St. Faustina: Apostle of Divine Mercy
“Hail, most merciful heart of Jesus.
Hail, living fountain of all grace.
Our sole shelter, our only refuge.
The light of hope issued for our race.”
As I walked down the aisle to become a consecrated virgin on the Feast of Divine Mercy Sunday of this year, the choir sang these words written by Donna Cori Gibson and based on St. Faustina Kowalska’s diary (1321).
St. Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament (1905-1938), whose feast we celebrate on October 5, was a religious, virgin, mystic, visionary, and apostle of Divine Mercy. She lived a largely hidden life in her native Poland. Although she felt called to become a Bride of Christ at a young age, she became distracted by the needs of her large family and worldly concerns. Then, Jesus appeared to her at a dance and her world changed. She writes in her diary Divine Mercy in My Soul:
“While everybody was having a good time, my soul was experiencing deep torments. As I began to dance, I suddenly saw Jesus at my side, Jesus racked with pain, stripped of His clothing, all covered with wounds, who spoke these words to me: How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting Me off? At that moment the charming music stopped, [and] the company I was with vanished from my sight; there remained Jesus and I” (9).
It has been said that we don’t find the saints but they find us. This was definitely true of my relationship with St. Faustina on my faith journey. A friend recommended that I read her diary and I have now read it cover to cover twice and referred to it several times. When I reached the final stages of my vocational discernment, another friend remarked that my story reminded them of St. Faustina’s story at the dance.
Although it may seem that St. Faustina led an unremarkable life and was often sickly, with little formal education or extraordinary deeds, it was through her fidelity to God’s call that we received the message of Divine Mercy. On February 22, 1931, Jesus appeared to St. Faustina as she was praying before the Blessed Sacrament and gave her a message of love and mercy for the world. Emanating from the heart of Jesus were two rays of light, one red and one white. He later revealed, “These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross” (Diary, 299).
Fr. Thomas R. Szydlik, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Clinton, Illinois has visited Divine Mercy Shrine in Poland several times. Reflecting on St. Faustina, he shared, “As I think about her life and vocation, a couple of things stand out immediately: The Lord did not call St. Faustina because she was qualified to do the work. Frankly, her religious superiors were far more skilled than she was to communicate the message of mercy. Yet, the Lord chose her. She was led on a path of conversion to trust in Jesus. At different points along the way, you can see that she did not have perfect trust in Him. In her diary, and in the story of her life, you can see Jesus, correcting her and leading her towards greater trust in Him. It’s a great source of encouragement for us who may struggle at times to trust.”
