Pillars of Fire In My Soul

trust. For a long time after this event there prevailed a period of silence with regard to this devotion. A second, more public action regarding this new devotion was the printing in Cracow in 1937 of a modest brochure. Its cover featured the new image of The Divine Mercy — based on the writings of Sister Faustina. This second action had a greater significance than the first. Through this brochure, printed, to be sure, with the permission of Church authorities, the new form of devotion to The Divine Mercy began to spread in a constant and ever-widening stream. It flowed out beyond private circles and slowly began to reach a wider public. This took place while Sister Faustina was still alive. She was overjoyed to see how the devotion to The Divine Mercy in its new form was already capturing the hearts of people. However, except for a few persons who were taken into confidence, no one, not even those among whom she lived, knew that these prayers were composed by her under the special inspiration of God, as it is permitted us to believe. During the War Nevertheless, those actions were but hardly perceptible streams which began to swell only after Sister Faustina’s death and, even more so, after the outbreak of the world war which she foretold. When the terrible wave of Nazism (1939-1945) descended with satanic brutality upon many nations, and espe- cially upon Poland, the new devotion to The Divine Mercy began to grow with an even greater strength. Printed and mimeographed leaflets containing information about the devotion, and about the saintly Sister Faustina to whom it was revealed, began to be circulated among the people, who eagerly took them up to read. As a result, not only did big cities like Warsaw and Cracow, Vilnius and Lvov, Poznan and Lodz become acquainted with the new images and medals of the Merciful Savior and with the litany and novena to 26 Pillars of Fire in My Soul