MODERN MYSTIC OF UKRAINE

 

As we continue to pray for the on-going war in Ukraine, I present a mystic born in that country, who Father E. mentioned in a class recently. Will she be the next St. Faustina?

STEFANIA FULLA HORAK was a Lviv native, born in Tarnopol in 1909. She studied philosophy, graduating from the Lviv Conservatory, and working as a music teacher. She had a very inquisitive and unusually sharp mind. In her youth, she abandoned the faith she had learned at home, but not God, whom she desired with all her being. "I don't believe in anything that people believe in. I don't understand how they believe. I think that if God exists, He is much greater than anything that can be said about Him.”

During the war, she was a liaison officer for the Home Army, a post she retained until the end of the German occupation in Lviv.

In great torment, she searched for the truth for many years, praying: "God! If you are there - give me light!".  She wanted to experience God, "let Him satisfy me". She wrote many times about the desire for God to come to her. One of Fulla Horak's most moving entries are the words: "God! How I hate you for not being here!"

The great desire to meet God made Fulla decide to give an ultimatum to the Mother of God herself. From her notes we learn what she asked Mary for in Częstochowa: "If people obtain graces related to health or material matters from the image, why shouldn't I try to gain light for my soul there? Although I was an unbeliever, I decided to exhaust all recommended means, so that I would have nothing to reproach myself with and to gain proof of my best will."

Neither the fanfare at the unveiling of the image, nor the praying crowd, nor the dark face above the altar made the slightest impression on me. The vota seemed to me to be a distasteful, advertising decoration, and the priest calling from the pulpit - insincere. (...) And then, coldly, objectively and clearly, I gave the Mother of God an ultimatum: if within three months - simply, without any miracles, without shocks, without extraordinary things - I obtain faith and an inner sense of God - I vow to serve Heaven until death."

 Fulla's nephew, Father Tomasz Horak, told us that his aunt had received the desired light. In August 935, Fulla attended a salon meeting. During the conversation, one of the women talked about a case she had managed to solve thanks to the intercession of the Mother of God. Fulla admitted at the time that she did not believe in Mary. The woman addressed Stefania with the words: "God! How unfortunate you are that you do not believe!" A few days after the meeting, which had a strong impact on Fulla, Stefania experienced a presence from the afterlife.

And the light came, although not immediately. In August 1935, Fulla experienced the presence of someone from the afterlife for the first time. At that time, she did not know who, but she soon found out – it was St. Magdalena Zofia Barat, who had died 70 years earlier (1865), the founder of the Sacré Coeur congregation.

Under the dictation of St. Magdalena, she wrote down subsequent notebooks in a mystical way. The words written then concerned Fulla herself. Then came the mystical revelations presented in this book – an extraordinary journal of mystical meetings with saints, containing their teachings. During one of the visions, St. Magdalena told Stephanie to write down her words. "Take a piece of paper and a pencil. Don't shine the light. Write. Calm down, come next to me. Sit closer."

" I sat down with the notebook on my lap and suddenly the pencil started moving on the paper by itself. I was just holding it. I don't know what she was writing because I didn't hear any dictation. Shine the light and read it" - we read in the notes. The note contained instructions for Stefania.  Over time, Fulla began to have mystical revelations. They were presented in a book entitled "The Holy Lady. Mystical Revelations and Visions". The publication contains the teachings of the saints who came to Fulla, their messages, as well as descriptions of the realities of heaven, purgatory, and hell experienced by Fulla.

 Other saints came to Fulla’s apartment on Kopernika Street in Lviv: Cardinal Mercier, John Bosco, Teresa of the Child Jesus, January and Sylwester, Andrzej Bobola, John Vianney, Catherine Emmerich, Pierre Giorgio Frassati, Joan of Arc, Stephen, and Nicholas. They came to her very realistically – Fulla could, for example, touch the rough habit of St. Magdalena Zofia.

The altar in her house became a tabernacle. Fulla smuggled the Holy Communion stored there to prisoners whom she helped, but was caught and arrested by the Soviets. She was sentenced to 10 years, serving the entire sentence in the hell of the Gulag, surviving the terrible test of the cross, when she underwent an operation to remove her stomach and duodenum without anesthesia.

Returning to Poland, she settled in Zakopane with her sister Zofia, offering advice, prayers and hope  to those who came to her.

After a life full of sacrifice, suffering, and service, Fulla Horak died in Zakopane on March 9, 1993.

  Father Tomasz Horak points out that there is no answer to the question of why the Church has not recognized Fulla Horak's writings so far.  There were attempts by the German publisher to obtain the bishop's permission to print and distribute the book, i.e. an imprimatur. This is not a confirmation of the authenticity of the revelations, but consent to print may be confused with such confirmation. Hence the excessive caution of church offices. 

Only 27 years have passed since Fulla's death in 1993. In the scheme of things, this is not a long time. In the case of people who experienced revelations, very often the Church has banned the distribution of the content transmitted in the revelations, such as  the case with St. Faustina's "Diary".  So far nothing in her visions has been found to b against Church doctrine.

Some of the visions taken from her journals:

"The sufferings of purgatory are long and more severe than the hardest life! The torment of a soul eternally damned exceeds our imagination in its monstrosity. There is nothing in our concepts to which it could be compared. And the eternal happiness that God has destined for the saved, the happiness that I know from those who are already experiencing it, surpasses everything, and at the same time is worth overcoming all the weakness of our corrupt nature to gain it! God has promised eternal happiness to all who love Him, and He will keep His Word!" - describes Fulla in the book "The Holy Lady".

 Heaven  "The bland, helpless human imagination, unable to find another word for it, says that eternal happiness is singing, proclaiming the glory of God and constantly looking into the Face of God.. it is not stillness and inaction! "Looking into the Face of God" is the inability to do anything otherwise than according to His will. Here everything that our imagination could create is realized. For all the most fantastic human thoughts are but a pale, distant reflection of God's ingenuity. In Heaven the soul will find all desires, but it will find them in a perfect form. It will find there even that which, unthought of, lay at its bottom as a longing".

 "Purgatory is more terrible than anything that can be said about it. Purgatory consists of countless and most diverse circles. The circle of Hunger, Fear, Horror, Affliction. Speaking of Purgatory, I will omit the torment of longing for God, because this longing is the fundamental state of the repentant soul. It might seem that as we enter higher and higher Circles of purification, as we approach the Eternal Light more and more, the torment of longing weakens in the face of the hope of imminent satisfaction. No! The proximity of this Light intensifies in the soul the intense, unique striving to unite with it - it pulls it towards itself with incomprehensible force, so that in the last Circle of Purgatory, where there are no other sufferings apart from waiting, the longing for God reaches its highest intensity.

Nothing weighs down the soul in purgatory as much as the resentment or hatred of those left on earth. In contrast to the mutual benefit of prayer for the dead, such hatred brings mutual harm."

The most merciful, most tender, most powerful Advocate of the souls suffering in Purgatory is the Most Holy Virgin Mary.

Every offering always has, but especially on All Souls' Day, a huge real value for the souls in Purgatory. You can offer any little thing for them. Even the effort of going to the cemetery, carrying a wreath, the crowding in the tram, getting cold, getting soaked - everything! You just have to offer it consciously. The intention gives importance and meaning to every effort."

 Hell  "Like Heaven and Purgatory, Hell is divided into the most diverse and innumerable Circles. The lower the Circle, the more terrible the torment in it. The damned soul knows about the full greatness, power and beauty of God, and is simultaneously aware that it will never see Him. It knows that its suffering is eternal and that nothing will soothe or alleviate this torment. It is burned by the unquenchable fire of desire and longing for happiness that will never be its share.

 A torment that no words can convey: conscious, aware, hopeless, hateful and eternal torment - this is the state from which no damned soul will ever emerge. And this is Hell!"

The mystic also drew attention to the importance of Guardian Angels in our lives. "When God creates a human soul, He simultaneously assigns it a Guardian Angel. This is a Spirit whose properties are closely adapted to the character of the soul entrusted to His care. The Guardian Angel's care for a person is limited to protecting them from what God has allowed to happen to them. In such cases, the Guardian Angel has the right to intervene with Divine Providence and can remove many things from a person through his intercession. However, this can only happen when the good will of a person listens to the inner promptings and warnings of his Guardian Angel."

Father Tomasz Horak points out that there is no answer to the question of why the Church has not recognized Fulla Horak's writings so far.  There were attempts by the German publisher to obtain the bishop's permission to print and distribute the book, i.e. an imprimatur. This is not a confirmation of the authenticity of the revelations, but consent to print may be confused with such confirmation. Hence the excessive caution of church offices. 

Only 27 years have passed since Fulla's death in 1993. In the scheme of things, this is not a long time. In the case of people who experienced revelations, very often the Church has banned the distribution of the content transmitted in the revelations, such as  the case with St. Faustina's "Diary".