Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

Come, lovely flozvers o f morning tide; L e t your unique scent Adore and glorify Qod's mercy. Come, a d you lovely things o f earth, Which man does not cease to zvonder at. Come, adore Qod in your harmony, Qlorifying Qod’s inconceivable mercy. Come, indelible beauty o f a d the earth, and, zvith great humility, adore your Creator, ITor a d things are locked in Wis mercy; W i th one mighty voice a d things cry out; hozv great is the mercy o f Qod. (Diary, Notebook VI, para . 1750). S is te r F au s tin a ’s verses on the theme of the Eucharist have already been quoted in a preceding chap ter on page 295 of MS. Her verses say astonishingly little of the conflicts with which h e r life abounded. They a re the expression of h e r positive a ttitud e , qu ite approving whatever life brings, though they do no t hide th e presence of suffering and the essential ta sk of transform ing sufferings so th a t they have a divine value. The p a tte rn s for S is te r F au s t in a ’s poetic creativity are, to speak very generally, the Bible and those Polish liturgical and para litu rg ical tex ts she was able to obtain. Her method of construc ting sentences, certain archaism s and grandiloquence, indicate th a t she had absorbed a Biblical style. For i t was not only w ha t the Church said, bu t how i t said it, t h a t was, for her, the h ighest index of w ha t was of value. She therefore did not seek other models no t only most probably out of ignorance, as some have frequently suggested, because we do know th a t she was a t le a s t fam iliar with Polish poetry even if only in the narrow confines of th e school programme; b u t she chose h e r models most likely in 361