heard the song of an angel who narrated,
singing, all my life, all that he had contained in himself.
I have been surprised, but I have also strengthened myself.
The nurse sister told me:
Tomorrow you will not have the Lord Jesus,
because you are very tired and then we will see.
That hurt a lot, but I answered very calmly: "Okay."
Abandoning myself completely to the Lord, I tried to sleep.
In the morning I did the meditation and prepared myself for Holy Communion,
although I was not going to receive Jesus.
When my longing and my love started to arise, suddenly,
next to my bed I saw a seraphim who gave me Holy Communion saying these words:
"Behold the Lord of angels."
When I received the Lord, my spirit was immersed in God's love and wonder.
This was repeated for 13 days,
without being certain that the next day he would bring Him to me,
but abandoning myself to God, I had confidence in His goodness;
However, I did not even dare to think if the next day I would receive Holy Communion in this way.
The seraphim was surrounded by a great clarity,
the divinization and love of God was revealed in him.
He wore a golden robe and over it a transparent surplice and stole.
The chalice was made of glass, covered with a transparent veil.
As soon as the seraphim gave me our Lord Jesus, he disappeared.
Once, when I had some doubt
that he had awakened in me shortly before Holy Communion,
suddenly the seraphim appeared again with our Lord Jesus.
I, however, asked our Lord Jesus and without receiving the answer,
I said to the seraphim: "Will you confess me?"
And he answered me: "No spirit in heaven has this power."
And at that very moment the holy host came to rest on my lips.
Another day, I saw the guardian angel who accompanied me on the trip to Warsaw.
When we entered the convent he disappeared.
As we got on the train from Warsaw to Krakow,
I saw again my guardian angel next to me,
who was praying contemplating God
and my thoughts followed him
and, when we entered the door of the convent, he disappeared.
The guardian angel recommended that I pray for a certain soul
and, the next morning, I learned that he was a man who at that very moment had begun to die.
I did not know that such a union with souls existed
and the guardian angel often tells me about it.
Let us remember that we all have a guardian angel from heaven
who takes care of us and protects us.
He is on the right side and can appear in different forms.
To Saint Gema Galgani he sometimes presented himself as a little bird
to take her letters to the post office.
To Saint John Bosco he presented himself as a gray dog.
The Guardian Angel other times appears in the figure of a man or a woman,
a child or an adult, with wings or without wings,
but always kind, loving and diligent,
to help us according to the measure of how much we invoke him.
For this reason, many, who never invoke him,
miss out on many blessings that God wants to give us through the guardian angel.
The angel will defend us from the snares of the evil one
and will do useful services for us as long as we are in the grace of God and not in mortal sin,
we are able to send him to greet and help distant people,
even to purgatory.
When we go to church, let us remember that, next to the tabernacle,
there are millions of angels adoring Jesus, let us join them in worship.
When we are attending mass, let us join our voices with the angels by singing the Gloria,
the Holy, Holy, Holy and other religious songs,
asking them to prepare us worthily to receive Jesus in communion,
in union with our mother the Virgin Mary and the saints.
Do not forget to always say to your guardian angel in your prayer:
My guardian angel, sweet company, do not abandon me by night or by day.
Do not leave me alone, I would lose myself.
Assist me in my last agony, until I rest in the arms of Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.