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Sister Faustina Vocation Story

When I was about twelve years old, during one of the routine school physicals the school doctor found something that made her suspect a serious illness. She sent me to see a specialist. I was numb, I did not understand completely what it was about but it made me worried and scared. At that time I attended Mass every day and I was reading a lot of Catholic books besides the usual novels etc. In the church there was a life-size statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the side altar by which I usually sat for Mass. Since I was scared and worried I started praying more. I remember I talked to Jesus a lot as if He was standing right there alive. He was looking straight at me and He understood. One day while I was reading a book by Brother Charles de Foucold I found this prayer:

• Father,
• I abandon myself into your hands,
• Do with me what you will.
• Whatever you may do, I thank you:
• I am ready for all, I accept all.
• Let only your will be done in me,
• and in all your creatures.
• I wish no more than this, O Lord.
• Into your hands I commend my soul;
• I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
• for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
• to surrender myself into your hands,
• without reserve,
• and with boundless confidence
• for you are my Father.

I started crying. That prayer was there for me.

Everything turned out to be O.K. Through all of this my faith was deepening and my young heart was growing in love for Jesus.

There was another aunt from my father’s side who was also a Religious Sister but I did not know it. She was young and it was during the Communist regime so she could not wear a religious habit and nobody could know that she was a Religious otherwise she would be persecuted. I liked her a lot and I was always happy to see her when she came home to visit. She lived in Central Slovakia. I was thirteen when she invited me to see my great-aunt, the one I have already written about. The Communists had taken the older Sisters in religious habits from their convents and put them together to live in an old castle. The surroundings were beautiful. It was located on a high hill in the middle of nature. This was my first visit to a convent and I was quite impressed. I still remember Mother Superior and the rosary she gave me as I was leaving. I prayed on it a lot for years. From my great-aunt I got a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Every evening I put the picture on my bed. I knelt down, and I prayed that God’s will would be done. I was telling Jesus: “If you want me there, you will find the way. I trust you.”

I was in the eighth grade and before I entered high school I was supposed to make a decision about my future. At that time all of the high schools, except the ones that prepared students for college, were specialized. Together with a general education the students were taught skills for their profession. Nursing school was one of those. Since the community, which both of aunts belonged to, had a ministry in nursing, I decided to go to nursing school. I did not know any other community and I did not even think about looking somewhere else. It did not matter to me. I wanted to live for Jesus and He was going to take care of the rest. What I was going to do was up to Him.

It was not easy to get into a nursing school especially when someone attended religious education. It was a black mark on the records. And for some reason it was worse in Eastern Slovakia where I lived. So I knew I had very little chance to get accepted. And then the idea popped up to apply in Central Slovakia. I was a good student so hopefully I would be accepted there. I was going to apply in the city where my aunt lived and then I could live with her in her apartment. There was a problem though. Central Slovakia’s high schools would not accept anybody from different regions and that meant from Eastern Slovakia as well. So my family started working on transferring me to a grade school in Central Slovakia. My aunt found one close to her apartment. They accepted me in the middle of the eighth grade, so I moved to a big city and to a new classroom.

I also joined the Sisters. I was fourteen. Before I left my home, my father asked me if I knew what I was doing. I said yes. I was reading a lot of books about Saint Therese and the other Saints so I thought I knew enough about Religious Life. I learned later that there is a difference between the books and real life. But God knew what I was doing. And that’s all that matters.