Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

Although they lived a godly, harmonious, honest and hard-working life, for a long time they were not blessed with children. Were they to spend a lonely old age, ju s t when s treng th fails, w ithou t any help? Would there be no one to mourn th e ir deaths, close the ir eyes and bury them in consecrated ground? They dreamed th e ir simple dreams, hoping anxiously for children. W ha t happiness, when, after ten years of m arriage , M arianna bore a daughter! From then on, i t was as if a magician had waved his wand. Everything changed, for child a fte r child arrived. Altogether they had ten, of whom eigh t survived: six daughters and two sons. Two little girls died in infancy. At firs t there were only daughters. The ir sons arrived la ter, one after the other. The f i rs t son was the ir seventh child, and the second son was th e eighth. S tan islaus was well over forty then , and his wife nearly forty. Bu t th e ir sons were not to be th e ir chief pride, a treasu re to be marked by God’s special election. This was to be th e ir th ird daugh ter, Helena, born on 25th August 1905. Through h e r the blessings of God were poured out on the whole house. She inherited from h e r p a ren ts th e ir b e s t qualities: the ir simple honest piety, th e ir hard-working na tu res , th e ir in tegrity and perseverance. Their fau lts seem to have passed h e r by. All reminiscences, both from the family and th e ir friends, agree t h a t little Helenka differed from the re s t of h e r bro thers and sisters from an early age: "She was quite different from them". Especially loved by h e r pa ren ts , she was always the ir chief prop and therefore had a special place in the home. She was the only one of th e ir children who could be completely and absolutely trusted . So, then , after the "lean" years when th e Kowalskis sadly dreamed of children, came the good years when the ir cottage quickly filled with children. As the babies arrived, so the family needs rose, and difficult times were upon them. The f irs t world war devastated 18