Saint Faustina Kowalska

On May 18, 2020, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Saint Faustina Kowalska, Virgin, into the General Roman Calendar.  St. Faustina is celebrated each year as an Optional Memorial on October 5.

The Holy See released the proper liturgical texts in Latin, and on October 2, 2023, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments confirmed the English translation of those texts. (An approval and confirmation process is still required for a Spanish translation.)

The proper texts in English for the liturgical celebration of St. Faustina Kowalska are provided below:

Roman Missal

From the Common of Virgins: For One Virgin, or the Common of Holy Men and Women: For Religious.

Collect

O God, who entrusted Saint Faustina
with spreading the immense riches of your infinite mercy,
grant, at her intercession,
that after her example we may fully trust in your goodness
and generously perform works of charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Lectionary for Mass

Aside from the usual Mass readings of the day, any Lectionary readings from the Common of Virgins or Common of Holy Men and Women may be used for St. Faustina Kowalska. The following readings are also recommended by the Holy See, and will appear in a future edition of the Lectionary for Mass. (Current citations from the Lectionary's Common of Virgins are provided for convenience.)

651/1 – Saint Faustina Kowalska, Virgin

From the Common of Virgins, or the Common of Holy Men and Women, or:

First Reading – Ephesians 3:14-19 (no. 740-7)
To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 103 (102):1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 13-14, 17-18a (no. 739-6)
R/. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:28 (no. 741-5)
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.

Gospel – Matthew 11:25-30 (no. 742-4)
Although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned,
you have revealed them to the childlike.

Liturgy of the Hours

From the Common of Virgins or Common of Holy Women: For Religious.

Biography

Born in 1905 in Głogowiec, Poland, she dedicated her brief life to Christ in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. Receiving her vocation of announcing the loving mercy of God, she left a testimony of her mystical experience in the Diary of her soul. She undertook the work of announcing and imploring Divine Mercy throughout the whole world. She died at Krakow in the year 1938.

Office of Readings

Second Reading
From the Homily of Pope Saint John Paul II, delivered at the canonization of Saint Faustina
(Acta Apostolicæ Sedis 92 [2000], 671-672)

The message of the mercy of Christ

Today we are overcome with great joy as we present to the whole Church the life and witness of Sister Faustina Kowalska, as a divine gift granted to our time. By God's Providence, the life of this humble daughter of Poland was completely linked with the history of the twentieth century, which we have just left behind. For, in the years between the First and Second World Wars, Christ entrusted to her the message of his mercy. Anyone who remembers, anyone who was a witness and participant of the events of those years, and of the horrible sufferings that befell countless people, knows well how necessary was the proclamation of Divine Mercy.

Jesus said to Sister Faustina, "People will find no rest until they turn to my mercy with confidence" (Diary). Through a Polish religious sister this message of Divine Mercy has been forever linked with the twentieth century, which closed the second millennium and opened the way to the third. This message is not new, but it can be regarded as a gift of special illumination that helps us embrace the Good News of Easter more keenly, so that we may bring it, as a ray of light, to the people of our time.

What will the coming years bring to us? What will become the future of humanity on earth? It is not for us to know. It is certain, however, that despite recent advances there will sadly be no shortage of sorrowful experiences. Yet the light of Divine Mercy, which God willed to restore to the world, as it were, through the charism of Sister Faustina, will illuminate human pathways in the third millennium.

As the Apostles once did, however, it is necessary that people today welcome into the upper room of history the risen Christ, who after the Crucifixion showed his wounds and repeated the words, "Peace be with you!" It is necessary that people let themselves be possessed and pervaded by the Holy Spirit, whom Christ gives them after the Resurrection. For the Spirit heals the wounds of the heart, tears down the walls that separate us from God and one another, and makes us able to rejoice again, both in the love of the Father and in our unity as brothers and sisters.

Christ has taught us that "man does not only experience and receive the mercy of God himself, but has also been called 'to be merciful' to others: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy (Matthew 5:7)'" (Dives in misericordia, 14). Jesus shows us the manifold ways of mercy, which not only forgives sins but goes out to encounter all the needs of humanity. Jesus has humbly bent down to every human misery, both material and spiritual.

Christ's message of mercy reaches us continually through the gesture of his hands, which he extends toward suffering humanity. It was this Christ that Sister Faustina saw and preached to the people of every continent when, cloistered in her monastery at Łagiewniki in Krakow, she made her life a hymn in honor of mercy: "I will sing for ever of the mercies of the Lord" (Ps 89 [88]:2).

Responsory
Ps 89 (88):2; 103 (102):8

I will sing for ever of the mercies of the Lord;
— through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
— Through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.

Prayer

O God, who entrusted Saint Faustina
with spreading the immense riches of your infinite mercy,
grant, at her intercession,
that after her example we may fully trust in your goodness
and generously perform works of charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

The English translation of Liturgical Texts for Saint Faustina Kowalska © 2020 International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.