THE DIARY OF SAINT FAUSTINA Part 1

SAINT 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 picture of the high degree
of her soul’s union with God. The Lord endowed sister Faustina with great graces: the gift
of contemplation, a deep knowledge of the mystery of the mercy of God, visions, revelations,
the hidden stigmata, the gift of prophecy and of reading into 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).

"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).

"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 fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as 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).

"Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy! You will call out in vain, but it will be too late" (Diary 1448).

"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 cooperate 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 walked 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, and 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; and 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 in a special way" (Diary 1094).

"The Lord gave me much light to know His attributes. The first attribute that the Lord gave me 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 in it, 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 kind 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 is love and mercy. And I understood that the greatest attribute is love and mercy. 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 given 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 such a soul up to very throne, and the more
it 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 itself, 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 the true humility. Although
I consider myself the least (...). I enjoy the honor 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. Humanly speaking, 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 illumines my soul, trusting completely in Your help" (Diary 1351).