Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

give myseCf compCeteCy to souCs. ‘Without Jesus I zvouCd not g e t near to souCs Because f knozv zvhat I am o f myseCf I absorb Qod into myseCf in order to give dtim to souCs. “ (Diary, Notebook I, para . 193). Je su s did not allow S ister F au s tin a to stay peacefully content with w ha t had already been a tta ined . He roused h e r more and more forcefully towards fu r th e r activity in the two directions which had been previously shown her: the apostolate of Divine Mercy, and causing the pa in ting by Kazimierowski, the visual sign of His Divine Mercy, to be placed in a church and to receive public devotion. In a sho rt time, opportunity for th is arose. In 1935, the en tire world of Christendom was celebrating the G rea t Jub ilee - 1900th ann iversary of the Redemption of the World. The chief solemnities fell a t Eastertide. In Vilnius, a triduum organized a t the O s tra B ram a Gate collected crowds of the faithful. The end of the triduum fell on Low Sunday, the f irs t Sunday a fte r E as te r , th a t day th a t Jesus had wished to be consecrated to His Mercy. Reminded again by Jesu s , S is te r F au s tina approached F a the r Sopocko, ask ing him to expose the image of the Divine Mercy a t the O stra B ram a’ chapel over the T rans la to r’s note: O s tra B rama - th e "Dawn G a te” or "Sharp Gate", a former gateway through th e fortified walls of old Vilnius. It is known th a t by the end of th e s ix teen th cen tu ry the re was veneration h e re for a pa inting on wood, covered la te r by an enamel jewelled revetement, of the Blessed Virgin a t the moment of the Annunciation; the image was formerly suspended in a wooden chapel over th e fortifications. I t resides now in a chapel, rebu ilt in 1839, over a s tree t in Vilnius, exposed to g rea t public veneration , and miracuvlous powers a re a t tr ibu ted to it, in Poland and L ithuan ia in particular. 206