Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

she from me. I was very happy w ith her because whatever I intended to do, she had already done for me. She was agreeable a n d amusing. In the evening, when she sat on her stool, my three children would gather round her a t once. They liked her because she told them stories and laughed, and they w ith her. I f I had to leave home, I could be free o f anxiety, because she d id everything at home better than I myself. When she left I don ’t know where she went. She was to have gone earlier, but she waited un til my baby was born. She was so obliging." This simple account gives a good picture of Helenka as she then was, and throws additional ligh t on her goodness. She was in a h u r ry to go because she was going to leave town to en te r th e convent. Bu t even when she was fulfilling h e r h e a r t ’s desire, she con­ sidered the needs of others. She left everything perfect­ ly organized and able to run w ithou t her. Helenka’s depa rtu re from Lodz took place suddenly in dramatic circumstances. J e su s had other p lans for h e r th an she thought. When the voice in h e r soul proved too weak to overcome h e r inn e r misgivings, God intervened. As she he rse lf re la tes , du ring a dance she had gone to with h e r sister, "‘White everybody zvas having a good time., my soul was e?(periencing deep torments. (As I began to dance, I suddenly saw Jesus at my side, Jesus racked w i th pain, stripped o f Jfis clothing, aCCcovered w ith wounds, who spoke these words to me: Odow (ong shad I pu t up w ith you and how (ong zv itt you keep pu tting Me off? M that moment the charming music stopped, [and] the company I was w ith vanished from my sight; there remained Jesus and I. I took, a seat by my dear sister, pretending to have a headache in order to cover up what 39