’Very early the next day, I rode back into the city and entered the first church I saw. There I began to pray to know further the will of God. Holy Masses were being celebrated one after another. During one of them I heard the words: „Go to that priest and tell him everything; he will tell you what to do next.” After the Mass I went to the sacristy. I told the priest all that had taken place in my soul, and I asked him to advise me where to take the veil, in which religious order.’ Divine Mercy in My Soul # 12
Father James Dąbrowski was this priest. He had worked in Klembów and was a friend of the Lipszycs family, who lived in Ostrówek. During the conversation with Helenka Kowalska he advised her to stay at the Lipszycs, who needed someone to help them take care of the children. It was the place from which she set off to search a convent. He gave her a note for the acquaintances, saying: ’I don’t know her but I hope she would be all right’.
At that time the construction of St James Church at 38 Grójecka Street in Ochota, a suburb of Warsaw, was in its first stage. – The church, with a characteristic tower with a square base, designed by Oskar Sosnowski, started to be built in 1918, after Archbishop Aleksander Kakowski had erected the parish. The construction was finished in 1939 and the neoromanesque church has one nave and two aisles. At the end of the aisles there are two chapels: one is dedicated to Our Lady and the other to the Blessed Sacrament.
St. James church in Warsaw was the first step in the journey of St. Faustina toward her vocation. Our pilgrimage began with Holy Mass at this beautiful church. We entered St. James during adoration at about 6 in the evening and instantly I fell in love with Poland. It was early evening and the church had quite a few people praying before the Blessed Sacrament with even more coming in. I could feel the vibrancy of the country’s faith instantly.
After Mass as I knelt in a moment of quick prayer I reflected on the events of St. Faustina’s life and the final moments of our flight from the US. I wrote the following as the first pilgrimage journal entry:
“As we flew over Poland, large banks of clouds covered the land so that one could see nothing but the white of the cloud as covering below. And as I gazed upon this magnificent site thinking of the beauty of the artist Who made these, God gave me to see the clouds part at the rays of His Divine Mercy and behold all was clear and the sin was wiped clear of all the world. I heard His Voice say ‘this my son is the power of My Mercy and what the Grace of the rays of mercy can do to sin if the world would but accept My burning love’. Our guide when meeting us told us it had been very overcast until shortly before we landed when it cleared up.”
