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St. Faustina had a difficult time when she was a novice, experiencing both interior and exterior forms of suffering.
She prayed to a variety of saints for help, but did not receive any consolation.
Then she prayed to St. Thérèse of Lisieux and her novena was very successful.
The dream
St. Faustina was a novice in the 1920s, and St. Thérèse was canonized in 1925, but St. Faustina knew of her and her autobiography even before she entered the convent.
She also likely heard many of the favors that St. Thérèse was known for and decided to pray a novena to the Little Flower in hopes that she would intercede for her before God.
St. Faustina writes about the dream in her Diary, explaining how she saw St. Thérèse on the fifth day of her novena:
On the fifth day of the novena, I dreamed of St. Thérèse, but it was as if she were still
living on earth. She hid from me the fact that she was a saint and began to comfort me,
saying that I should not be worried about this matter, but should trust more in God. She
said, “I suffered greatly, too,” but I did not quite believe her and said, “It seems to me that
you have not suffered at all.”
St. Thérèse then reassured her that St. Faustina’s current state of suffering would pass:
But St. Therese answered me in a convincing manner that she had suffered very much indeed and said to me, “Sister, know that in three days the difficulty will come to a happy conclusion.”
What is even more remarkable is that St. Faustina boldly asked St. Thérèse if she would become a saint:
“When I was not very willing to believe her, she revealed to me that she was a saint. At that moment, a great joy filled my soul, and I said to her, ‘You are a saint?’ ‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘I am a saint. Trust that this matter will be resolved in three days.’ And I said, ‘Dear sweet Therese, tell me, shall I go to heaven?’ And she answered, ‘Yes, you will go to heaven, Sister.’ ‘And will I be a saint?’ To which she replied, ‘Yes, you will be a saint.‘ ‘But, little Therese, shall I be a saint as you are, raised to the altar?’ And she answered, ‘Yes, you will be a saint just as I am, but you must trust in the Lord Jesus.'”
These were very consoling words to St. Faustina and very prophetic, as St. Faustina would one day join St. Thérèse in the heavenly roll of saints.
And today we celebrate...