Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

F au s tina left Vilnius for Cracow and never re tu rn ed to it. From then onwards she was able to keep in contact with F a the r Sopocko only by le tter. She saw him again only a few times du ring his sho r t visits to Cracow. The Diary caused S is ter F au s t in a a g rea t deal of trouble. I t was the cause of m isunderstand ings, and even painful scenes. Her companions, not knowing the situation , argued, w ith th e logic of the practical, th a t she was wasting he r time, of which she had none too much, on scribblings. As she was unab le to reveal why she wrote, S ister F au s t in a began to conceal h e r writing, and did so with such success th a t those around h e r ceased to notice. Mother Borgia, h e r superior, recalls th is unusually awkward situation: "From the time tha t Father Sopocko became our confessor, S ister Faustina was writing her diary, at his request. O f course, Mother General also knew o f this. Sometimes other sisters complained tha t S ister Faustina, despite her hard work, had still time to write a diary. I t is possible tha t she wrote it at the cost o f her sleep, but", writes S is te r Borgia, "I never said anything about tha t as the superior o f the house, for I had confidence in her good sense . " Unfortunately, barely h ad S ister F au s tin a learned to p u t h e r mystical experiences in the form of a con­ tinuous diary, and become reasonably skilled a t this, when something happened which caused he r to destroy everything she h ad w ritten over almost h e r en tire firs t yea r’s stay in Vilnius. This is described by Fa the r Sopocko: "In 1934 I went to Palestine and was not in Vilnius for some months... When I came back, S ister Faustina told me tha t she had burned the diary she had written so far. She sa id tha t on a certain occasion a young man appeared to her and sa id that the writing was no use and could only be a source o f anxieties, 160