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Home , Faustina Kowalska, Mercy

OF August 25, 1905 – October 5, 1938 THE WEEK Feast Day—October 5

On Divine Sunday, celebrated the weekend And when he had said this, he breathed after , the Gospel tells the story of when on them and said to them, appeared in a locked room where the disciples were “Receive the Holy Spirit. hiding. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” John 20:19-23 We recognize St. Faustina as the Saint of the Week Jesus came and stood in their midst this week, even though her feast is in October, and said to them, “ be with you.” because of her role in spreading the message of When he had said this, he showed them . Jesus appeared to her many times his hands and his side. and spoke of his great and unfathomable mercy The disciples rejoiced when to those who would trust in him. Jesus told St. they saw the Lord. Faustina that he wanted the Sunday after Easter Jesus said to them again, to be celebrated as a “Feast of Mercy,” as a refuge “Peace be with you. for all , especially poor sinners. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

t. Faustina was born in 1905 into a poor consolations. She had many visions of Jesus Polish family and experienced a religious and wrote a diary of her experiences. St. Scalling from a young age. Faustina died from tuberculo- She initially deferred pursuing sis at the age of 33 in 1938. a religious vocation to help her family with her earnings as a In 1959, the Vatican suppressed housekeeper. At age 19, after a the Divine Mercy devotion. But in vision of the Jesus, she 1978, the Sacred Congregation earnestly sought entrance into for the Doctrine of the lifted religious life. Initially turned away the suppression after new original by many , she entered documents were examined and the order of the Sisters of Our texts were retranslated. Then- Lady of Mercy in August 1925. In Cardinal Karol Wojtyla strongly April 1928, she took her first vows promoted the message of Divine with her parents in attendance. Mercy. Later, as John Paul II, he canonized St. Faustina, in St. Faustina served the Cong- April 2000, and designated the regation in Krakow, Plock, and as as a cook, gardener, and . Because porter. While living a simple reli- of her work fostering devotion gious life, she grew in great union with , to Divine Mercy, St. Faustina is known as the experiencing profound as well as “ of Divine Mercy.”

Copyright © 2018, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. USCCB Scripture excerpt taken from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. All rights reserved.

Image: CNS photo of St. Faustina Kowalska with an image of Jesus Christ the Divine Mercy, The of the Divine Mercy, Sauke Centre, Minnesota, taken by Nancy Wiechec.