The DIARY of Saint Sister Faustina. Saint Faustina's testimony

“These rays of mercy will pass through you,
just as they have passed through this Host,
and they will go out through all the world” (Diary, 441).

“Tell sinners that no one shall escape My Hand;
if they run away from My Merciful Heart,
they will fall into My Just Hands” (Diary, 1728).

Saint sister Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938)

FRAGMENTS THE DIARY OF SAINT SISTER FAUSTINA

The DIARY of Sister Faustina, written in the form of a journal, records the last four years
of her life. It reveals the depths of her spiritual life and illustrates the high degree of her soul’s union with God. The Lord endowed Sister Faustina with tremendous graces: the gift of contemplation, a deep knowledge of the mystery of the mercy of God, visions, revelations, the hidden stigmata, the gifts of prophecy and of reading human souls, and also the rare gift of mystical espousal (Diary Introduction, p. 10, Polish Edition).

“Secretary of My most profound mystery, know that yours is an exclusive intimacy with Me. Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me. I therefore want you to devote all your free moments to writing” (Diary, 1693).

“My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls (...). If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fountain overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as the King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them (...). Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! (...). They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces” (Diary, 367).

“Tell sinners that no one shall escape My Hand; if they run away from My Merciful Heart, they will fall into My Just Hands. Tell sinners that I am always waiting for them, that I listen intently to the beating of their heart... When will it beat for Me? Write that I am speaking to them through their remorse of conscience, through their failures and sufferings, through thunderstorms, through the voice of the Church. And if they bring all My graces to naught, I begin to be angry with them, leaving them alone and giving them what they want” (Diary, 1728).

“God never violates our free will. It is up to us whether we want to receive God’s grace or not. It is up to us whether we will co-operate with it or waste it” (Diary, 1107).

“...I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People were walking along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings” (Diary, 153).

“...How fleeting all earthly things are. Everything that appears great disappears like smoke and does not give the soul freedom, but weariness. Happy the soul that understands these things and with only one foot touches the earth” (Diary, 1141).

“...If a soul loves God sincerely and is intimately united with Him, then, even though such a soul may be living in the midst of difficult external circumstances, nothing can disturb its interior life. In the midst of corruption, it can remain pure and unsullied because the great love of God gives it strength for battle, and God also protects it in a special way” (Diary, 1094).

“The Lord gave me much light to know His attributes. The first attribute that the Lord revealed to me is to know is His holiness. His holiness is so great that all the Powers and Virtues tremble before Him(...). The holiness of God is poured out upon the Church of God and upon every living soul, but not in the same degree. There are souls who are completely penetrated by God, and there are those who are barely alive. The second form of knowledge that the Lord granted me concerns His justice. His justice is so great and penetrating that it reaches deep into the heart of things, and all things stand before Him in naked truth (...).
The third attribute He revealed is His love and mercy. And I understood that this is the greatest attribute. It unites the creature with the Creator. This immense love and abyss of mercy are made known in the Incarnation of the Word and in the Redemption [of humanity], and it is here that I saw this as the greatest of all God’s attributes” (Diary, 180).
“All that is great and beautiful is in God (...). O you sages of the world and you great minds, recognize that true greatness is in loving God!” (Diary, 990).

“Jesus, You have allowed me to know and understand in what a soul’s greatness consists: not in great deeds but in great love. Love has its worth, and it confers greatness on all our deeds. Although our actions are small and ordinary in themselves, because of love they become great and powerful before God” (Diary, 889).

“True greatness of the soul is in loving God and in humility” (Diary, 427).

“As the soul continues to immerse itself more deeply into the abyss of its nothingness and need, God uses His omnipotence to exalt it. If there is a truly happy soul upon earth, it can only be a truly humble soul. At first, one’s self-love suffers greatly on this account, but after a soul has struggled courageously, God grants it much light by which it sees how wretched and full of deception everything is” (Diary, 593).

“The floodgates of heaven are open to a humble soul, and a sea of graces flows down upon it (...). God refuses nothing to such a soul; it is all-powerful and influences the destiny of the whole world. God raises up such a soul to His very throne, and the more the soul humbles itself, the more God stoops down to it, pursuing it with His graces and accompanying it at every moment with His omnipotence” (Diary, 1306).

“God, who is Light, lives in a pure and humble heart, and all sufferings and adversities serve but to reveal the soul’s holiness” (Diary, 573).

“...Humility is nothing but the truth. There is no cringing in true humility. Although I consider myself the least (...). I enjoy the honour of being the beloved of Christ” (Diary, 1502).

“O my Jesus, You know what efforts are needed to live sincerely and unaffectedly with those from whom our nature flees, or with those who, deliberately or not, have made us suffer. In human terms alone, this is impossible. At such times more than at others, I try to discover the Lord Jesus in such a person and for this same Jesus, I do everything for such people. In such acts, love is pure, and such practice of love gives the soul endurance and strength. I do not expect anything from creatures, and therefore I am not disappointed...” (Diary, 766).

“Jesus, my most perfect model, with my eyes fixed on You, I will go through life in Your footsteps, adapting nature to grace, according to Your most holy will and Your light which illuminates my soul, trusting completely in Your help” (Diary, 1351).

“This firm resolution to become a saint is extremely pleasing to Me. I bless your efforts and will give you opportunities to sanctify yourself. Be watchful that you lose no opportunity that My providence offers you for sanctification. If you do not succeed in taking advantage of an opportunity, do not lose your peace, but humble yourself profoundly before Me and, with great trust, immerse yourself completely in My mercy. In this way, you will gain more than you have lost, because more favour is granted to a humble soul than the soul itself asks for...” (Diary, 1361).

“I seek and desire souls like yours but they are few. Your great trust in Me forces Me to continuously grant you graces” (Diary, 718).

“...Let three virtues adorn you in a particular way; humility, purity of intention and love” (Diary, 1779).

 “I demand of you a perfect and whole-burnt offering; an offering of the will. No other sacrifice can compare with this one. I myself am directing your life and arranging things in such a way that you will be for Me a continual sacrifice and will always do My will. And for the accomplishment of this offering, you will unite yourself with Me on the Cross. I myself will give you many orders directly, but I will delay the possibility of their being carried out and make it depend on others (...) but know, My daughter, that this offering will last until your death” (Diary, 923).

“I want to hold you in My hand as a pliant tool, perfectly adapted to the completion of My works” (Diary, 1359).

“Outwardly, your sacrifice must look like this: silent, hidden, permeated with love, imbued with prayer. I demand, My daughter, that your sacrifice be pure and full of humility, that I may find pleasure in it (...). You shall accept all sufferings with love. Do not be afflicted if your heart often experiences repugnance and dislike ffort he sacrifice. All its power rests in the will, and so these contrary feelings, far from lowering the value of the sacrifice in My eyes, will enhance it” (Diary, 1767).

“...I need sacrifice lovingly accomplished, because that alone has meaning for Me. Enormous indeed are the debts of the world which are due to Me; pure souls can repay them by their sacrifice, exercising mercy in spirit”(Diary, 1316).

“...but write this for the many souls who are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is highly meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul. If a soul does not exercise mercy one way or another, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with My mercy” (Diary, 1317).

“I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell (...). I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, through those senses which he used to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like (...). I noticed that in hell there are most souls that did not believe it exists. I could hardly recover from the fright. How terribly souls suffer there!” (Diary, 741).

“In a moment, I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail; only we can come to their aid (...) their greatest torment was longing for God. I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call her “The Star of the Sea”. She brings them refreshment”(Diary, 20).

“...I was in heaven and I saw its inconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great is the happiness in God, which spreads to all creatures, making them happy; and all the glory and praise which springs from this happiness returns to its source; and they enter into the depths of God, contemplating the inner life of God (...). This source of happiness is unchanging in its essence, but it is always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures” (Diary, 777).

“I rarely have such visions. But more often I commune with the Lord in a profound manner. My senses sleep and, although not in a visible way, all things become more real and clearer to me than as if I saw them with my eyes. My intellect learns more in one moment than during long years of thinking and meditations, both as regards the essence of God and as regards revealed truths and knowledge of my own misery” (Diary, 882).

“There are, in my life, times and moments of spiritual insight; that is, Divine illuminations, when the soul receives inward instruction about things it has not read in any book and has not been taught by any person. These are times of great inner knowledge that God himself imparts to the soul. They are great mysteries” (Diary, 1102).

“God approaches a soul in a special way known only to himself and to the soul (...). Love presides in this union, and everything is achieved by love alone. Jesus gives himself to the soul in a gentle and sweet manner, and in His depths there is peace. He grants the soul many graces and makes it capable of sharing His eternal thoughts. And frequently, He reveals to it His divine plans” (Diary, 622).

“...If the Lord demands something of a soul, He gives it the means to carry it out, and through grace He makes it capable of doing this. So, even if a soul is utterly miserable, at the Lord’s command it can undertake things beyond its expectation, because this is the sign by which it can be known that the Lord is with that soul; God’s power and strength, which make the soul courageous and valiant, is manifested within it” (Diary, 1090).

“God imparts himself to the soul in a loving way and draws it into the infinite depths of His divinity but, at the same time, He leaves it here on earth for the sole purpose that it might suffer and die longing for Him. And this strong love is so pure that God himself finds pleasure in it; and self-love has no access to its deeds (...) and because of this, the soul is capable of great deeds for God”(Diary, 856).

“Chosen souls are, in My hand, lights which I cast into the darkness of the world and with which I illuminate it. As stars enlighten the night, so chosen souls enlighten the Earth. And the more perfect a soul is, the stronger and the more far-reaching is the light shed by it. It can be hidden and unknown, even to those closest to it, and yet its holiness is reflected in souls even to the most distant extremities of the world” (Diary, 1601).

“...There are souls living in the world who love Me dearly. I dwell in their hearts with delight. But they are few. In convents too, there are souls that fill My Heart with joy. They bear My features (...). Their number is very small. They are a defence for the world before the justice of the Heavenly Father and a means of obtaining mercy for the world. The love and sacrifice of these souls sustain the world” (Diary, 367).

SAINT FAUSTINA TESTIMONY

“Low Sunday. (The Feast of The Divine Mercy) Today, I again offered myself to the Lord as a holocaust for sinners. My Jesus, if the end of my life is already approaching, I beg You most humbly, accept my death in union with You as a holocaust which I offer You today, while I still have full possession of my faculties and a fully-conscious will, and this for a three-fold purpose:
First, that the work of Your mercy may spread throughout the whole world and that the Feast of The Divine Mercy may be solemnly promulgated and celebrated.
Secondly, that sinners, especially dying sinners, may have recourse to Your mercy and experience its unspeakable effects.
Thirdly, that all the work of Your mercy may be realized according to Your wishes, and for a certain person who is in charge of this work...” (Diary, 1680).

All rights reserved. © The Congregation of the Sisters of Merciful Jesus.
The texts may be copied only on the condition that the full name of the source is acknowledged
and an active link to www.faustina-message.com is provided.