Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

la s t period of h e r life. Th is knowledge was not a t all caused by resignation from it, due to illness. I t was the re su lt of a sp iritua l m a tu rity a t ta in ed no t long before h e r death . As always, she ready to do everything th a t Je su s asked. B u t He did no t p e rm it h e r to make th is g rea te s t sacrifice - He accepted ju s t the read iness to make it. This la s t gift of J e su s ’ love, allowing h e r to remain in the congregation where she had completed h e r lifetime’s vocation, was, for S is te r F au s tin a a t the end of h e r life, a source of additional deep joy, which shone through even the most severe physical sufferings. The then Superior of the Cracow convent, Mother Irene Krzyzanowska, wrote movingly of th is , and she sta ted th a t previously: "...I often saw her upset tha t the matter o f the Feast o f Divine Mercy was progressing so slowly, as indeed was the whole cultus o f the Divine Mercy. One could observe much uneven behaviour: sometimes she was very happy, other times sadder, which had not been the case before... "When she come back from [the hospital in] Pradnik," Mother Irene continued, "I liked to visit her in her isolation ward, for our sick S ister was so peaceful and had such strange charm. How she had changed! She took a ll anxieties over the whole question o f the Divine Mercy calmly, subm itting to the will o f God: "There will be a Feast o f Divine Mercy, I see it; I want only the w ill o f God." "In our conversation, when she spoke o f another congregation I sa id to her tha t the Divine Mercy would not leave us. She d id not disagree..." (Archives of S.F., Recollections). When we observers on th e sidelines look a t the sp iritua l journeys of S ister F au s tin a , i t is h a rd to re s is t the though t th a t God p u t h e r to a sim ilar te s t to th a t He had given Abraham in times of old. Both in the case in the Old Tes tam en t and in th is, a gift offered by God H imself as a m ark of special grace had to be given 249