Pillars of Fire In My Soul

years, Marianna said that little Helen’s birth “sanctified my womb.” Called into being by the merciful response of a loving God to the fervent and wholehearted prayers of her parents and grandmother, Helen’s creation was the beginning of the road to canonization for St. Faustina. And as her life went on — and after she died — it became more and more clear that this young woman had been blessed with particular gifts to use to remind the world of God’s love and mercy for us all. Redemption Because humanity broke the relationship with God that was begun when we were created in God’s own image and likeness, the need for redemption — or mercy — became imperative. God’s mercy reaches out to us to restore that broken relation- ship, that separation caused by our own arrogance, pride, selfishness, and greed. God redeems us to heal and make whole that which God created in the first place. Jesus died once for all. Redemption is ours. Yet in our individual lives we continue to sin. We continue to break that relationship of love entrusted to us — entrusted to human persons, God’s highest form of creation. Therefore, there is a daily need to examine our consciences, to make amends to those we have hurt, to forgive those who hurt us, and to surren- der our lives to God’s loving care. This is the work of a lifetime, and only when we work in partnership with God is redemption, the second step of mercy, possible. The milieu into which Helen Kowalska was born seems to have helped her to enjoy an extraordinarily unbroken relation- ship with God. Some two years before she was born, two boys of her parish claimed to have seen the face of Jesus, His head crowned with thorns, in the Eucharist during the 40 Hours Devotion. People from all around came to see this miraculous 140 Pillars of Fire in My Soul