“Let the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy . . . To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in my unfathomable and inscrutable mercy.” (Diary of Saint Faustina, 1146)
By Fr. Gordon J. MacRae
(These Stone Walls) Exactly twenty years ago, in the first week of April 1993, my friend and spiritual director, Father Richard Drabik, M.I.C. was preparing to go to Rome to concelebrate with Pope John Paul II the Mass of Beatification of Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, now known as Saint Faustina. Her Beatification took place on the Sunday after Easter that year, and Pope John Paul II decreed that henceforth that Sunday would be universally known in the Roman Calendar as Divine Mercy Sunday.
Father Richard Drabik was formerly Provincial Superior of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. He wrote the Preface to the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska that has become globally famous. Just before leaving for her Beatification in Rome twenty years ago this month, Father Drabik asked me if I would like to write a brief prayer for (then) Blessed Faustina’s intercession. I did not know what to write, so on the day of my friend’s departure I handed him a small scrap of paper to place with his intentions for the Mass. I folded it and sealed it in a small envelope that would fit easily in his pocket.
No one ever knew what I wrote. Except for a brief note sent to Felix Carroll a few weeks ago, I have never before spoken of this. The note with my petition was simple: “I ask the intercession of Blessed Faustina that I may have the courage to be the priest God calls me to be.” It was an odd petition, and today I have no idea what I was thinking about when I wrote it and handed it to Father Drabik on his way out the door... (continued)
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