Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

And ye t Mother J a n e had a very favourable opinion of the young candidate. Mother Michael, then Superior of the Warsaw convent, said t h a t a couple of months a fte r Helena had arrived, Mother J a n e described h e r as "a soul in very close contact w ith the Lord Jesus". Was th is perhaps why she w an ted to te s t her? However, i t was no t only th e demands of he r M istress of Postu lan ts which posed Helena a problem h a rd to accept. The Senior S is te r of the kitchen, whom Helena was ins truc ted to help , added quite other demands. The problem was one of prayer. S ister Sabina T. fe lt i t was not necessary for Helena to v is it the B’essed Sacram en t or for f requ en t p rayer du ring he r duties, considering th a t when th e re was plenty of work i t was not appropriate. She even explained th a t Helena, not ye t being a nun , had no obligation to observe the requ ired devotions strictly. I t would be sufficient i f she performed the most essential. This lack of priority for religious practices was impossible for a girl of Helena’s type to accept, and i t deeply offended h e r religious feelings. Thus, in these circumstances doing w ha t Je su s had asked her, to stay in th a t convent, needed much effort, when she h ad taken th e decision to leave. Her fa ith , th e prime motivator of h e r behaviour, for th e f irs t time had to overcome w ha t h e r reason was showing her. She had to accept, blindly and aga in s t h e r own inclinations, a style of life foreign to h e r because th is was w ha t Je su s wanted. She noted in he r Diary, “In the convent, a t f ir s t it seems that the zvorhi and the life are hard, hut hater everything Becomes pheasant and one is happy.' At th e beginning of 1926, Helena w en t to Cracow to fin ish the postulancy and begin h e r novitiate. Here she found a quite different atmosphere and other a ttitudes . The Directress was S is te r M a rga re t Gimbutt, an older woman b u t no t a t all like Mother Jane . S ilen t and 71