Pillars of Fire In My Soul

Introduction Ever since the St. Stanislaus Kostka Province of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception began to spread the devotion to The Divine Mercy in America in 1941, the community has received countless requests from peo- ple seeking more information on the revelations dealing with The Message of The Divine Mercy and on the life of Sister Faustina. At first, the only information available on the Message was found in a little booklet entitled: “Novena to the Mercy of God,” supplied by the Rev. Prof. Michael Sopocko, Sister Faustina’s spiritual director. In 1947, however, a pamphlet entitled: “Mercy of God... We Trust in You!” written by one of Sister Faustina’s regular confessors, the Rev. Joseph Andrasz, S.J., of Cracow, arrived from Poland. It was translated and published within a year, and subsequently enjoyed many reprints. The same author began to write a more extensive biography of Sister Faustina, but, for reasons reported here below, he was never able to complete it. Saint Faustina’s Diary contains a prophecy concerning the work of mercy (as Jesus called the whole complex of tasks He was entrusting to her). She wrote that this work will be, for a certain time, as though utterly undone , but that then God will act with great power, which will give evidence of its authenticity. It will be a new splendor for the Church (Diary, 378). Saint Faustina understood that this work of mercy was not something new, since it had been found in the Church from the beginning, although dormant for a long time.