Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

‘My name is sacrifice” : The Mission of Blessed Faustina 93 Her experience o f religious life was varied. It ranged from greatly understanding superiors and sisters to relations of suspicion and con­ tempt. At times her sisters would turn to her for spiritual sustenance, sharing so many o f their troubles with her that she was nicknamed “the dump,” “because everyone dumps his pain into my heart” (871). At other times, they would turn against her. Especially in her early years, she suffered from misunderstanding. As one o f her biographers notes, “The Lord’s grace became for her a source o f great suffering ... For quite a long time she was regarded as one obsessed by an evil spirit.”20 Indeed, she was at one period suspected o f insanity, and was shuffled from confessor to superiors to confessor: “No matter to whom Sister Faustina now turned, spiteful remarks, whispers and knowing half­ smiles went with her.”21 This situation was resolved by finding a good spiritual director. At first there was a brief period under the direction o f Jesuit Fr. Joseph Andrasz in Crakow, then to a move to Vilno,22where she found her per­ manent director, Fr. Michael Sopocko. Initially without a spiritual direc­ tor her confessors were o f little help to her in her inner trials, pointing out that her suffering was pleasing to God, but failing to help her under­ stand this as a stage o f spiritual growth.23 When she finally found a director, it was someone who had been chosen for her by Christ, and in the ensuing years she was always held, if only by a thread. Though her relation with the spiritual director was crucial, it was Christ Himself who was her great teacher. Though personable and caring, she did not know human intimacy, but turned to Christ as her sole confidant and teacher. As her Diary abundantly testifies, it was He who formed her “so that she might properly and effectively remind the world o f that greatest truth of the Gospels, Mercy.” She was prepared by Jesus, “by mystical maturing until she could be His bride, and later His apostle.” Among the notable mystical graces she received were: “visions and apparitions, concealed stigmata,”25 the gift o f prophecy, of being able to read human souls “like an open book,”26 and “of the mystical betrothal and nuptials.”27A publication o f her Order goes on to state: A profound life o f mysticism went hand in hand with suffer­ ing. Sister Faustina suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and alimentary system. She also went through painful spiritual experi­