Ruzbeh N. Bharucha

74 The Saint of Mercy_Sister Maria Faustina

 

Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska or earlier known as Faustina Kowalska left her physical body at the young age of thirty three on October 5th 1938. She spent her life serving Her Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, and prayed for the damned, the miserable and took on the suffering of all those who truly sought mercy. She wrote a diary, which is now called Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, in which she has described Her Divine visions, as well as all that Lord Christ spoke to Her, and her journey to the abysses of hell.

 She was of the belief that anyone who truly sought Mercy from the Lord, was granted relief and was heard and was healed and was forgiven. The only thing required was a true yearning for Mercy and the firm faith that God is all Merciful and that no prayer goes unheard.

The prayer that She got from Jesus Christ and the One that She believed if prayed by anybody with a true heart would not go unheard is so beautiful and simple, that it makes one truly believe that though the law of karma spares nobody but Divine Mercy is beyond all laws ever created.

The prayer begins with the most beautiful and profound yearning….

I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection

This sentence says it all. She is not seeking any power or any spiritual enlightenment. All She seeks is to be transformed into a state of Mercy and Compassion as She sees the Lord and Master, as Mercy Personified.

Then comes the next line….

O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.  

 Then She makes it clear to the Lord that the greatest of His and Her Divine attributes is that of unquestionable Mercy and that may that Mercy pass through the heart of Her or anybody who truly believes in this, to the heart of the neighbour….which means to all of mankind.

Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue.  

Sister Maria Faustina then seeks from the Lord that Her eyes may also radiate Mercy, in the form of never judging or condemning from outward appearance and prejudices but going beyond all that to all that which is good and noble in each and everybody and pray for their wellbeing and seek mercy for them all.

Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings.  

And that not just Her heart but even Her intellect and her sense of being able to feel, see and hear the pain of another person in need and never to be indifferent to the suffering of another being.

Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.

And then She prays for something each one of us seem to take as part and parcel of life, but unknowingly cause others so much of hurt and anguish, by resorting to slander….and thus She prays that Her very tongue be filled with compassion, and if Her words are filled with empathy then one would never speak ill of another but instead always have words filled with love and comfort and forgiveness. As Baba Sai during channeling so often says, that the greatest mantra that saves each one of us from really creating negative karma is a very simple mantra….Just Shut Up. Most often we speak to hurt, slander, gossip and react. Thus Sister Faustina Kowalska’s prays that our very tongue is filled with mercy.

Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only

good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.   

Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.   

She seeks Merciful hands and feet so that She can serve others and take on as much as the tiresome tasks and always be present to run to help those in need as to serve those in need is like serving one’s God, Goddess and Master.

Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me (…).

And the most profound words with which She ends Her prayer. She prays that She can feel the pain and angst and the sorrow of all those She serves and those around Her, knowing very well that those She serves will be ungrateful and abuse Her kindness and also who will resort to slander and ingratitude but She still wants to serve and spread the love of Mercy as all She wants is to be able go deeper within the Merciful One, and bear Her Cross silently and all She seeks is the Mercy of The Lord. She is under no illusion that Her love and Her Mercy is going to be taken advantage of but all She wants to do is spread the beautiful fragrance and radiance of The Lord’s compassion and forgiveness.

 

O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself , for you can do all things.

Her last line says it all that all She seeks is that God, Goddess, Master make Her the reflection and embodiment of The One, as for The One, nothing is impossible.

So who is Sister Maria Faustina? Well most of Her life, She tried Her level best to avoid being in the thick of things. In fact She spent most of Her life as a domestic servant to take care of her parents and her nine or ten siblings or when in the monastery She played the role of a cook, a gardener, a porter and a doorkeeper.

She preferred to quietly go about Her life doing what most people consider to be either menial or ordinary work. Not many realised that all the while She lived two lives, one as humble worker and the other enveloped in union with Her Lord, undertaking paranormal journey’s, being a vessel for The Lord’s energy and words to flow through. She did not seek any spiritual gifts as for Her these gifts and what are often called Spiritual Powers, though eventually She could see the past, present and the future, but all this meant little, as the only thing She truly wanted was a Union with the Lord. In fact by the time She had taken on the suffering of mankind through prayers and thus left Her body, She had been bestowed with amazing gifts, such as Divine visions and revelations, being able to virtual reach and then read what lay within the depths of each human soul She came in contact with, the gift of prophecy, hidden stigmata and other powers which She always underplayed and never really took as a sign of anything spiritual.

Saint Faustina was born in 1905 near Poland. She was baptized with the name Helena and as a child itself, She loved to spend time in prayer but She worked hard, served Her family and always was filled with compassion for the less privileged and those in need though She came from a poor family Herself. In fact it is said that at the age of seven She knew that She wanted to become a nun and spend the rest of Her life serving humanity and all those suffering and in need of compassion and the Lord’s Mercy. She made Her first Holy Communion at the age of nine where She realised the presence of what She called The Divine Guest within Her soul…the Divine Guest was Lord Jesus.

Due to being poor, She barely could attend school and when very young, some say barely a teenager, while some claim Her to be about sixteen,  She began to work far from home, as a servant, in order to help Her family. She truly wanted to leave everything to serve God and Master and live in a monastery but for the next seven years continued to work as a domestic servant in order to provide for Her family.

At the age of twenty till She took Samadhi or merged with Lord Christ, She worked as a cook, gardener, a porter and door keeper in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, where She was named as Sister Maria Faustina. All Her life She had wanted to serve the Lord and wanted to lead a life that would make Jesus and every Saint happy and proud of Her.

During the thirteen years of Her stay at Our Lady of Mercy, Lord Jesus began to communicate with Sister Maria Faustina and chose Her as not only His Apostle but as He told Her, as His ‘Secretary’ of His Mercy and thus began the diary titled, Divine Mercy in My Soul.

 “Secretary of My most profound mystery,” the Lord Jesus said to Sr. Faustina, “know that your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me.”(Diary 1693)

One of the first messages Lord Jesus revealed to Sister Maria was:

“I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart.” (Diary, 1588)

Thoug- h She was graced with an awareness and a bond with Lord Christ, Mother Mary, the Archangels and the Saints as well had been given a firsthand guided tour to very abysses of hell and seen the condition of the souls in Purgatory Saint Maria Faustina was very clear that spirituality lay with Union with God and nothing more and nothing less. She makes it clear in Her Diary :

“Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God.”

But for me the most sublime words said by Lord Jesus to Her are as follows:

 ‘Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the doors of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the doors of My mercy must pass through the doors of My justice… ‘(1146)

It is so beautiful. Basically it means, either connect with The One as a child and have the fountain of Mercy cleanse you clean and make you pure and fresh or connect with The One as an adult and basically then let only that which you deserve be gifted to you or be unleashed on to you. In short you approach The One as an adult and it is safe to say you are ……..

The journey Saint Maria Faustina experienced where She was taken to the bowels of hell is worth a mention. The first line recorded in The Diary  about Her journey is:

“I, Sister Faustina Kowalska, by the order of God, have visited the Abysses of Hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence…the devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God, What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: That most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell.” (Diary 741) 

It is important to note that She writes that most souls in hell disbelieved that there was hell when they lived in the physical body and thus did not believe in the law of cause and effect and thus went about their lives with little responsibility of their thoughts, words and deeds. This is why Prophet Zarathustra based His religion of Zoroastrianism on the principles of Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds. A simple philosophy but really a bummer to live by.

Then Sister Maria writes:

“Today, I was led by an angel to the Chasms of Hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: 

The First Torture that constitutes hell is:
The loss of God.”

The loss of God means to be in a perpetual state of hopelessness, a state of being where there is only darkness, emptiness and despair. A dark world where there is no hope of dawn or anything to look forward to. The loss of God means loss of innocence and the reason to smile. It is the final and complete eclipse of the soul. Thus, even if there is a faint presence of God in one’s soul, there is an eternity of hope one can hold on to. The loss of God means hell.

Then the Saint writes: 

“The Second is:
Perpetual remorse of conscience.”

Hell is a state of mine. The absence of calmness is the presence of guilt and the weight of guilt means always being in a state of restlessness, fear and dread.

“The Third is
That one’s condition will never change.”

Which once again means a state of despair or gloom or depression or darkness. One need not have to die to be in a state of hell. The absence of God and Hope is hell itself.

“The Fourth is:
The fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it. A terrible suffering since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger.”

When there is no calmness, no joy, no hope, nothing positive to look forward to, it means to live with an unseen fire that chars one’s very soul, throttle one’s very breath and make life a raging fire that shall char everything that comes into its path.

“The Fifth Torture is:

Continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own.”

Disease is basically the absence of ease and when one has to perpetually lived in darkness, nauseated by one’s own misdeeds and see others around you go through the same state of perpetual disharmony with no hope for the Light to shine through, it reminds one of one’s own state of despondency.

“The Sixth Torture is:
The constant company of Satan.”

Satan represents everything that which is not innocent, joyous, radiant and heartwarming. To be in constant awareness that the cold night will never end and the sun shall never rise, is a reminder of all that which is not of God.

“The Seventh Torture is:

Horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies.”

When one realises that there is no hope and nothing to look forward to, the soul plunges into a state of further darkness and frustration and one begins to lash out and react in the most vile manner, further distancing you from The Light.

The She writes:

“These are the Tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings.

Indescribable Sufferings
There are special Tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings related to the manner in which it has sinned.”

Karma catches up and serves  you the same dish extremely cold. If one has resorted to violence, violence a hundredfold awaits the individual. If one has resorted to manipulation, one is manipulated a hundred fold. If one has slandered and hurt others, one too shall be slandered and hurt in a manner that one’s very heart will break.

“I would have died, there are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me.”

Thus, the pain and suffering is so real, that forget the one undergoing the experience of hell, it is so horrifying that even a bystander cannot bear to see the state of hopelessness.

“No One Can Say There is No Hell. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like…how terribly souls suffer there!”

 Hell is a state of mind and one has no escape from one’s own self or one’s own state of being. One’s consciousness is the sole Judge to what awaits each and every being, thus heaven and hell, lie within each one of us and the reward or ramifications are for sure awaiting. There is no escape from one’s own realisation of going away from The Light. 

 “Consequently, I pray even more fervently for the conversion of sinners. I incessantly plead God’s mercy upon them. O My Jesus, I would rather be in agony until the end of the world, amidst the greatest sufferings, than offend you by the least sin.” (Diary 741)

Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska thus knew how important it was to pray for Mercy and that is eventually what took Her life out of Her body. Her willingness to take on the suffering of all those who had sinned and were in a state of repentance and seeking mercy from The Lord, She prayed for them all and eventually as the karmic bill has to be paid by somebody, She agreed to pay the karmic bill of those who came into Her orbit and thus at the age of thirty three, She was all battered physically and as death needs an excuse She fell ill to tuberculosis. She continued to work and pray and seek mercy for all those who truly wanted to be dealt with compassion and on October 5th, 1938, She left Her body, but one thing is for sure, all those who seek mercy and remember Her and ask Her to pray for Them, She continues Her work of seeking mercy for us all.

Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska was canonized on April 30, 2000. Saint Maria Faustina’s mortal remains, Her Holy Tomb is at the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Krakow-Lagiewniki.

Every day at three in the afternoon countless seekers of Mercy pray to Sister Faustina. The prayer goes something like this:

“Saint Faustina, You told us that your mission would continue after Your leaving the body and that You would not forget us. Our Lord also granted You a great privilege, telling You to ‘distribute graces as you will, to who you will, and when you will’. Relying on this, we ask Your intercession for the graces we need, especially for the intentions just mentioned (mention what is it you are praying for and make sure you then pray for all those who are seeking Divine Mercy). Help us, above all, to trust in Jesus as you did and thus to glorify His mercy every moment of our lives. Amen”

Keep us in Your prayers Sister Maria. 

I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection.

O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.  

Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearences, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue.  

Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings.  

Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my nieghbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.  

Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.   

Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.   

Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me (…).

O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself , for you can do all things. (163)  

 

Ruzbeh N. Bharucha​​​

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