Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

ex ten t impaired. S ister J . recalls th a t even a t th e time of h e r novitiate she was "slight and anaemic", she had problems with h e r work in th e kitchen; "She had to gasp for b re a th and became weak. She lost weight." I t sometimes happened th a t the D irectress of Novices would dispense h e r from going for a walk, as causing h e r too much effort, etc. Halfway through h e r novitiate, a new factor emerges, which led to h e r marked exhaustion. Namely, i t was a t th a t time th a t S is te r F au s tin a began h e r mystical nights, which las ted for almost six months from the time of h e r firs t annua l vows. This long-lasting sp iritu ­ al experience affected h e r physically to such an extent th a t all who surrounded h e r were full of sympathy for the obvious change w ithin her. Here we have for the f irs t time in the life of S ister F au s tina such an evident connection between the sp iritual and th e physical factors. As h e r difficult vocation in life developed, th e sp iritua l factor had increasing influence on h e r physique, so i t becomes more difficult to estim a te correctly h e r rea l s ta te of hea lth . The symptoms she displayed would sometimes m islead those around her, focusing th e ir a tten tion in the wrong direction. The severe sp iritua l tr ia ls during S ister F au s t in a ’s novitiate caused her additional exhaustion, and an exhausted body h a s insufficient resistance, so th a t any infection can take hold and develop. This is w ha t now occurred. The illness did not take long to manifest itself, and because i t was not immediately diagnosed, i t is impossible to say when, exactly, i t began. Tuberculosis has th is specific feature: i t can lie dorm an t in someone for years, inactive or weakly active, un til favourable circumstances s t ir i t into development. In S ister Fau s tina , those circumstances were now operative. As she notes in the Diary: ’When I fetC sict^ after my f ir s t vozvs and when, despite the hind and soticitous care o f my Superiors and 258