Has God’s plan ever taken you by surprise?

Helena Kowalska was a nineteen-year-old Polish girl with a broken heart. She had recently given up her dream of joining the convent. Her family was against it, and she did not have the financial means to enter on her own.

A few months later, on a warm summer night, something mysterious happened. Helena was at a dance with her sister. The party was in full swing when a young man asked her to dance. Determined to move forward with her life, Helena walked out onto the dance floor, twirled about, and tried to enjoy the moment. But suddenly, the music seemed to stop. The dance faded away.

And Helena found herself face to face with Jesus. “How long will you keep putting me off?” He asked her. Then, just as quickly as the vision had appeared, it faded away. Helena was understandably shaken and unwilling to continue dancing.

She had believed that God had closed the door on her dream of entering the convent. But now, with this direct message from Jesus, her assumption was proven wrong. Even though every possible obstacle seemed to be in her way, she left home and found a convent willing to open its doors to her. It was there that Helena became known as Sister Maria Faustina. Before too long, Jesus appeared to Faustina again...and again...to share just one message: Mercy.

The twentieth century was one of the ugliest and deadliest centuries in human history, and right in the middle of it all, Jesus was sharing a surprising message of mercy through Sister Faustina. Faustina received from Jesus the words of the Divine Mercy chaplet and instructions to have the image of Divine Mercy painted with the words “Jesus, I trust in you” across the bottom. In the years that have followed, devotion to Divine Mercy has spread across the globe.

In her journal, Sister Faustina summarizes the message of mercy beautifully: “All grace flows from mercy, and the last hour abounds with mercy for us. Let no one doubt concerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary, that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest.



Feast Day: October 5 

Feast Day Shared By: Blessed Raymond of Capua, and Saints Placidus and Maurus

Patron Saint of: Mercy and Gratitude

Also Known As: The Apostle of Divine Mercy

Symbols: Divine Mercy Image

Canonized: April 30, 2000

Canonized By: Pope John Paul II