Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

requests of the Lord, and could devote he rse lf w ithout reservations to the work which, according to hum an judgment, was beyond h e r capability. Of course, she h ad a ttacks of anxiety, b u t i t was no t the apostolate as such which was th e ir main cause. Somewhere in the bottom of h e r soul there grew a lim itless adoration and ecstatic joy, which found expression in the Diary in verse, with g rea te r frequency. These verses gave he r the opportunity to express th e emotions crowding he r hea rt. She, too, sang a Magnificat. "‘The mercy o f the Lord is praised hy the hoCy souhs in heaven who have themselves experienced that infinite mercy. “What these souls do in heaven, I already will heyin to do here on earth. I zoill praise Qod fo r dlis infinite goodness, and I zvill strive to hring other souls to know and glorify the ine?(pressihle and incomprehen­ sible mercy o f Qod.1' (Diary, Notebook II, para. 753). Such a g rea t mission is, obviously, a serious tem p ta ­ tion to the vanity which lies in each of us. I t is therefore unavoidable th a t we ask how S ister F au s tina coped with the problem. Je su s had given h e r a ta sk which m ight easily have tu rned h e r head, bu t a t the same time He had pro­ mised h e r aid. The picture of His instruction would not be complete if we did no t mention how He preserved a sp irit of hum ility in her. He acted in a sim ilar way to th a t which He had used throughout all His teaching of h e r up to th is point. He made comparisons with Himself. He began no t long after S ister F au s tina ’s ac t of oblation for sinners on Holy Thursday 1934. At th e time, He directed he r a tten tion to the Incarnation. At f irs t He asked h e r to contemplate It, and shortly He appeared to h e r in the form of a little Child. These visions were frequently 196