The Seven Last Words of Jesus from the Cross-Part 1: The First Word
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“The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.” St. Faustina Kowalska
Today is the feast day of one of Poland’s great saints: St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. I recently watched a series of ten videos by Father Michael Gaitley titled “Divine Mercy in the Second Greatest Story Ever Told.” It was in these videos that I learned the story of this amazing saint from the 20th century.
St. Faustina was born Helena Kowalska, to a poor but religious family in Poland in 1905. She joined the convent at the age of 20, taking the religious name, Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.
St. Faustina's most significant contribution to the Catholic faith lies in her mystical encounters with Christ. The first vision of Jesus took place in 1924 while at a dance with her sister, Natalia. Faustina saw a suffering Jesus who instructed her to leave for Warsaw immediately and join a convent. The visions continued until her death on October 5th, 1938.
In these encounters, Jesus revealed to her the message of Divine Mercy, emphasizing the boundless love and forgiveness of God for all humanity. He also instructed her in the practice of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, a prayerful devotion to seek God's mercy for oneself and the whole world. Jesus also spoke to her of His desire to pour out extraordinary graces of mercy upon sinners each year on one special day, the Feast of Divine Mercy. And He also ordered that the image of Divine Mercy be painted and honored throughout the world, with the inscription “Jesus, I Trust in You” on the bottom. This image is of Jesus, with two rays of light shining from His Heart, one blue and one red, signifying the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Eugeniusz Kazimirowski painted the picture under Faustina’s direction.
St. Faustina teaches us to contemplate God in daily life – to encounter Him in one’s own soul and to live one’s whole life with Him. This practice consists in uniting ourselves with Jesus dwelling in our souls through a short prayerful invocation. This will help us to develop a personal bond of love with God and will lead us to have a more fruitful participation in the life and mission of Jesus.
St. Faustina was also visited by St. Therese of Lisieux, who told Faustina that she, too, would be a saint. This prophecy became true. St. Faustina Kowalska was beatified on April 18, 1993, and canonized on April 30, 2000, both by Pope St. John Paul II, who not only elevated her to the altar of sainthood but also said during his canonization homily that “from now on throughout the church, the second Sunday of Easter will be called Divine Mercy Sunday.”
St. Faustina’s private revelations are now contained in a single book called “The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul.”
St. Faustina, patron saint of Mercy, pray for us. Jesus, we trust in You!
Copyright © 2025 Christy Romero. All rights reserved. If you thought of someone while reading this, bless them by sharing it with them.
My name is Christy Romero and I am a cradle Catholic. I met my husband, Rafael, 46 years ago on a Youth Encounter, and we got married four years later. We have three young adult children who are all happily married, and two grandsons that have stolen our hearts. Even though I have always loved writing, God took me on a different career path. I graduated with a degree in Accounting in 1986, and thirty years ago, I established my practice to help small businesses and individuals with their tax filings. Last year, I decided to retire to spend more time with my growing family, and to dedicate more time to writing. I created a blog to share my meditations ten years ago, and I have a faithful following of family and friends. Now, I feel God urging me to share the Good News of the Church that He established over 2,000 years ago with a larger audience. In the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta: “I am just a little pencil in the hand of a writing God sending a love letter to the world.” You can find more of my writings at https://christysmeditations.blogspot.com/
