The Messages of Divine Mercy to St. Faustina

“The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.” St. Faustina Kowalska

Today is the feast day of one of Poland’s great saints: St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. I recently watched a series of ten videos by Father Michael Gaitley titled “Divine Mercy in the Second Greatest Story Ever Told.” It was in these videos that I learned the story of this amazing saint from the 20th century.

St. Faustina was born Helena Kowalska, to a poor but religious family in Poland in 1905. She joined the convent at the age of 20, taking the religious name, Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.

St. Faustina's most significant contribution to the Catholic faith lies in her mystical encounters with Christ. The first vision of Jesus took place in 1924 while at a dance with her sister, Natalia. Faustina saw a suffering Jesus who instructed her to leave for Warsaw immediately and join a convent. The visions continued until her death on October 5th, 1938.

In these encounters, Jesus revealed to her the message of Divine Mercy, emphasizing the boundless love and forgiveness of God for all humanity. He also instructed her in the practice of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, a prayerful devotion to seek God's mercy for oneself and the whole world. Jesus also spoke to her of His desire to pour out extraordinary graces of mercy upon sinners each year on one special day, the Feast of Divine Mercy. And He also ordered that the image of Divine Mercy be painted and honored throughout the world, with the inscription “Jesus, I Trust in You” on the bottom. This image is of Jesus, with two rays of light shining from His Heart, one blue and one red, signifying the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Eugeniusz Kazimirowski painted the picture under Faustina’s direction.

St. Faustina teaches us to contemplate God in daily life – to encounter Him in one’s own soul and to live one’s whole life with Him. This practice consists in uniting ourselves with Jesus dwelling in our souls through a short prayerful invocation. This will help us to develop a personal bond of love with God and will lead us to have a more fruitful participation in the life and mission of Jesus.

St. Faustina was also visited by St. Therese of Lisieux, who told Faustina that she, too, would be a saint. This prophecy became true. St. Faustina Kowalska was beatified on April 18, 1993, and canonized on April 30, 2000, both by Pope St. John Paul II, who not only elevated her to the altar of sainthood but also said during his canonization homily that “from now on throughout the church, the second Sunday of Easter will be called Divine Mercy Sunday.”

St. Faustina’s private revelations are now contained in a single book called “The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul.”

St. Faustina, patron saint of Mercy, pray for us. Jesus, we trust in You!

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