Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

Mercy. This is why, a fte r the celebrations were over, she h ad the feeling th a t she now well understood the close connection between th e Redemption and the Divine Mercy. ' I see. now that the zvorli o f ad em p tion is hound up u)itfi the morf^ o f mercy requested hy the Lord." (Diary, Notebook I, para . 89). The g rea t feast had passed, and the rhy thm of everyday life was reestablished. But S is ter F aus tina was no t the same as she had been before.She had emerged as an apostle, fully conscious of the greatness of the mission en trusted to her, bu rn ing with the desire to save souls. Everything she h ad been given to ex­ perience was only the perfecting of the tool Je su s had chosen to do His work. Each of he r painful and difficult experiences had ended in victory for h e r mission. Now she lived with only one thought, which imbued every­ th ing she did. W ha t of the fu rthe r history of the painting? Fa the r Sopocko te lls us: "After the service, the p a in ting was pu t back in its former place o f concealment and remained there for another two years. I t was only on 1st April 1937 that I asked H is Grace the Metropolitan Archbishop of Vilnius for permission to hang the image in the Church o f St. Michael, where I was s till the rector. His Grace said that he d id not wish to decide on this by himself, and he asked a commission to look at the picture. Being occupied w ith work at the Sem inary and the University, I was not present when the commission looked a t the painting, nor do I know who served on the commission. On 3rd A p r il 1937, H is Grace the Metropolitan Archbishop informed me tha t he now had exact information about the painting , and that he would allow it to be consecrated and placed in the 218