Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

when pray ing it was necessary to particularize those who needed our prayers more. S is ter Faustina was very anxious about the salvation o f one’s neighbour a nd she spoke o f it constantly... She often urged us to pray for the intention that people should know God better and love H im more... When we often received a reproof or penance for some breaking o f the rule, she would encourage us by saying:'' Dear Sisters, offer this penance to atone to God for the sins w ith which people in su lt Him". She added tha t sins are comm it­ ted by religious also,.. One day she asked me during recreation what were my du ties tha t day. I sa id that I had the heavy work o f watering the young trees in the garden, and tha t m y hands were aching from it. She encouraged me to do these duties as i f they were a penance, and to offer my labour for the sins o f mank ind . Later, in the evening she asked me i f I had remembered what she had sa id to me in recreation." (Arch. S.F. Recoil.). I have ru n somewhat ahead into the f irs t period of novitiate in these recollections only because they show no new element and can as well serve to illu s tra te the postulancy. There is still the same joyful sp iritua l climate of living with those who h ad th e same goals as Helena herself. I t was in such a mood and with such companions th a t Helena was p reparing for h e r approaching tak ing of th e veil, the first, introductory vows to Je su s after th e end of the postulancy. The visible sign of all th is was the clothing in th e h a b i t and the tak ing of a new name. This is a thresho ld in the religious life, the moment when new religious a re born. Dressed in a white wedding gown, Helena wen t to m ee t h e r Bridegroom a t th e a lta r . She re tu rned as S ister Faus tina . To im ita te th e line of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz: Obiit Helena, hie na ta est Faustina: S is te r F au s tina of the Blessed Sacrament. 73