Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

you fo r that office in this life and the ne^t fife,' said Jesus. (Diary, Notebook VI, para . 1605). J e su s ’ s ta tem en t th a t S is te r F au s t in a was no t only the apostle b u t also the secre tary of His Mercy gives us th e additional explanation of why, exhausted in the ex­ treme, she did no t le t th e pen fall from h e r hand as long as she could hold it. Her sudden breaking-off the diary does no t m ean th a t she m igh t no t have had any th ing more to say, b u t th a t th e pen slipped from h e r powerless grasp. To th e end of h e r life there rem a ined to h e r one th ing - the most im portan t: prayer, which had become a lmost exclusively th e p raye r of suffering. This ended only with h e r death. One of h e r la s t reflections, in th e Diary, Notebook V, pa ra . 1582, ran like this: °0 my Jesus, I non) embrace the whole world and ash. ;you f o r mercy fo r it. ‘When ‘f o u tell me, O Qod, that it is enough, that ‘yo u r holy zvill has been completely accomplished, then, my Saviour, in union zvith you , I zvill commit my sou l into the hands o f the Jbeavenly fa ther , f u l l o f trust in f o u r unfathomable mercy. A n d when I s tand at the fo o t o f yo u r throne, the f ir s t hymn that I zvill sing zvill be one to yo u r mercy. ‘Poor earth, I zvill not forget you. Although I f e e l that I zvill be immediately drozvned in Qod as in an ocean o f happiness, that zvill not be an obstacle to my returning to earth to encourage souls and incite then to trust in Qod’s mercy. Indeed, this immersion in Qod zvillgive me the possibility o f boundless action.’ 311