Saint Faustina Kowalska

Helena Kowalska was born on 25 August 1905 in the village of Głogowiec, Poland, the third of ten children of the peasant couple Stanisław and Marianna Kowalski. Baptized Elena in the parish church of Świnice Warckie, she showed from childhood a love of prayer, diligence, obedience, and a keen sensitivity to human poverty. At nine she received First Holy Communion and became deeply aware of the Divine Guest in her soul. She attended school for barely three years. Still an adolescent, she left home to work as a domestic servant in Aleksandrów, Łódź, and Ostrówek, supporting herself and helping her parents.

From her seventh year she felt a religious vocation, yet without her parents' consent she tried to suppress it. At about eighteen and a half, during a dance in a Łódź park, she beheld a vision of the suffering Christ who asked how long she would put Him off. She went at once to the cathedral, then took a train to Warsaw with only the dress she wore. After working as a housemaid to gather the needed dowry, on 1 August 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. Clothed in the habit on 30 April 1926, she received the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. She made first vows in April 1928 and perpetual vows on 1 May 1933 at Łagiewniki. For thirteen years she lived in various houses of the Congregation—especially Kraków, Vilnius, and Płock—serving as cook, gardener, and portress.

Outwardly nothing betrayed her extraordinarily rich mystical life. She performed every task diligently, kept the rule faithfully, remained recollected and silent, yet full of disinterested, kindly love. Her apparently ordinary, grey existence hid a profound union with God. At the heart of her spirituality stood the mystery of Divine Mercy, which she contemplated in Scripture and in daily life; from it grew filial trust in God and mercy toward neighbor. She wrote that she desired to mirror Christ's compassionate, merciful Heart and to have His mercy sealed upon her heart and soul as her distinctive mark in this life and the next.

On the night of 22 February 1931 in Płock, Jesus appeared to her in a white garment, with red and pale rays streaming from His Heart, and commanded her to paint an image according to the pattern she saw, signed "Jesus, I trust in You," to be venerated first in her chapel and then throughout the world, promising that the soul who venerated it would not perish. He also desired that the image be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter as the Feast of Mercy. Unable to paint, she later, with the help of her confessor Father Michał Sopoćko in Vilnius, commissioned the artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski; the first image was completed in June 1934. Father Sopoćko preached the first sermon on Divine Mercy and celebrated Mass before the painting. Sister Faustina recorded her conversations with Jesus in her Diary, later published as Divine Mercy in My Soul. The Lord entrusted her with the message of mercy for the whole world and called her to cooperate in the salvation of souls, offering her life in sacrifice after His example.

Her religious years abounded in extraordinary graces—revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Lord's Passion, bilocation, reading of souls, prophecy, and mystical betrothal and marriage—yet she knew that holiness consists not in these gifts but in the intimate union of the will with God's will. She loved the Eucharist and held a deep devotion to Our Lady of Mercy. Destroyed by illness (tuberculosis) and by sufferings she willingly bore as a sacrifice for sinners, she died in Kraków on 5 October 1938 at the age of thirty-three, mystically united to God. The fame of her holiness grew with the spread of the Divine Mercy devotion and the graces obtained through her intercession. The informative process was held in Kraków (1965–67); the beatification process concluded in Rome in December 1992. Pope John Paul II beatified her in Saint Peter's Square on 18 April 1993 and canonized her on 30 April 2000. Her relics rest in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy at Kraków-Łagiewniki.

May Saint Faustina obtain for us a deeper trust in Divine Mercy, and let us practice today merciful love toward our neighbor.

PAPAL CHAPEL FOR THE CANONIZATION OF BLESSED MARIA FAUSTYNA KOWALSKA

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II

Sunday, April 30, 2000

1. \"Praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever\" (Ps 118:1). Thus the Church sings in the Octave of Easter, as if gathering these words of the Psalm from the very lips of Christ; from the lips of the risen Christ, who in the Upper Room brings the great proclamation of divine mercy and entrusts its ministry to the Apostles: \"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, even so I send you... Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained\" (Jn 20:21-23).

Before uttering these words, Jesus shows His hands and His side. He points to the wounds of the Passion, above all the wound of His heart, the source from which gushes forth the great wave of mercy that pours over humanity. From that heart, Sister Faustina Kowalska—the blessed woman whom from now on we will call a saint—would see two rays of light issue forth and enlighten the world: \"The two rays,\" Jesus Himself explained to her one day, \"represent the blood and the water\" (Diary, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, p. 132).

2. Blood and water! The mind goes to the testimony of the Evangelist John who, when a soldier on Calvary pierced Christ's side with a lance, saw \"blood and water\" flow out (cf. Jn 19:34). And if the blood evokes the sacrifice of the cross and the Eucharistic gift, the water, in Johannine symbolism, recalls not only baptism, but also the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. (Jn 3:5); 4:14; 7:37-39).

Through the heart of Christ crucified, divine mercy reaches men: \"My daughter, tell that I am Love and Mercy personified,\" Jesus will ask Sister Faustina (Diary, 374). This mercy Christ pours out upon humanity by sending the Spirit who, in the Trinity, is Love-Person. And is not mercy a \"second name\" for love (cf. Dives in Misericordia, 7), grasped in its deepest and tenderest aspect, in its attitude of taking upon itself every need, above all in its immense capacity for forgiveness?

My joy is truly great today in proposing to the entire Church, as a gift of God for our time, the life and testimony of Sister Faustina Kowalska. By divine Providence, the life of this humble daughter of Poland has been completely bound to the history of the twentieth century, the century we have just left behind. It was, in fact, between the first and second world wars that Christ entrusted His message of mercy to her. Those who remember, who were witnesses and participants in the events of those years and the horrible sufferings that resulted for millions of men, know well how necessary the message of mercy was.

Jesus said to Sister Faustina: \"Humanity will not find peace until it turns with trust to divine mercy\" (Diary, p. 132). Through the work of the Polish religious, this message has become forever linked to the twentieth century, the last of the second millennium and a bridge toward the third millennium. It is not a new message, but it can be considered a gift of special illumination, which helps us to live the Gospel of Easter more intensely, in order to offer it as a ray of light to the men and women of our time.

3. What will the years before us bring? What will the future of man on earth be like? It is not given to us to know. It is certain, however, that alongside new progress there will not lack, unfortunately, painful experiences. But the light of divine mercy, which the Lord wished to entrust anew to the world through the charism of Sister Faustina, will illuminate the path of the men of the third millennium.

Like the Apostles of old, however, it is necessary that the humanity of today also welcome the risen Christ into the upper room of history, as He shows the wounds of His crucifixion and repeats: Peace be with you! It is necessary that humanity allow itself to be reached and permeated by the Spirit that the risen Christ gives it. It is the Spirit who heals the wounds of the heart, breaks down the barriers that separate us from God and divide us from one another, and restores both the joy of the Father's love and that of fraternal unity.

4. It is important, then, that we gather in its entirety the message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be called "Divine Mercy Sunday". In the various readings, the liturgy seems to trace the path of mercy which, while rebuilding each person's relationship with God, also fosters new relationships of fraternal solidarity among men. Christ taught us that "man not only receives and experiences the mercy of God, but is also called to 'practice mercy' toward others: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Mt 5:7)" (Dives in Misericordia, 14). He then pointed out to us the multiple paths of mercy, which not only forgives sins, but also meets all human needs. Jesus stooped down to every human misery, both material and spiritual.

His message of mercy continues to reach us through the gesture of His hands outstretched toward suffering humanity. This is how Sister Faustina saw Him and announced Him to the people of all continents; hidden in her convent in Łagiewniki, Kraków, she made her existence a hymn to mercy: Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.

5. The canonization of Sister Faustina has a special eloquence: by this act I intend today to pass on this message to the new millennium. I pass it on to all people so that they may learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their brothers and sisters.

Love of God and love of brothers and sisters are in fact inseparable, as the first Letter of John reminds us: "In this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments" (5:2). The Apostle calls us here to the truth of love, pointing out to us in the observance of the commandments its measure and criterion.

Indeed, it is not easy to love with a profound love, made of authentic self-giving. This love is learned only at the school of God, in the warmth of His charity. By fixing our gaze upon Him, by tuning ourselves to His Fatherly heart, we become capable of looking at our brothers and sisters with new eyes, in an attitude of gratuitousness and sharing, of generosity and forgiveness. All of this is mercy!

To the extent that humanity manages to learn the secret of this merciful gaze, the ideal picture proposed in the first reading reveals itself as an achievable prospect: "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common" (Acts 4:32). Here the mercy of the heart has also become a style of relationships, a community project, a sharing of goods. Here the spiritual and corporal "works of mercy" have flourished. Here mercy has become a concrete making oneself a "neighbor" to the most needy brothers and sisters.

6. Sister Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary: "I feel a tremendous pain when I observe the sufferings of my neighbor. All the pains of my neighbor reverberate in my heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it physically annihilates me. I would desire that all pains fell upon me, in order to bring relief to my neighbor" (Diary, p. 365). Behold to what point of sharing love leads when it is measured against the love of God!

It is to this love that today's humanity must look for inspiration to face the crisis of meaning, the challenges of the most diverse needs, and above all the requirement to safeguard the dignity of every human person. The message of Divine Mercy is thus, implicitly, also a message about the value of every human being. Each person is precious in God's eyes; for each one Christ gave His life, and to all the Father gives the gift of His Spirit and offers access to His intimacy.

7. This comforting message is addressed above all to those who, afflicted by a particularly hard trial or crushed by the weight of past sins, have lost all confidence in life and are tempted to yield to despair. To them is presented the gentle face of Christ; upon them shine those rays that issue from His Heart, illuminating, warming, indicating the path, and instilling hope. How many souls have already been comforted by the invocation "Jesus, I trust in You," which Providence inspired through Sister Faustina! This simple act of abandonment to Jesus pierces the thickest clouds and lets a ray of light pass into every person's life.

8. Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo (Ps 88 [89]:2). To the voice of Mary Most Holy, the "Mother of Mercy," to the voice of this new Saint, who in the heavenly Jerusalem sings of mercy together with all the friends of God, let us too, the pilgrim Church, unite our voice.

And you, Faustina, a gift of God to our time, a gift from the land of Poland to the whole Church, obtain for us the grace to perceive the depth of divine mercy, help us to experience it vividly, and to bear witness to it before our brothers and sisters. May your message of light and hope spread throughout the world, prompt sinners to conversion, calm rivalries and hatreds, and open men and nations to the practice of brotherhood. Today, fixing our gaze with you on the face of the risen Christ, we make your prayer of trusting abandonment our own and say with firm hope: Jesus, I trust in You!

Sister Maria Faustina, the apostle of Divine Mercy, today belongs to the group of the Church's best-known saints. Through her, the Lord sends to the world the great message of Divine Mercy and shows an example of Christian perfection based on trust in God and a merciful attitude toward one's neighbor.

Sister Maria Faustina was a faithful daughter of the Church, whom she loved as Mother and as the Mystical Body of Christ. Conscious of her role in the Church, she cooperated with Divine Mercy in the work of saving lost souls. Responding to the desire and example of Jesus, she offered her life in sacrifice. Her spiritual life was further characterized by her love for the Eucharist and by a profound devotion to the Mother of God of Mercy.

The years of her religious life abounded in extraordinary graces: revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Lord's passion, the gift of ubiquity, the gift of reading human souls, the gift of prophecy, and the rare gift of mystical betrothal and marriage. Her living contact with God, with Our Lady, with the angels, with the saints, with the souls in purgatory, and with the entire supernatural world was no less real and concrete to her than that which she experienced with her senses. Despite the gift of so many extraordinary graces, she was aware that they do not constitute the essence of sanctity. She wrote in her "Diary": "Neither graces, nor revelations, nor ecstasies, nor any other gift bestowed upon it make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of my soul with God. Gifts are merely an ornament of the soul, but they constitute neither its substance nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God" (Notebook III, 28).

The Lord chose Sister Maria Faustina as the secretary and apostle of His mercy to transmit, through her, a great message to the world: "In the Old Testament I sent prophets to My people with thunderbolts. Today I am sending you to the whole of mankind with My mercy. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful Heart" (Notebook V, 155).

Sister Maria Faustina's mission consisted of three tasks:

– To bring closer and proclaim to the world the truth revealed in Sacred Scripture concerning God's Mercy for every person.

– To implore Divine Mercy for the whole world, especially for sinners, notably through the new forms of devotion to Divine Mercy indicated by Jesus: the image of Christ with the inscription "Jesus, I trust in You," the Feast of Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and prayer at the Hour of Divine Mercy (3:00 PM). To these forms of devotion, as well as to the spread of the veneration of Mercy, the Lord attached great promises on condition of trust in God and the practice of active love for one's neighbor.

– To inspire an apostolic movement of Divine Mercy with the task of proclaiming and imploring Divine Mercy for the world and of striving for Christian perfection along the path indicated by Sister Maria Faustina. This is the path that prescribes an attitude of filial trust, the fulfillment of God's will, and an attitude of mercy toward one's neighbor.

Today this movement gathers millions of people from all over the world within the Church: religious congregations, secular institutes, priests, confraternities, associations, various communities of apostles of Divine Mercy, and individuals who undertake the tasks that the Lord transmitted to Sister Maria Faustina.

Sister Maria Faustina's mission was described in the "Diary" that she kept in accordance with Jesus' desire and the suggestions of her confessors, faithfully recording all of Jesus' words and revealing her soul's contact with Him. The Lord said to Faustina: Secretary of My deepest mystery, ... your deepest task is to write down everything I make known to you about My mercy, for the good of souls who, by reading these writings, will experience inner comfort and be encouraged to approach Me (Notebook VI, 67). Indeed, this work brings the mystery of Divine Mercy extraordinarily close; the "Diary" fascinates not only ordinary people but also researchers, who discover in it a supplementary source for their theological studies. The "Diary" has been translated into various languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Slovak, and Arabic.

Apostle of the Divine Mercy: "O my Jesus, each of Your saints reflects one of Your virtues in themselves; I desire to reflect Your compassionate Heart full of mercy, I want to glorify it."

The Lord said to Faustina: "Secretary of My deepest mystery. My daughter, tell them that I am Love and Mercy personified"

BEATIFICATION OF THREE PRIESTS AND TWO NUNS

HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II

Sunday, 18 April 1993

1. "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever" (Ps 118: 1). This psalm of thanksgiving cuts across the entire octave of Easter like a beam of light. It is the choral "thank you" of the Church, which adores God for the gift of Christ's Resurrection: for the gift of new and eternal life, revealed in the Risen One. With one voice, the Church adores and gives thanks for the infinite love that, in Him, has been communicated to every person and to the entire universe. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... in his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Pet 1: 3). He has given us new birth "in his great mercy" (1 Pet 1: 3), He, the God and Father of the crucified and risen Christ: "dives in misericordia". The Church has lived with this profound awareness since its very beginnings. In a spirit of Easter thanksgiving, the first disciples and the faithful gathered together, breaking bread in their homes (cf. Acts 2: 46), that is, celebrating the Eucharist. In this same spirit, the apostolic community welcomed and accompanied catechumens, as the number grew of those who blessed God, of those who professed Him to be "rich in mercy" (Eph 2: 4), thanking Him for the love revealed in Christ.

2. Today the same Church, reborn "to a living hope", gives thanks for "an inheritance that is imperishable... kept in heaven" for us (1 Pet 1: 3-4). The Christian people — on the threshold of the year 2000 — express their Easter joy because of some of their sons and daughters who, in a special way, confirm this inheritance of God kept in heaven for us. Here are their names: Lodovico da Casoria, Paula Montal Fornés de San José Calasanz, Stanislaw Kazimierczyk, Angela Truszkowska, Faustyna Kowalska.

3. I greet you, Blessed Ludovico da Casoria, unique figure of a Friar Minor and fervent witness to the charity of Christ. We are moved by the words of your Testament: "The Lord called me to Himself with a most sweet love, and with infinite charity He guided and directed me on the path of my life." The power of this love urged you, an accomplished scholar and teacher, to dedicate yourself to the poorest: to sick priests, African immigrants, the mute, the blind, the elderly, orphans. Blessed Ludovico, great son of the Church of Naples, you made the charism of Francis of Assisi your own and lived it in the society of your time, in Southern Italy of the last century, taking on active responsibility in the face of the most serious forms of poverty, immersing yourself with Christian compassion in the concrete history of your people and their daily tragedies. The breadth of the scope of your apostolate leaves us almost in disbelief, and we naturally ask you: How were you able to become a neighbor to so much misery, with such "creativity" in human promotion? And your words answer us once again: "The love of Christ had wounded my heart" (Testament). We ask you to teach us too to live for others and to be builders of authentic ecclesial communities, in which charity flourishes in joy and working hope. "The poor you will always have with you" (Mt 26: 11), Jesus told us. Help us, Blessed Ludovico, to discover them, to love them, to serve them with that zeal which accomplished wonders in you.

4. The new Blessed, Paula Montal de San José de Calasanz, was throughout her life a devoted apostle of the cultural, human, and Christian advancement of women. In total abandonment to the will of God and with only \"forty reals in her pocket\" – as history recounts – she opened the first school for girls to teach them, above all, the love of God and the dignity of woman as a future mother of a family. \"I want to save families,\" she would repeat insistently. With this goal, she founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary, Pious Schools Religious, living the Calasanzian spirituality to the full and taking a fourth vow to dedicate herself exclusively to teaching. The charism of Blessed Paula Montal lives on in you, beloved Piarist Religious, and her elevation today to the honors of the altar represents an urgent invitation that the Lord addresses to you so that you may renew, as consecrated souls, your fruitful ecclesial service in fidelity to her charism, in favor of the dignity of woman and of the family. May God grant that through her intercession and example, the educational action of the Church for children and youth may receive a decisive impulse, giving new vigor to the Christian roots of the noble Spanish Nation, represented here by a large group of Bishops, Authorities, priests, religious – particularly Piarists – women religious, and numerous the faithful, whom I greet with special affection.

5. I greet you, Mother Maria Angela Truszkowska, Mother of the great Felician family. You were a witness to the difficult history of our nation and of the Church, which carried out its mission within this nation. Your name and vocation are linked to the figure of Blessed Honorat Koźmiński, the great apostle of hidden congregations, which renewed the life of a tormented society and restored the hope of resurrection.

Today I make a pilgrimage to your relics in my beloved Krakow, where the Felician family developed, and from whence it went across the ocean to serve new generations of emigrants and Americans.

Christ led Mother Angela by a truly exceptional path, causing her to share intimately in the mystery of his Cross. He formed her spirit by means of numerous sufferings, which she accepted with faith and a truly heroic submission to his will: in seclusion and in solitude, in a long and trying illness and in the dark night of the soul.

Her greatest desire was to become a \"victim of love.\" And she always understood love as a free gift of herself. \"Loving means giving. Giving everything that love asks for. Giving immediately, without regrets, with joy, and wanting even more to be asked of us.\" These are her own words in which she summed up the whole program of her life.

She was able to kindle the same love in the hearts of the Sisters of her Congregation. This love constitutes the ever living leaven of the works by which the communities of Felicians serve the Church in Poland and beyond its borders.

\"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good...\".

The Church rejoices today and thanks God for the gift of the elevation to the altars of the Servant of God Mother Mary Angela and for the entire Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Felix of Cantalice, which originated from her charism.

Here are the words of the Holy Father in our translation into Italian.

5. I greet you, Mother Mary Angela Truszkowska, Mother of the great Felician family. You were a witness to the difficult historical events of our Nation and of the Church, which here accomplished its mission. Your name and your vocation are linked to the figure of Blessed Honorat Koźmiński, a great apostle of the secret communities, which regenerated the life of a troubled society and restored the hope of resurrection. Today I make a pilgrimage to your relics in my beloved Kraków, where the Felician family developed, and from where it departed overseas to serve the new generations of emigrants and Americans.

Christ led Mother Angela along a truly exceptional path, so that she could intimately share in the mystery of His cross. He formed her spirit through numerous sufferings, which she accepted with faith and truly heroic submission to His will: in seclusion and loneliness, in a long and painful illness, and in the dark night of the soul. Her greatest desire was to become a "victim of love." She always interpreted love as a gratuitous gift of self. "To love means to give. To give everything that love requires. To give immediately, without regret, with joy and desiring that we be asked for even more." These are her own words with which she summarized the entire program of her life. She was able to kindle the same love in the hearts of the Sisters of her Congregation. This love constitutes the ever-green foliage of the works with which the communities of the Felician Sisters serve the Church in Poland and elsewhere.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good...". The Church rejoices today and thanks God for the gift of the elevation to the altars of the Servant of God Mother Mary Angela and for the entire Congregation of the Felician Sisters, which originated from her charism.

6. I greet you, Sister Faustina. From today the Church calls you blessed, especially the Church on Polish and Lithuanian soil. O Faustina, how wondrous was your path! How can one not think that it was you, the poor and simple daughter of the Mazovian Polish people, whom Christ chose to remind men of the great divine mystery of Mercy. You took this mystery with you, departing from this world after a short and suffering-filled life. At the same time, this mystery truly became a prophetic cry to the world, to Europe. After all, your message of divine mercy was born almost on the eve of the terrible cataclysm of the Second World War. You would surely be astonished if you could experience on earth what this message became for the tormented people of that time of contempt, and how widely it spread across the world. Today—so we deeply believe—you behold in God the fruits of your mission on earth. Today you experience at the very Source who your Christ is: "Dives in Misericordia."

"I clearly feel that my mission does not end with death, but begins...", Sister Faustyna wrote in her Diary. And so it has truly happened! Her mission continues and is bearing surprising fruits. It is truly marvelous how her devotion to the Merciful Jesus makes its way into the contemporary world and conquers so many human hearts! This is undoubtedly a sign of the times, a sign of our 20th century. The balance sheet of this setting century presents, alongside achievements that have often surpassed those of previous eras, also a deep anxiety and fear regarding the future. Where, then, if not in divine Mercy, can the world find refuge and the light of hope? Believers sense this perfectly!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good... Give thanks to the Lord, for His mercy endures forever...".

Today, on the day of the beatification of Sister Faustina, we praise God for the great deeds He has wrought in her soul. We extol Him and thank Him for the great deeds He has accomplished and continually accomplishes in human souls, which, thanks to her testimony and message, discover the infinite depths of Divine Mercy.

Here are the words of the Pope in our Italian translation.

6. I greet you, Sister Faustyna. From today the Church names you Blessed, above all the Church of the Polish and Lithuanian land. O Faustyna, how wondrous has your journey been! How can one fail to think that Christ chose precisely you, a poor and simple daughter of the Polish people of Mazowsze, to remind people of the great mystery of divine Mercy. You carried this mystery with you, leaving this world after a brief life full of suffering. At the same time, this mystery has truly become a prophetic cry addressed to the world and to Europe. Your message of divine Mercy was born almost on the eve of the terrifying cataclysm of the Second World War. Probably you would not be surprised, if you had been able to experience on earth what this message has become for the tormented people of that time of contempt, and how it has spread throughout the world. Today – so deeply do we believe – you gaze upon the fruit of your mission on earth in God. Today you experience at the very Source who your Christ is: "dives in misericordia".

"I clearly feel that my mission does not end with death, but begins...", Sister Faustyna wrote in her Diary. And so it has truly come to pass! Her mission continues and is bearing surprising fruits. Truly wonderful is the way in which her devotion to Merciful Jesus makes its way into the contemporary world and conquers so many human hearts! This is undoubtedly a sign of the times – a sign of our 20th century. The balance sheet of this declining century presents, alongside achievements that have often surpassed those of previous epochs, a profound anxiety and fear regarding the future. Where, then, if not in divine Mercy, can the world find escape and the light of hope? Believers sense this perfectly!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good... Give thanks to the Lord, for He is merciful...". Today, on the day of the beatification of Sister Faustyna, we adore God for the great works He accomplished in her soul. We glorify Him and give thanks to Him for the great works He has accomplished and continues to accomplish in human souls, which – thanks to her witness and message – rediscover the infinite depths of divine Mercy.

7. Finally, I greet you, Stanisław Kazimierczyk, priest of the Canons Regular of the Lateran. Your life was inseparably bound to Kraków, to its famous Academy and to the monastery at the church of Corpus Christi in Kazimierz, where your vocation matured and developed.

Blessed Stanisław lived in the 15th century, and thus in very distant times. In the history of Kraków this was an exceptional century – a century of saints, an epoch of special blossoming of spiritual and religious life. In this very century Kraków produced figures of the stature of Saint John Cantius, and Blesseds Simon of Lipnica, Michał Giedroyć, Isaiah Boner, and Świętosław of Słupcza. A blessed century! Its spiritual countenance was shaped by saints and blesseds, and among them Stanisław of Kazimierz: a fervent devotee of the Eucharist, teacher and defender of evangelical truth, educator, guide on the paths of the spiritual life, protector of the poor.

Memory of the holiness of the Blessed lives on and bears fruit to this day. This memory the people of Kraków, and especially the people of Kazimierz, expressed through prayer at his relics uninterruptedly down to our own times. As Archbishop of Kraków I have often led those prayers. Today the Holy Church solemnly confirms his cult, raising him to the glory of the altars.

"Give thanks to the Lord... Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good...".

Mother Mary Angela Truszkowska, Sister Faustyna Kowalska, Stanisław Kazimierczyk, priest and religious: three new Polish blesseds, our new intercessors. In our times we are in such great need of this intercession of the saints and blesseds! Behold a special gift of Divine Providence for the Church in Poland – a gift for our Homeland.

Rejoice then, Church of Poland!

"Gaude Mater Polonia"!

Here are the Pope's words in our Italian translation.

7. Finally, I greet you, Stanisław Kazimierczyk, priest of the Canons Regular of the Lateran. Your life was closely tied to Kraków, with its famous Academy and the convent near the church of Corpus Christi in Kazimierz, where your vocation matured and developed. The Servant of God Stanisław lived in the 15th century, that is, in distant times. In the history of Kraków, that was a singular century—the century of saints—an era of a particular flourishing of spiritual and religious life. Right in that century, Kraków produced figures of the stature of Saint John Cantius and the Blessed: Simon of Lipnica, Michael Giedroyć, Isaiah Boner, and Sławosław of Słupca. Blessed century! Saints and Blessed formed its spiritual image, and among them Stanisław of Kazimierz: fervent worshipper of the Eucharist, teacher and defender of evangelical truth, educator, guide on the paths of spiritual life, protector of the poor. The memory of the holiness of the Servant of God lives on and bears fruit to this day. The people of Kraków, and above all the people of Kazimierz, have continuously expressed this memory up to our times through prayers before his relics. As Archbishop of Kraków, I have presided over these prayers more than once. Today, Holy Church solemnly confirms his cult, raising him to the glory of the altars. "Give thanks to the Lord... Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good...". Mother Mary Angela Truszkowska, Sister Faustina Kowalska, Stanisław Kazimierczyk priest-monk: three new Polish Blessed, our new intercessors. We so greatly need this intercession of the Saints and Blessed in our days! Behold a special gift of divine Providence for the Church in Poland—the gift for our Homeland. Rejoice, therefore, Polish Church! "Gaude Mater Polonia!".

8. Let us celebrate the Lord, for He is good. Let us celebrate Him, for He is merciful. Behold the Apostles, gathered in the Upper Room: the first who raised this paschal thanksgiving. They were the first to receive the Holy Spirit for the remission of sins, the same Spirit in whom they were sent: "As the Father has sent me, so I also send you" (Jn 20:21). This mission endures through the centuries, from generation to generation. And the grace capable of "making all things new" likewise endures (cf. Rev 21:5).

Behold Thomas, a singular representative of those who say: "Unless I see... I will not believe" (Jn 20:25). Eight days later, he became the spokesman for those who confess: "My Lord and my God" (Jn 20:28). May the truth about Christ crucified and risen find access among ever-new generations of those who "have not seen and yet have believed" (Jn 20:29).

"Dives in misericordia". How necessary is the encounter with You, O Christ, for the man of all times! The encounter through faith, which is tested in the fire of privations and bears fruit in joy.

In paschal joy. Faith bears fruit in "inexpressible and glorious" joy (1 Pet 1:8).