Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

guard against seCf- zviHfuhtess; even the smallest thing should bear the sea l o f obedience . ' " (Diary, Notebook I, para. 362). S ister F au s t in a ’s resistance to subm itting h e rse lf to the will of Jesus , as i t is he re so clearly revealed, is surprising . I t indicates th a t though in theory she recognized absolute obedience and tried to observe it strictly, in practice she had difficulty subm itting her own wishes and judgm en ts to the Lord’s will. To no one does i t come easy to lay oneself bare interiorly, even to reveal the most godly wishes and inclinations. This problem was to recur for S is te r F au s tina more than once in h e r life. She had ye t to suffer much w ithin herself, to overcome and to work upon herself, before she could totally subm it to the will of God w ithout reservations. In th is case, she had to give up the direction of a p ries t whom she already knew, to whom she had become a ttached as the person sent by God’s will, and to accept th is new strange p ries t with whom - who knew?-she m ight once more have to struggle through some difficult moments. After almost a month of struggle with herself, a t la s t S ister F au s tina uncovered th e whole secret of h e r soul to F a th e r Sopocko. vWhen I d id (ay bare my sou l completely to this priest, Jesus poured an ocean o f graces into it. 9{ou> I under­ s tand zohat it means to be fa i th fu l to a particular grace. 'That one grace drazvs dozon a zvhole series o f others." (Diary, Notebook I, para. 263). But to unde rs tand something does no t mean th a t one is ready to adopt i t in one’s life. Time is needed for the "new" rea lity of the sp ir it to make itse lf a t home in the soul and to find its proper field of action. Subm itting blindly to the will of the confessor introduced a basic 153