We can learn from the Saints!

[westbourne]

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^Kolbe died in a horrible death. All their stories touches me.

[mybuuz]

subscribe lang ko, nice read...

[wenlove24]

^Kolbe died in a horrible death. All their stories touches me.

same here. i mean i've never been hungry for a day my entire life and they say hunger is the most horrific pain in the world so i couldn't fathom being starved for 2 weeks. their stories are truly inspiring. i'm just taking it one day at a time as far as my life goes.

[wenlove24]

@mybuuz: thanks for subscribing. ^_^

[trollface1]

nice thread, saint maria gorreti
knew her when I was in fifth grade^

[pinoy_09]

Tl;dr

....

[wenlove24]

(for those who doubt God's unfathomable mercy and those who do not believe in the existence of hell)

St. Mary Faustina Kowalska

She was born as Helenka Kowalska, in Głogowiec, Łęczyca County, just west of Lodz in Poland. She was the third of ten children of Stanislaus and Marianna Kowalska. Stanislaus was a carpenter and a peasant, and the family was poor and religious.
She stated that she first felt a calling to religious service while attending the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at age seven. She wanted to enter the convent after finishing school, but her parents would not give her permission. When she was sixteen years old, she went to work as a housekeeper in Lodz to support herself and help her parents. After a year of working, she twice asked her parents to let her enter a convent, but her requests were met with a firm refusal.
Joining the convent in Warsaw
In the summer of 1924, at age 19, Fuastina and her sister Natalia went to a dance in a park in Lodz. Faustina stated that while at the dance she had a vision of a suffering Jesus, and rushed away to the church, where she was told by Jesus to leave for Warsaw immediately and join a convent. She packed a small bag that night and took a train for Warsaw (130 miles away) the next morning, without the permission of her parents, and without knowing anyone in Warsaw.
After she arrived in Warsaw, she entered the first church she saw, (St. James' church on Grojeka street) and attended Mass. She asked the priest Father Dabrowski for suggestions and he recommended staying with Mrs Lipszycowa, a local lady whom he considered trustworthy, until she found a convent.
Fuastina approached several convents in Warsaw, but was turned down time after time, in some cases she was told "we do not accept maids here", referring to her being penniless and without much education. After several weeks of searching, eventually the Mother Superior at the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy decided to give her a chance and conditionally accepted her, provided she could pay for her habit.
Faustina knew nothing about the convent she had joined, except that she was led there. But she knew that she had joined the convent as a "lay sister" and that due to her lack of education she could never go to a higher level within the order and her duties would forever consist of cooking, cleaning and gardening.
During 1925, Faustina worked as a house maid for one year to save up money, making deposits at the convent through the year and was then accepted at the convent. On April 30 1926, at age 20, she received her habit and took the name "Maria Faustina" of the Blessed Sacrament. The name Faustina means the "fortunate or blessed one" and may have been a feminine form of the name of the Christian martyr Faustinus. In April 1928 she took her first vows as a nun, and her parents attended the ceremony. She was to be a nun for just over a decade, dying in October 1938.
From February to April 1929 she was sent to the convent in Vilnius, Lithuania as a cook. Although this was a short stay in Vilnius, she would return there later and meet Father Sopocko who supported her mission. A year after her first return from Vilnius, in May 1930 she was transferred to the convent in Plock, Poland for close to two years.
Life as a nun

Plock and the Divine Mercy image


The Divine Mercy image painted by Adolf Hyla. The Polish inscription at the bottom means "Jesus I trust in you"


Faustina arrived in Plock in May 1930. In the autumn of that year the first signs of her illness (which was later thought to be tuberculosis) appeared and she was sent to rest for several months in a nearby farm owned by her religious order. After recovery she returned to the convent and by February 1931, had been in the Plock area for about nine months.
Faustina wrote that on the night of Sunday February 22, 1931, while she was in her cell in Plock, Jesus appeared to her as the "King of Divine Mercy" wearing a white garment, with rays of white and red light emanating from near his heart. In her diary (Notebook I, items 47 and 4 she wrote that Jesus told her:

"Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: "Jesus, I trust in You". I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish."

Not knowing how to paint, Faustina approached some other nuns at the convent in Pluck for help, but received no assistance. Three years later, after her assignment to Villnius, the first artistic rendering of the image was performed under her direction.
In the same February 22, 1931 message about the Divine Mercy image, Faustina also wrote in her diary (Notebook I, item 49) that Jesus told her that he wanted the Divine Mercy image to be "solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy."
In November 1932 Faustina returned to Warsaw to prepare to take her final vows as a nun. On the first day of May 1933 she took her final vows in Lagiewniki and became a perpetual sister of Our Lady of Mercy.
Vilnius: meeting Father Sopocko
See also: Chaplet of Divine Mercy
In late May 1933 Faustina was transferred to Vilnius as the gardener - her job also included growing vegetables. She remained in Vilnius for about 3 years, until March 1936. The convent in Vilnius had only 18 sisters at the time and consisted of a few scattered small houses, rather than a large building.

A small convent house where Faustina lived in Vilnius


Shortly after arriving in Vilnius, Faustina met Father Michael Sopocko, the newly appointed confessor to the nuns. Sopocko was also a professor of pastoral theology at Stefan Batory University (now called Vilnius University).
When Faustina went to Sopocko for her first confession, she told him that she had been conversing with Jesus, who had a plan for her.After some time, in fall 1933 Father Sopocko insisted on a complete psychiatric evaluation of Faustina by Dr. Helena Maciejewska, a psychiatrist and a physician associated with the convent. Faustina passed the required tests and was declared of sound mind.
Thereafter, Sopocko began to have confidence in Faustina and supported her efforts. Sopocko also advised Faustina to begin writing a diary and to record the conversations and messages from Jesus which she was reporting.Faustina told Sopocko about the Divine Mercy image and in January 1934 Sopocko introduced her to the artist Eugene Kazimierowski, who was also a professor at the university.
By June 1934, Kazimierowski had finished painting the image based on the direction of Faustina and Father Sopocko.That was the only Divine Mercy painting Faustina saw. After Faustina's death, a number of other artists painted the image, with the depiction by Adolf Hyla being among the most reproduced.
While she was in Vilnius, Faustina predicted that her message of Divine Mercy would be suppressed for some time, and appear to be "utterly undone" but that it would be accepted again.On February 8, 1935, she wrote in her diary (Notebook I, item 37:

Novice Divine Mercy nuns in Vilnius, in front of the church of Gate of Dawn where the first Divine Mercy Sunday Mass was held in April 1935.

There will come a time when this work, which God is demanding so very much, will be as though utterly undone. And then God will act with great power, which will give evidence of its authenticity. It will be a new splendor for the Church, although it has been dormant in it from long ago.

Over thirty years later, in 1959 her messages were suppressed by the Vatican, but were accepted again in 1978.
Faustina wrote in her diary (Notebook I item 414) that on Good Friday April 19, 1935 Jesus told her that he wanted the Divine Mercy image publicly honored. On Friday April 26, 1935 Father Sopocko delivered the first sermon ever on the Divine Mercy - and Faustina attended the sermon.
The first Mass during which the Divine Mercy image was displayed was on April 28, 1935, the second Sunday after Easter and was attended by Faustina. April 28 1935 was also the celebration of the end of the Jubilee of the Redemption by Pope Pius XI.[4][25] However, Father Michael Sopocko (Faustina's confessor) managed to obtained Archbishop Jałbrzykowski's permission to place the Divine Mercy image within the Gate of Dawn church in Vilnius during the Mass that Sunday and celebrated the Mass himself.
On September 13, 1935, while still in Vilnius, Faustina wrote of a vision about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in her diary (Notebook I item 476).The chaplet is about a third of the length of the Rosary.Faustina wrote that the purpose for chaplet's prayers for mercy are threefold: to obtain mercy, to trust in Christ's mercy, and to show mercy to others.
In November 1935 Faustina wrote the rules for a new contemplative religious congregation devoted to Divine Mercy, and in December she visited a house in Vilnius which she said she had seen in a vision as the first convent for the congregation.
In January 1936 Faustina went to see Archbishop Jałbrzykowski to discuss a new congregation for Divine Mercy. But he reminded her that she was perpetually vowed to her current order. In March 1936 Faustina told her superiors that she was thinking of leaving the order to start a new order specifically devoted to Divine Mercy, but she was transferred to Walendow, southwest of Warsaw.
Krakow: the final years
In the summer of 1936 Father Sopocko wrote the first brochure on the Divine Mercy devotion and Archbishop Jalbrzykowski provided his imprimatur for it. The brochure carried the Divine Mercy image on the cover. Sopocko sent copies of the brochure to Faustina in Warsaw.

Faustina's chapel at her resting place, the Basilica of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Łagiewniki.


Later in 1936, Faustina became ill, since speculated to be tuberculosis. She was moved to the sanatorium in Pradnik, Kraków. She continued to spend much time in prayer, reciting the chaplet and praying for the conversion of sinners. The last two years of her life were spent praying and keeping her diary.
On March 23, 1937, Faustina wrote in her diary (Notebook III, item 1044) that she had a vision that the feast of Divine Mercy would be celebrated in her local chapel, and would be attended by large crowds, and that the same celebration would be held in Rome attended by the Pope.
In July 1937 the first holy cards with the Divine Mercy image were printed and in August Father Sopocko asked Faustina to write the instructions for the Novena of Divine Mercy which she had reported as a message from Jesus on Good Friday 1937.
Throughout 1937 progress was made in promoting the messages of Divine Mercy and in November 1937 a pamphlet was published with the title Christ, King of Mercy. The pamphlet included the chaplet, novena and the litany of Divine Mercy and the Divine Mercy image appeared on the cover, with the signature, "Jesus I Trust in You".On November 10, 1937 Mothere Irene, Faustina's superior, showed her the booklets while Faustina rested in her bed.
As her health deteriorated at the end of 1937, her reported visions intensified, and she was said to be looking forward to an end to her life. In April 1938 Faustina's illness had progressed and she was sent to rest in the sanatorium in Pradnick, for what was to be her final stay there. By June 1938, Faustina was so ill that she could no longer write.
In September 1938 Father Sopocko visited her at sanatorium and found her very ill, but in ecstasy as she was praying.Later in September 1938 she was taken back home to Krakow, to await her death there.Father Sopocko visited her at the convent for a last time on September 26, 1938.
On October 5 1938 Faustina made her final confession and died in Krakow, 13 years after entering the convent.She was buried on October 7th and now rests at the Basilica of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland.

[wenlove24]

Sister Faustina's Vision of Hell

"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)

The Apostle of Divine Mercy
St. Maria Faustina Kowalska
of the
Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy

"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 Second is:
Perpetual remorse of conscience.
The Third is
That one's condition will never change.
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.
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.
The Sixth Torture is:
The constant company of Satan.
The Seventh Torture is:
Horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies.

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.

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.

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! 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)

[wenlove24]

Tl;dr

....

what does this mean?

[Blackbeard]

what does this mean?

it means too long; didn't read