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[Birdsong]
This question, I have been asked frequently when I
was giving talks on The Divine Mercy in different places and not only places but I could say also in different countries.
Or even people sometimes ask me whether I met Sister Faustina? So my answer was that I did not
meet her personally but very early in my life, could not tell exactly at what age I knew one thing which I
used frequently, Jesus I trust in You. And I never remembered how it came about that I learned that
but most probably and my parents and above all my Mother who was always reading religious books and
especially religious books with prayers, that she knew the caption, Jesus I trust in You. And that is why she
taught us and that is how most probably I learned from her and I used that I remember very well in difficult situations
for instance I had friends in a little town Zdrojewo and I lived away from that five kilometres
and I liked to go to meet my friends and very frequently I was staying quite long that I was coming home was already night.
And I always remembered then when sometimes there was a thunderstorm or lightning so then I was repeating when I was running
back home, Jesus I trust in You. And that is all that was the beginning always been staying in my mind. When I was
ordained Priest and that was Eighth of July Nineteen Fifty Six and were eight of us, ordained
and my friends very quickly received their papers from the Bishop, where they were going to be in the parishes.
When they were going to be working and I was waiting already one month and I did not get the nomination
and the Bishop knew me very well because I was frequently with the Bishop from the very beginning when he came to the diocese.
Bishop Anthony Pavorsky and we met somewhere and he said, oh you probably are thinking why you are still not
been given the appointment to a parish. I said certainly he said I just wanted to tell you already I
was trying to put you to few parishes and you have not been confirmed by the communist authority
because in Poland during that time was the hard communist what used to be called the Stalinist imperit. And every Priest not only Bishop
or every parish Priest but also assistant Priest had to be confirmed when they were going to work. And the Bishop told me
that as I already said that he tried already few places and everywhere I was not confirmed. So I could not really
go to work there permanently. And he said also because my diocese was situated in three what in English
would be shires and he said to me that he already tried in two shires one was sort of Bydgoszcz and another Poznań
and he said now I will try to appoint you and send the papers to the communist authority in another shire,
the third one he said you had to still wait and I was waiting another month, and that already came September
so since July the Eighth I had not been appointed because of the lack of agreement from the communist
authority. And it was already September I could not remember exactly off hand which September I got the paper
with the appointment. But the Bishop temporarily he sent me to a parish as he said that you are going to stay there as a guest.
And you are going to wait for the appointment as a permanent assistant Priest. And as I said that I was waiting another month it means up
to the probably the first week or the second week of September Nineteen Fifty Six. And
Swinice Warckie that is where Sister Faustina was born, that is where she was brought up as long as to the age of eighteen I did not know
that I did not know anything about Sister Faustina or in another words Helen her name was given her at the Baptism time.
So I asked my friends because although I was frequently going on visitation with my Bishop as a
secretary even when I was still not ordained Priest because I was a Master of Ceremony in the seminary and the Bishop wanted to have with him somebody
who knows the Liturgy well. I never been to that parish to Swinice Warckie and I was asking my friends Priests
and they said oh that is a very small parish and I said it does not matter if it is small or big tell me how I could get there and of course
they explained to me. And I met the parish Priest who was Francis when I arrived there, there I began to learn
from him something about the family and above all about Sister Faustina why because he told me
his story. That he experienced great miracle because when the war in Poland began when we were
invaded by Hitler’s army they were arresting Priests and they also came to take away Father Francis
in the parish of Swinice Warckie and when they lead him from the presbytery through the church yard and the gestapo
when they were passing the main entrance to the parish church Father Francis said to me that he stopped
and they to great surprise they did not disturb him and he looked at the entrance to the church and he
said this Sister Faustina, that they are taking me away that is visible but where they are taking me
I do not know, but certainly not to a good place. So wherever they are taking me if you will intercede to The Merciful Jesus,
where ever they are taking me and I was going to survive, I will come back to this parish, and
will build a church under the name of The Merciful Jesus. I will build the church in the place in the
part of the parish where people had as far to the parish church as about ten kilometres because the parish
situated was situated in this way that on one part the longest distance was only four kilometres on the other part
going to the big city of Lodz was as far as ten kilometres so he was saying and promising that I
was going to build a church there under the name of The Merciful Christ. Father Francis was taken to
concentration camp to Germany called Dachau, and he was there and because it was a concentration camp
mainly for Priests for instance from my diocese in that concentration camp died two hundred sixty I think three Priests and
a Bishop auxiliary Bishop, Bishop Kosal. And he survived, Father Francis survived and when I was going to
Australia with my talks, about The Divine Mercy I visited Poland and I went to the archives and I looked at the
file of Father Francis and I found a telegram from Germany when he was saying I survived
I am coming back would you prepare for me an appointment but to the same parish from which I
was arrested I was taken away by the gestapo and that is why he came back and when I came I was a second assistant Priest after
the war, the church was already built in that place and he built the church more or less in the colours of the
rays coming from Jesus Heart that the walls were from a whitish bricks
and the roof which was not put at that time when I came because it was winter coming he has not got the money so he put just a
thatched roof. But the real roof was going to be from the tiles reddish and some other surroundings. In order to
reflect the red streams of rays coming from the Heart of Jesus. So he showed me the church not only he showed me but he said that he,
that the church was affiliated it was not a separate parish now the church is a separated parish that time still was affiliated to the main
church where Sister Faustina was Baptised and the parish in which she lived and her parents. And already I always have
in my mind that when we went to see the affiliated church, there was a very beautiful Image of The Merciful Jesus. In the main altar
on a natural size of a quite tall man, and Jesus was walking on a green lawn and from the
grass there were coming whitish and red flowers those little flowers, maybe the daisies. And that is where I was
staying there one year then I was working with Sister Faustina’s brother because she had two brothers and both were musical and both were organists.
One of them Stanley was the organist in the parish of Swinice Warckie in the parish where
Sister Faustina was Baptised and born and going to the church and so on. There were two boys and eight girls so ten children
if I remember well and that was the beginning which at that time probably I was listening and the interest was growing
but it did not really tell me anything more what eventually Sister Faustina was going to be.
But the reason why
that is a very, never is written why or never was written but of course we can say from the distance
now of so many years and what really Sister Faustina became, Jesus had in His plans to
come and show Himself to the whole world as Christ with this special aspect, or special power
of His Mercy and He was certainly was looking for somebody whom He wanted to take the message on to the whole world.
And that is probably what we could be certain. I began to see the whole connection of myself and Swinice Warckie
which was the place of birth of Saint Sister Faustina. And I began to think when I involve myself
in this work, that probably the reason why the communist were not accepting me to any parish where the Bishop wanted to
send me at once after the ordination because He wanted me to be in Swinice Warckie and He wanted that
I will meet the family, Father Francis and learn about Sister Faustina. And about the whole
story how she entered into the religious order and so on because there are lot of evidence that that was the reason.
Because when I started to read the diary and it was quite maybe that, that I saw the diary here or there but I never read the whole
at that time, the whole diary or even being much involved, it was rather only in Nineteen Ninety Three, Ninety Four
when I went to America that is where I got to my hands from one of the family the diary I began to read.
But that is another story that is the continuation how I was involving myself. But at that time the only thing which I
learned and I was very much inspired or moved that mainly was the story about Father Francis
the parish Priest say which he made with Jesus through the intercession of Saint Sister Faustina and the covenant was to build the church
in that area under the name of The Merciful Christ.
Well I think that I was very much interested in the daughter of the
Kowalska family that Sister Faustina most probably she was already met me when I was the assistant Priest in Swinice Warckie
that she probably wanted me to be one of the Priests to enter into the development
of the knowledge of the apparition of Jesus and about the whole story about The Divine Mercy because Jesus was saying to
Sister Faustina frequently that you convince Priests to talk about The Divine Mercy and that
is when I began to think that I was one of those Priests whom she had chosen and that may be also the reason that Jesus
guided me that I did not go at once to any other parish where the Bishop wanted to send
me but that I should go to Swinice Warckie to the parish of Sister Faustina in order to learn in order to
have also first-hand knowledge about the family and about the place and this is why when I was
giving talks or travelling across America and especially in Australia and I was telling to people that I met the family
that I was working in the parish of Saint Sister Faustina and for the people it was something very inspiring that they have somebody who directly,
physically knows the parish, the place and even met the Mother and he was in the house where she was growing, and where she was
born and in the church where she was Baptised and to meet her brother who was playing the organ every time when I was saying
the Mass so all these things were giving me quite a lot of conviction that I am not just on my own but I was guided by
Jesus Christ, I was guided by the One who came down to show Himself and pass on the message
to Sister Faustina of The Divine Mercy to the whole world.
[Birdsong]