Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

improvement. We often d id say a novena for thi, intention. The prayers had an effect, for in a numbe i o f cases the behaviour o f the given persons indeec changed radically. In one case I believe tha t i f it hac not been for the prayers o f S is ter Faustina, one o f tfo sisters would have lost her vocation or become c caricature o f a nun, but tha t very sister improvec herself and later died a holy and model n u n ." (Archives of S.F., Recoil.) S im ilar incidents are recorded by S ister Bozena whom we have quoted above: "In the last year o f her life I spoke w ith Sistei Faustina once about a nun w ith whom we had been in the novitiate, and I mentioned tha t her behaviour and a ttitude to her superiors was not ideal. Sister Faustina said, "I am g lad you told me about it, Sister. I shall pray for her, tha t she may understand her vocation." Indeed, in the life o f that sister there was a radical change and she later died in Czestocho­ wa as a very holy nun." The occasions for the interchange of ideas were, above all, recreations. S ister F au s tin a had a particu lar gift for pu tting forward a serious and uplifting subject in an a ttrac tive form. She liked to say w ha t was filling h e r own h ea r t, and she did so effusively, in a lively, forceful and imaginative m anner. During these conver­ sations there was often very lively debate, in which - no m a t te r who was the re - S is te r F au s tina would take a clearly-defined and decisive standpoint, giving he r views w ithout timidity, b u t also w ithout ostentation. This view of h e r is also given by h e r superior in Vilnius, Mother Borgia: "Although without any special education, S ister Faustina was nevertheless well-read in religious and 424