Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

Misfortune, however, calls forth sympathy. The self-sacrificing and magnanimous h a s ten to offer help. Such were the beginnings of th e Congregation of S isters of Our Lady of Mercy, who se t themselves to draw such girls out of the moral swamp, and having offered them the m aterial conditions for survival, enable them to re tu rn to an honest way of life. Their ta sk was by no m eans easy: a t the beginning i t was like struggling through thick mud. Society was m istrustful of th is new religio-social initiative, frequen t­ ly inimical, and in any case definitely wanted no p a r t in such charitable action. This in tu rn inhibited the growth of the young Congregation, which earned its keep by needlework, yet, despite the high professional qualifications of its members, did no t receive sufficient orders of work from the su rround ing town. This social boycott took many forms, and obstinately persisted. For many years the "House of Mercy" suffered extreme poverty. These circumstances explain the ra th e r unusual beginnings of th e Congregation, for independently two "Houses of Mercy" arose in France, each with an identical purpose. The f irs t to be founded was th a t in Bordeaux, se t up and run by Mademoiselle Therese de Lamourous. I t was already established when Therese Rondeau founded her "House of Mercy" in Laval. Having ne ither the experience nor the tra in ing for th is type of work, the young, twenty-five-year-old Therese decided to join forces with Mile, de Lamourous. She spen t an eight-month novitiate in Bordeaux and decided to p u t her own house u nd e r the Rule of Mile, de Lamourous. Pu tting th is into practice, however, soon proved impossible. Both Houses had such huge pro­ blems of accommodation th a t it was necessary to give up the ir firs t plan and run them independently of each other, adap ting to the local possibilities, ge tting each town used to the new in itia tives separately, and teaching the ir societies the advantages th a t would 390