Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

"It was our custom, "says S ister Felicia, "that no poor person should leave without help, but Sister Faustina kept this custom w ith the greatest joy." S ister Placida adds th a t "when a poor person came to the gate, and there was no one free to help him, S ister Faustina gladly offered to serve him." The more so, then , when she he rse lf was gatekeeper, did she take care th a t her "clients" did no t go away empty-handed. To feed the hungry and to clothe the naked was, she thought, a commandment of charity, to which there could be no refusal. "When S ister Faustina was gatekeeper in Cracow for some time, she tried w ith great care to help the poor, bringing them food and heating it up, and she d id it w ith pleasure and the knowledge tha t she was serving Jesus", says S ister E.L., confirming with h e r opinion an in teresting story. "Not long ago, I heard what the sisters were saying, tha t once a poor woman came to the gate ask ing for a nightdress. S ister Faustina went to the Superior to present th is request. There were some difficulties in fu lfilling th is request, but Sister Faustina begged so hard tha t the Superior allowed her to give the poor woman her own nightdress." "I m yse lf saw", adds S is ter A., "with wha t jo y and how gladly she came to the kitchen for food for the poor. Sometimes there was no th ing left to give, but she would ask i f something couldn’t be found, so as not to turn anyone away w ithout alms." S ister A. gives ano ther detail additionally illustrative of S ister F au s tina ’s kindliness: "She also went outside to visit the sick. I recall that once, when I was in the cellar, S ister Faustina came, dressed, to go out, to take something. When I asked 446