Today, October 5, we celebrate the Memorial of St Faustina Kowalska. She was born in 1905 to a poor but devout Polish family in 1905. At the age of 20, with little formal education, and having been rejected from several convents because of her poverty and lack of education, she entered the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She lived in convents in both Poland and Lithuania. Throughout her life, Jesus appeared to Sister Faustina. He asked her to become an apostle and secretary of his mercy, wanting her to write down the messages of Divine Mercy that he gave her. Jesus also asked her to have an image painted of his Divine Mercy, with red and white rays issuing from his heart, and to spread devotion to the Divine Mercy novena. Even before her death in 1938 at the age of 33, devotion to Divine Mercy began to spread throughout Poland. A boy in Poland at the time, Karol Wojtyla, heard about this image of Jesus’ Divine Mercy. That boy later became Pope John Paul II.
Pope John Paul II wrote: “It is truly marvelous how her devotion to the merciful Jesus is spreading in our contemporary world and gaining so many human hearts! This is doubtlessly a sign of the times — a sign of our twentieth century. The balance of this century, which is now ending, in addition to the advances which have often surpassed those of preceding eras, presents a deep restlessness and fear of the future. Where, if not in the Divine Mercy, can the world find refuge and the light of hope? Believers understand that perfectly.” On April 30, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized St. Faustina in what he was widely reported as saying was the happiest day of his life.
The Gospel today states the the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. We are called to be laborers in the fields of the Lord in different ways. Religious nuns and monks who devote their life to prayer and cloistered life have a particular role as laborers of the Lord. Sister Faustina has had a big impact in the Church in the image of Divine Mercy that Jesus communicated to her. We unite our prayers with her prayers today.
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