Pillars of Fire In My Soul

directed toward the viewer and lightly to the sides, coloring to a certain degree the hands and surrounding objects: that these rays be transparent in such a way that through them the band [belt, cincture] and garment be visible; that the saturation of the rays with redness and whiteness [!] be greatest at the source (in the area of the Heart) and then slowly diminish and vanish [dissolve, fade away?]. 2. Whether outsiders added or removed something from Sr. Faustina’s statements regarding the image, I do not know, because I cannot verify it. I am rather inclined to hold that they did not do that consciously, but interpretations of that image were completely as they thought fit, not in accord with that, which is found in Sr. Faustina’s Diary, and they contributed to the distortion [deformation] of the image, and in some measure of the idea itself. During Sr. Faustina’s lifetime neither anyone of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, nor Fr. Andrasz took any interest in the image whatever. And only after her death (in the year 1941), when they found out about the devotion to The Divine Mercy in Wilno, they instructed Mr. Hyla to paint an image, using as a model a very poor reproduction of it, executed by Mme. Balsukiewicz for a brochure with prayers (novena, chaplet and litany to The Divine Mercy), published in Krakow in 1937 (Cebulski, Szewska St. 22). Wanting to correct that reproduction, those who commissioned the image supplied the artist with incorrect indications [instructions] because they themselves did not know the details. [I believe it needs to be pointed out that the Sisters did not commission Mr. Hyla to paint an image for them; rather, when the artist made known his desire to donate a painting for the Sister’ chapel as an ex-voto for the preservation of his family and himself all during World War II, the Sisters suggested that it be a representation of the image revealed to Sr. Faustina.] — comment by Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC. Divine Mercy … We Trust in You! 85