Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

Holy Mother’s help sometimes in visions, du ring which the Most Holy Mother, while comforting h e r and explaining, a t the same time s treng thened and sup­ ported h e r failing forces. These visions were not frequen t - they only gave an essential dose of sp iritual s treng th in moments of especial crisis. S ister F au s tin a ’s sp iritua l communion with Our Lady was so in tim a te and personal th a t i t excluded other types of devotion to the Blessed Virgin. We search in vain among S ister F au s tina ’s w ritings for some o ther of the many titles of Mary, th an Most Holy Mother. Even the calling of the Mother of God by the title "Queen of Poland", so popular in Poland, does no t appear,although S ister F au s tina very much loved h e r country. In the Diary, many pages have p raye rs for the intention of Poland, where i t m igh t seem t h a t invoking the Queen of Poland would be the obvious th ing to do. Neverthe­ less, th is title does no t appear. This is even more obvious where S is ter F au s tin a is describing h e r v isit to J a s n a Gora, the shrine of Czestochowa, the very centre of the Polish devotion to the Madonna. I t does no t seem to occur to h e r to call h e r "Queen", though she considered Poland to be the Kingdom of the Mother of God. For S ister Fau s tina , th e re too she was simply "Mother". The only exception is h e r use of the title The Immaculate Conception. To clarify why the invocation "Queen of Poland" is never found in S is ter F au s tin a ’s writings, I shall quote one or two of h e r most typical p rayers for h e r country. The first, which begins the en try of them in he r Diary, probably comes from th e yea r 1934, as i t is near the beginning. We learn t h a t Je su s had told h e r to say a novena for the in ten tions of h e r country, which was to be composed of the S ta tions of the Cross and a hou r’s adoration, du ring which she was to join her prayers with the Mother of God: '(Pray zvith your heart in anion zvith Mary... ' 'On the seventh day o f the novena I sazv, 6etzveen heaven and 351