Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

sometimes h a rd to know to w ha t period a given tex t refers. S ister F au s t in a had no special time se t a p a r t for writing. She wrote when she had a spare moment from work. Also, she never corrected h e r tex t once i t was w ritten , which was probably no t only because she had no time, b u t also because she did not realise th a t a tex t requires corrections, pu tting in order, or improve­ ments. How could she have had even an elementary knowledge of th e w riter’s craft and its requirements? To h e r credit, she showed an unde rs tand ing of the difficul­ ties arising when seeking the appropria te expression to show h e r thoughts. The difficulty of in te rp re ting he r tex t was fu r th e r increased by F a th e r Sopocko’s com­ mand, accepted by her, not to indicate clearly the person of whom she is w riting nor the place where the action happened. I t is sometimes impossible therefore to determ ine of whom she may be writing. Sadly, th e p a r t of h e r Diary which was destroyed also contained the story of how th e image of Je su s of the Divine Mercy came about, which was w ritten as it happened, for i t was a t th a t tim e th a t i t was painted. Before S ister F au s tina re tu rned to w riting h e r diary, th e picture was ready. In the new version of her Diary she does no t often reve rt to th a t theme. Luckily, we have th e supplem entary account of the then superior, Mother Irene, and of F a th e r Sopocko. Having lost all fear th a t his pen iten t was no t in full mental hea lth , and been reassu red of h e r moral quali­ ties, F a the r Sopocko w en t into action. Mother Irene relates, "after having received the doctor’s verdict, w ith my knowledge Father Sopocko looked for an artist who would pa in t the image o f the Merciful Jesus in the manner in which He appeared to S ister Faustina in Plock. Prof. Eugeniusz Kazim ierowski undertook to pa in t the picture. In order not to alert the sisters to the interior experiences o f S ister Faustina, every Sa turday morning I went w ith her to Holy Mass at 162