The great French Algerian-born Nobel Prize winning philosopher, Albert Camus, revealed his appreciation for the magnificent value of friendship. “Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend”. It is in this simple life-giving spirit of genuine companionship that I fondly recall a dear friend’s memory who recently celebrated her 108th birthday! Her name is Mary Faustyna Kowalska, or as she is generally known, Saint Faustina Kowalska. Let me introduce you to her!
She was born on 25 August 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland. Mary Faustina was the third of 10 children. She was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of Swinice Warckle. From a very young age Helen had a great passion for prayer, work, obedience. She had a soft spot for the poor. Helen made her First Holy Communion when she was nine and attended school for three years. At the age of 16, Helen left home and started working as a housekeeper in Aleksandrow, Lodz and Ostrowek to sustain herself and her parents. A year later Helen felt the first stirrings of a vocation for consecrated life, but her parents did not allow her to fulfill her dream of joining a religious order. However, after a vision of the suffering Christ she had on 1 August 1925, Helen entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and was given the name Sr Mary Faustina.
This humble nun lived in the congregation for 13 years. She lived in Krakow, Plock and Vilnius and fulfilled her assigned duties as cook, gardener and porter with great love. From the outside no one detected her rich mystical and interior life. Yet powerfully present behind Sr Mary’s seemingly unimportant and uneventful life there was the inestimable hidden treasure of her extraordinary union with God.
The more the young nun contemplated the mystery of God’s mercy, the more she was transfigured into that attitude of childlike trust in God which motivated her to incarnate Christ’s Mercy through her acts of mercy towards her needy neighbour. Animated by her Lord’s unfathomable Mercy she consecrated her earthly and heavenly life to it. Thus, in her diary, she offered herself as a living sacrifice to carry out this sublime vocation. “Oh my Jesus, each of your saints reflects one of your virtues; I desire to reflect your compassionate heart, full of mercy; I want to glorify it. Let your mercy, 0 Jesus, be impressed upon my heart and soul like a seal, and this will be my badge in this and the future life” (Diary 1242).
Animated by her great love of the Eucharist and a deep devotion to the Mother of Mercy, Sr Mary Faustina realized that true holiness consists solely in doing God’s will. In her Diary she wrote: “Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God”(Diary 1107).
It was precisely to this often marginalized nun that Jesus entrusted his saving design for the human family. “Humanity will not find peace until it turns trustfully to divine mercy” (no 132). Consequently my friend’s job was to remind the world of the biblical truth concerning God’s merciful love towards every person. Secondly, my friend was to intercede for the whole world and especially for sinners that they may receive God’s mercy particularly by the veneration of the image of the Divine Mercy with the inscription: “Jesus, I trust in you”; the feast of the Divine Mercy celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter; chaplet to the Divine Mercy and prayer at the Hour of Mercy (3pm).
Finally, my friend had to start the Divine Mercy apostolic movement whose goal is to announce and pray for God’s mercy for the world.
Can Saint Faustina become your own friend too by embracing her ideals?
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
SAN GWANN