1001-1050

Sister Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament


Congregation Of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy


I shall Sing the Lord's Mercy


Notebook III


NOTEBOOK III (1 )+ J.M.J. 1001 Thank You, O Lord, my Master, That You have transformed me entirely into Yourself, And accompany me through life‟s toils and labors; I fear nothing when I have You in my heart. 243 + J.M.J. 1002 The Lord‟s Supper is laid, Jesus sits down at table with His Apostles, His Being all transformed into love, For such was the Holy Trinity‟s counsel. With great desire, I desire to eat with you, Before I suffer death. About to leave you, love holds Me in your midst. He sheds His Blood, gives His life, for He loves immensely. Love hides beneath the appearance of bread, Departing, He remains with us. Such self-abasement was not needed, Yet burning love hid Him under these species. Over the bread and wine He says these words:
“This is My Blood, this is My Body.” Although mysterious, these are words of love. Then He passes the Cup among His disciples. Jesus grew deeply troubled within And said, “One of you will betray his Master.” They fell silent, with a silence as of the tomb, And John inclined his head on His breast. The supper is ended. Let us go to Gethsemane. Love is satisfied, And there the traitor is waiting. (2)+ J.M.J. 1003 O Divine Will, You are my nourishment, You are my delight. Hasten, O Lord, the Feast of Mercy that souls may recognize the fountain of Your goodness. God and souls. Sister M. Faustina Of the Blessed Sacrament Cracow, March 1, 1937. 1004 O will of the Omnipotent God, You are my delight, You are my joy. 244 Whatever the hand of my Lord holds out to me I will accept with gladness, submission and love. Your holy will is my repose; In it is contained all my sanctity, And all my eternal salvation, For doing Gods will is the greatest glory. The will of God – those are his various wishes Which my soul carries out without reserve, Because such are His divine desires, In those moments when God shares His confidences with me. Do with me as You will, Lord. I place no obstacles, I make no reservations. For You are my whole delight and the love of my soul, And to You, in turn, I pour out the confidences of my heart. + (3) J.M.J. Cracow, March 1, 1937 + Third Notebook 1005 Let the glory and praise to The Divine Mercy rise from every creature throughout all ages and times. 1006 + O my Lord and god, You command me to write about the graces You grant me. O my Jesus, were it not for a clear command from my confessors,178 that I am to write down what goes on in my soul, I would not, of my own choice, write a single word. And so, if I do write about myself, it is at the formal command of holy obedience. 1007 + Praise and glory be to You, O Holy Trinity, Eternal God. May the mercy springing from your very bowels protect us from Your just anger. Let the praise of Your incomprehensible mercy resound everywhere. All Your works bear the seal of Your unfathomable mercy, O God.
1008 March 1, 1937. The Lord gave me to know how displeased He is with a talkative soul. I find no rest in such a soul. The constant din tires Me, and in the midst of it the soul cannot discern My voice. 1009 Today I asked the Lord Jesus to let me meet with a certain person, and this would be a sign for me that He is calling her to this convent [which I am to found]. And I did meet her and understood that this soul has a vocation, and I asked the Lord to deign to form her Himself. I have talked to her often about a vocation; the Lord will do the rest. 1010 (4) + March 5, 1937. Today, I experienced the Passion of the Lord Jesus in my own body for a long while. The pain is very great, but all this is for the sake of immortal souls. 1011 Today, the Lord visited me, pressed me to His Heart and said, Rest, My little child, I am always with you. 245 1012 + March 8, 1937. Today, as I was praying for the intention of Father Andrasz, I suddenly understood how intimately this soul communed with God and how pleasing he was to the lord. It gave me immense joy, because I desire intensely that all souls be united with God as closely as possible.
1013 + During prayer today, my soul was overcome with such a strong desire to begin the work, that I could not restrain my enthusiasm. Oh, how ardently I desire that the souls in this Congregation present themselves before the throne of God and continuously implore His incomprehensible mercy on behalf of the whole world, praising and glorifying this unfathomable mercy of God. A mysterious force is driving me to action. 1014 March 12, 1937. I saw the weariness of a certain priest [probably Father Sopocko] for whom the Lord has traced out a hard and difficult road; but the fruits of his work are alive. May God give us many such souls, capable of loving Him in the midst of the greatest torments. 1015 + I felt today how greatly a certain dying soul desired prayers. I prayed until I felt she had died. Oh, dying souls are in such great need of prayer! O Jesus, inspire souls to pray often for the dying. 1016 (5) March 15, 1937. Today, I entered into the bitterness of the Passion of the Lord Jesus. I suffered in a purely spiritual way. I learned how horrible sin was. God gave me to know the whole hideousness of sin. I learned in the depths of my soul how horrible sin was, even the smallest sin, and how much it tormented the soul of Jesus. I would rather suffer a thousand hells than commit even the smallest venial sin. 1017 The Lord said to me, I want to give Myself to souls and to fill them with My love, but few there are who want to accept all the graces My love has intended for them. My grace is not lost; if the soul for whom it was intended does not accept it, another soul takes it. 1018 I frequently feel that certain persons are praying for me. I experience this suddenly in my soul, but I do not always know which person is interceding for me. I also know when some person has trouble because of something that has to do with me; of this too I am inwardly aware, even though the distance [that separates us] is very great. 179 1019 March 18, 1937. I have come to know that I have received a certain grace that brings me into great intimacy and communion with the Lord. He gives me to know this by means of an interior light. He allows me to know His greatness and holiness and how graciously He lowers Himself to me. He gives me an exclusive knowledge of His love for me, and of how He is Lord of absolutely all things, and also of how He gives Himself to a soul while suspending all laws of nature. He acts as He wills. 1020 I understand the spiritual espousal of a soul with God, which has no exterior manifestation. It is a purely interior act between the soul and God. This grace has drawn me into the very burning center of God's love. I have come to understand His Trinitarian quality and the absolute Oneness of His Being. This grace is different from all other graces. It is so extremely spiritual that my inaccurate description knows not how to express even a shade of it. 246 1021 (6) + I have such a strong desire to hide myself that I would like to live as though I did not exist. I feel a strange inner urge to hide myself as deeply as possible so as to be known only to the Heart of Jesus. I want to be a quiet little dwelling place for Jesus to rest in. I shall admit nothing that might awaken my Beloved. My concealment gives me a chance to commune constantly and exclusively with my Bridegroom. I commune with creatures in so far as it is pleasing to Him. My heart has come to love the Lord with the full force of love, and I know no other love, because it is from the beginning that my soul has sunk deeply in the Lord as in its only treasure. 1022 + Although outwardly I meet with many sufferings and various adversities, this does not, however, lessen my interior life for a moment nor disturb my inner silence. I do not fear at all being abandoned by creatures because, even if all abandoned me, I would not be alone, for the Lord is with me. And even if the Lord were to hide, love will know how to find Him. For love knows no gates or guards; even the keen-eyed Cherub himself, with his flaming sword, will not stop love; it will work its way through wilderness, and scorching heat, through storm, thunder and darkness, and will reach the source from which it came, and there it will endure forever. All things will come to an end; but love, never. 1023 + Today, I received some oranges. When the sister had left, I thought to myself, “Should I eat the oranges instead of doing penance and mortifying myself during Holy Lent? After all, I am feeling a bit better.” Then I heard a voice in my soul: My daughter, you please Me more by eating the oranges out of obedience and love of Me than by fasting and mortifying yourself of your own will. A soul that loves Me very much must, ought to live by My will. I know your heart, and I know that it will not be satisfied by anything but My love alone. 1024 (7) + I would not know how to live without the Lord. Jesus often visits me in this seclusion, teaches me, reassures me, rebukes me, and admonished me. He Himself forms my heart according to His divine wishes and likings, but always with much goodness and mercy. Our hearts are fused as one. 1025 March 19, 1937. Today, I united myself in spirit with the Adoration that is taking place in our house [40-hour Adoration in Cracow], but my soul was full of torments, and some strange kind of apprehension was piercing my heart. Because of this, I redoubled my prayers. Suddenly I saw the gaze of god reaching into the depths of my heart. 1026 As I sat down to a very tasty breakfast, I said to the Lord, “Thank you for these gifts, but my heart is dying of longing for You, and nothing earthly is tasty to me. I desire the food on Your love.” 1027 Today I was drawn by some mysterious force to act. I must resist this attraction, or else I would follow it at once. 1028 March 21, 1937. Palm Sunday. During Mass, my soul was steeped in the bitterness and suffering of Jesus. Jesus gave me to understand how much He had suffered in that triumphal procession. “Hosanna” was reverberating in Jesus‟ heart as an echo of “Crucify.” Jesus allowed me to feel this in a special way.
1029 The doctor did not allow me to go to the chapel to attend the Passion Service, although I had a great desire for it; however, I prayed in my own room. Suddenly I heard the bell in 247 the next room, and I went in and rendered a service to a seriously sick person. (8) When I returned to my room, I suddenly saw the Lord Jesus, who said, My daughter, you gave Me greater pleasure by rendering Me that service than if you had prayed for a long time. I answered, “But it was not to You, Jesus, but to that patient that I rendered this service.” And the Lord answered me, Yes, My daughter, but whatever you for your neighbor, you do for Me. 1030 + O my Jesus, give me wisdom, give me a mind great and enlightened by Your light, and this only, that I may know You better, O Lord. For the better I get to know You, the more ardently will I love You, the sole object of my love. In You my soul drowns, in You my heart dissolves. I know no how to love partially, but only with the full strength of my soul and the total ardor of my heart. You Yourself, O Lord, have enkindled this love of mine for You; in You my heart has drowned forever. 1031 March 22, 1937. As I was talking, today, to a certain person, I recognized that she was suffering greatly in spirit, although exteriorly she pretended that she was very happy and was not suffering at all. I felt inspired to tell her that what was troubling her was a temptation. When I disclosed to her what was torturing her, she burst into tears and told me that she had come to see me precisely to speak to me, because she felt that it would bring her relief. The suffering was of such a kind that the soul was being attracted by god‟s grace on the one hand and by the world on the other. She was going through a terrible struggle that brought her to the point of weeping like a little child. But she went away soothed and set at peace.
1032 + During Holy Mass, I saw the Lord Jesus nailed upon the cross amidst great torments. A soft moan issued from His Heart. After some time, He said, I thirst. I thirst for salvation of souls. Help Me, My daughter, to save souls. Join your sufferings to My Passion and offer them to the heavenly Father for sinners. 1033 (9) + When I see that the burden is beyond my strength, I do not consider or analyze it or probe into it, but I run like a child to the Heart of Jesus and say only one word to Him: “You can do all things.” And then I keep silent, because I know that Jesus Himself will intervene in the matter, and as for me, instead of tormenting myself, I use that time to love Him. 1034 Monday of Holy Week. I asked the Lord to let me take part in His Sorrowful Passion that I might experience in soul and body, to the extent that this is possible for a creature, His bitter Passion. I asked to experience all the bitterness, in so far as this was possible. And the Lord answered that He would give me this grace, and that on Thursday, after Holy Communion, He would grant this in a special way. 1035 + This evening, a certain young man was dying; he was suffering terribly. For his intention, I began to say the chaplet which the Lord had taught me. I said it all, but the agony continued. I wanted to start the Litany of the Saints, but suddenly I heard the words, Say the chaplet. I understood that the soul needed the special help of prayers and great mercy. And so I locked myself in my room and fell prostrate before God and begged for mercy upon that soul. Then I felt the great majesty of God and His great justice. I trembled with fear, but did not stop begging the Lord‟s mercy for that soul. Then I took the cross off my breast, the crucifix I had received when making my vows, 180 and I put it on the chest of the dying man and said to the Lord, “Jesus, look on this soul with the 248 same love with which You looked on my holocaust on the day of my perpetual vows, and by the power of the promise which You made to me in respect to the dying and those who would invoke Your mercy on them, [grant this man the grace of a happy death].” His suffering then ceased, and he died peacefully. Oh, how much we should pray for the dying! Let us take advantage of mercy while there is still time for mercy. 1036 (10) + I realize more and more how much every soul needs God‟s mercy throughout life and particularly at the hour of death. This chaplet mitigates God‟s anger, as He Himself told me. 1037 + I find myself so weak that were it not for Holy Communion I would fall continually. One thing alone sustains me, and that is Holy Communion. From it I draw my strength; in it is all my comfort. I fear life on days when I do not receive Holy Communion. I fear my own self. Jesus concealed in the Host is everything to me. From the tabernacle I draw strength, power, courage and light. Here, I seek consolation in time of anguish. I would not know how to give glory to God if I did not have the Eucharist in my heart. 1038 + My beloved native land, Poland, if you only knew how many sacrifices and prayers I offer to God for you! But be watchful and give glory to God, who lifts you up and singles you out in a special way. But know how to be grateful. 1039 + I suffer great pain at the sight of the sufferings of others. All these sufferings are reflected in my heart. I carry their torments in my heart so that it even wears me out physically. I would like all pains to fall upon me so as to bring relief to my neighbor. 1040 Amid terrible torments, I fix my eyes on You, my God, and though a storm is gathering over my head, I know that the sun is not extinguished. Nor do I wonder at the deceitfulness of creatures, but I accept in advance whatever may happen. My lips are silent, while my ears are satiated with derision. I strive for silence in my heart amidst the greatest sufferings, and I protect myself against all attacks with the shield of Your Name. 1041 (11 ) An ardent desire for this Feast181 is burning up my whole soul. In fervent prayer for the hastening of the Feast I find some relief, and I have begun a novena for the intention of certain priests that God may grant them light and inspiration to apply for the promulgation of this Feast, and that the Spirit of God inspire the Holy Father regarding the entire matter. The novena consists of an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. I have implored God to hasten this feast and have asked the Holy Spirit to inspire certain people regarding this whole matter. I am finishing this novena on Holy Thursday. 1042 + March 23, 1937. Today is the seventh day of the novena. I have received a great and inconceivable grace: the Most Merciful Jesus has promised that I will be present at the celebration of this solemn Feast. 1043 This day, the 23rd, that is, Tuesday of Holy Week, is a day on which the Lord has granted me many graces. 1044 Suddenly, God‟s presence took hold of me, and at once I saw myself in Rome, in the Holy Father‟s chapel and at the same time I was in our chapel. And the celebration of the Holy Father and the entire Church was closely connected with our chapel and, in a very special 249 way, with our Congregation. And I took part in the solemn celebration simultaneously here and in Rome, for the celebration was so closely connected with Rome that, even as I write, I cannot distinguish the two but I am writing it down as I saw it. I saw the Lord Jesus in our chapel, exposed in the monstrance on the high altar. The chapel was adorned as for a feast, and on that day anyone who wanted to come was allowed in. 182 The crowd was so enormous that the eye could not take it all in. Everyone was participating in the celebrations with great joy, and many of them obtained what they desired. (12) The same celebration was held in Rome, in a beautiful church, and the Holy Father, with all the clergy, was celebrating this Feast, and then suddenly I saw Saint Peter, who stood between the altar and the Holy Father. I could not hear what Saint Peter said but I saw that the Holy Father understood his words……. 1045 Then some clergymen whom I did not know began to examine me and to humiliate me, 183 or rather, what I had written; but I saw how Jesus Himself was defending me and giving them to understand what they did not know. 1046 Then suddenly, I saw how the two rays, as painted in the image, issued from the Host and spread over the whole world. This lasted only a moment, but it seemed as though it had lasted all day, and our chapel was overcrowded all day long, and the whole day abounded in joy. 1047 Then suddenly I saw on our altar the living Lord Jesus, just as He is depicted in the image. Yet I felt that the sisters and all the people did not see the Lord Jesus as I saw Him. Jesus looked with great kindness and joy at the Holy Father, at certain priests, at the entire clergy, at the people and at our Congregation. 1048 Then, in an instant, I was caught up to stand near Jesus, and I stood on the altar next to the Lord Jesus, and my spirit was filled with happiness so great that I am unable to comprehend it or write about it. A profound peace as well as repose filled my soul. Jesus bent toward me and said with great kindness, What is it you desire, My daughter? And I answered, “I desire worship and glory be given to Your mercy.” I already am receiving worship by the institution and celebration of this Feast; what else do you desire? I then looked at the immense crowd worshiping The Divine Mercy and I said to the Lord, “Jesus, bless all those who are gathered to give glory to You and to venerate Your infinite mercy.” Jesus made a sign of the cross with His hand, and this blessing was reflected in the souls like a flash of light. (13) My spirit was engulfed in His love. I felt as if I had dissolved and disappeared completely in God. When I came to myself, a profound peace was flooding my soul, and an extraordinary understanding of many things was communicated to my intellect, an understanding that had not been granted me previously. 1049 I am immensely happy, although I am the least of all; and I would not change anything of what God has given me. I would not want to change places even with a Seraph, as regards the interior knowledge of God which He Himself has given me. The intimate knowledge I have of the Lord is such as no creature can comprehend, particularly, the depth of his mercy that envelops me. I am happy with everything You give me. 1050 March 24, 1937. Wednesday of Holy Week. My heart is languishing for God. I desire to become united with Him. A faint fear pierces my soul and at the same time a kind of flame of love sets my heart on fire. Love and suffering are united in my heart.