Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

THE FIRST REQUEST OF JESUS IS FULFILLED The reques t of S is te r F au s t in a to accept the sp iritual direction of h e r life occurred a t a very busy time in the life of F a the r Sopocko. He was then combining the work of lecturing a t the un iversity and a t the sem inary with the final p repara tions for h is degree of Docent (the post-doctoral research degree) which was to be conferred halfway through May 1934. His time was fully occupied and he could no t give as much to S ister F au s tin a as she needed. Bu t he found a method which took up less time th an the prolonged weekly confessions, and which gave him the additional chance to th ink over quietly the m a t te rs she raised. "So tha t S ister Faus tina ’s confessions should not become too long," w rites F a th e r Sopocko, "I asked her a t confession to accuse herse lf o f her sins only, and i f she had any th ing else to say, to write it and give it to me to read. A t firs t she wrote only the briefest little pages... later she wrote o f her experiences in the form o f a journal... A t firs t she sometimes mentioned the names o f people or the Christian names o f sisters, which m igh t give rise to unpleasantness, so I re­ quested her to avoid the particu lar designation o f individuals, which, o f course, she did." Thus the Diary came to be w ritten , and S ister F au s ­ t in a continued to w rite i t to th e end of h e r life, a l­ though i t was no t qu ite th ree years la te r t h a t S ister 159