Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

life. Our parents were very sad, and the children wer crying." (Arch. S.F.] Helenka was disappointed. She was helpless to di anything. Was she to obey h e r pa ren ts , or to follow th> voice of God in h e r soul? As she had been brought u] to be obedient, she tried to subm it to the will of he paren ts and to lead the life of an average young girl She began to dress well and two or th ree times shi went to a dance. Her la s t employer in Lodz, M r Sadowska, remembers th a t a t f irs t she hes ita ted t< employ Helenka, because she seemed to be too eleganth dressed when she came to work for the f irs t time. J u s t a t th is time, when she was try ing h e r hardes to be obedient to h e r paren ts , Helenka was severeh punished by h e r father. The incident is worth recording as i t is the only time h e r fa the r lifted his hand to her I t happened th a t Helenka, persuaded by h e r elde. sister, went to a dance with her. The ir fa the r agreed or condition th a t they were to be back early a t home. Th< dance went on and the two girls, who were hav ing i marvellous time, came back la te , accompanied home b> a boy they knew. Someone told th e ir fa th e r of this nexi day, and he fell into a passion. "They have hrough\ shame on me," he declared. He was especially annoyec th a t Helenka had betrayed h is t ru s t in her. The gir sheltered behind a bed, and, weeping, she promisee th a t i t would no t happen again. B u t the enraged father caugh t h e r there and b ea t h e r with h is belt, refusing to overlook h e r fault. Helenka was very h u r t by hei fa th e r’s accusation. She could no t calm down for some time. The quotation h e re and o the rs subsequently are from the Archives of S is te r Fau s tin a , also abbrev iated as Arch. SF Recoil (Archives of S is ter Fau s tin a . Recollections of people who knew her). 36