Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

against the souC... Since that time, I have heen hiving under the virginal cloaks o f the Mother o f Qod. She has 6een guarding and instructing me. I am quite at peace, chose to 9her Immaculate Sheart." (Diary, Notebook III, paras. 1095, 1096). In the ligh t of the above admissions, i t is hardly surprising to learn th a t S is te r F au s tina ’s favourite F ea s t of Our Lady was th e Feas t of the Immaculate Conception. She prepared for i t annually with g rea t scrupulousness. Always prayerful, she still fu rthe r increased her religious practices a t th is time, in order in some way to honour th is a t tr ibu te of Our Lady which particu larly a ttrac ted h e r soul, and to which she felt personally attached . In h e r Diary for 8th December 1937 we find an exact description of what she did, which is the more significant for us as th is was to be th e la s t Feas t of the Immaculate Conception during S ister F aus tina ’s life: ‘I t is zvith great zea l that I have prepared fo r the celebration o f the fe a s t o f the Immaculate Conception o f the Mother o f Qod. I have made an e?ctra effort to keep recollected in spirit and have meditated on that unique privilege o f Our Lady... I prepared not only hy means o f the novena sa id in common hy the zvhole community > hut I also made a personal effort to salute Oder a thousand times each day, saying a thousand "Mail Marys" fo r nine days in Mer praise. Lhis is nozv the third time I have sa id such a novena to the Mother o f Qod... Although I have done this nozv three times in my life, and tzvo o f these zvhile in the course o f my duties... carrying out my tasks zvith the greatest exactitude, I have alzvays said the novena outside the time o f my exercises: that is to say, I have 346