Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

the Feas t of Pentecost - the la t te r being the la s t in he r life - had a decisive effect upon her. During the f i rs t re t re a t S is te r F au s tina took the decision to a t ta in holiness above all through prayer and the offering of h e r own sufferings for sinners. The question had been thoroughly though t through , and, as Je su s had accepted h e r decision with approval, S ister F au s tina lost no time in p u tting it into action. U n ­ fortunately the s ta te of h e r hea lth now no longer allowed h e r e ither to lead a normal life in he r community, or even to use h e r now freer time to the full for more prayer. She could do only one thing, bu t th is, in order to practise i t daily, required constant heroism. The aim was to accept all the sufferings of h e r illness and all adversities as gifts from Providence and to transform them into intercession for sinful souls. This "prayer" was to be said daily, regu larly and without a break. S ister F au s tina undertook h e r p lanned task a t once, s tra ig h t after the f irs t re tre a t , b u t obviously not on a heroic scale as yet, because more or less six months la te r as Lent was beginning in 1938, Je su s said th a t "He would take her to His school, to teach her how to suffer." This la s t stage in Je su s ’s school, which ended the programme of h e r life’s sp iritua l education, had a sim ilar course to th a t in the Gospels w ith the Apostles: i t began with the Passion of Ch ris t and las ted until Pentecost. She accompanied Ch ris t to Golgotha, ex­ periencing His Passion both sp iritua lly and physically. Her final and definitive joining in His redemptive grace and activity as an apostle of the Divine Mercy fell on the F ea s t of the Sending of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, after previous p repara tion in a three-day re trea t. This re t re a t was unde rtaken a t the desire of Jesus. S ister F au s tina already lay in hospital in a hopeless s ta te , barely able to drag he rse lf from h e r bed, bu t she still had s treng th for the re trea t . She therefore received th e permission of h e r superior to undertake it. 366