Question about diary of St Faustina?

  • Thread starter Thread starter anon98328916
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

anon98328916

Guest
I was wondering have you read the diary of St Faustina? Many people have changed their lives after reading it and have a closer relationship with Jesus. People have also converted to the Catholic faith which is astounding. Such a powerful book. Jesus I trust in you.
 
I don’t know why, but I couldn’t read it. I started it and had to put it down. It was recommended to me in such glowing words, I was sure I’d love it. I’m a PhD candidate in theology and also teach. Maybe I’ve just been reading too many academic books. The writing style really put me off. I felt bad about not being able to finish the book.
 
It’s a diary. She was encouraged to write down her thoughts by her spiritual director. It’s not an academic treatise on theology or spirituality. You take the disjointed entries for what they are, simple but deep thoughts and revelations. Her thoughts have cleared the cobwebs in my spirituality and shed light on who I am AND whose I am.
 
anon98328916 said:
I was wondering have you read the diary of St Faustina? Many people have changed their lives after reading it and have a closer relationship with Jesus. People have also converted to the Catholic faith which is astounding. Such a powerful book. Jesus I trust in you.
Click to expand...
Dear Therese 11,

I began re-reading the Diary of St. Faustina for this Jubilee Year of Mercy and have started several threads on CAF while reading it. The first thread, posted on Dec. 12 is HERE. If you’d like to look at some of the other threads you can visit my profile page under statistics and you’ll see other threads on what I’ve read from the Diary. I’m about to post a new one today. 🙂

Her “Diary” is a book to be read slowly in order to ponder what this humble saint shares on the work of Divine Mercy in her soul. Some of what she shares. I believe, God gave her to share with the world. Some of His words are uniquely for her. Each soul is unique but we can learn so much from the saints because God gave them gifts to share with us, that we might learn as they did from Him. I an so encouraged by the love and humility I find in her diary; I am grateful to the Lord for the gifts of grace He gave St. Faustina and through her He continues to give to all His Church and beyond.

The thread I’m beginning today is entitled “St. Faustina’s Diary and the battle for souls”.
 
Casilda said:
It’s a diary. She was encouraged to write down her thoughts by her spiritual director. It’s not an academic treatise on theology or spirituality. You take the disjointed entries for what they are, simple but deep thoughts and revelations. Her thoughts have cleared the cobwebs in my spirituality and shed light on who I am AND whose I am.
Click to expand...
Yes, thank you, I know it’s a diary, but it’s just so poorly written, I couldn’t read it. I’m not sure I believe most of it was just for her anyway. It helps many people, though, so I’m sure it’s quite worthwhile.
 
Lily_Bernans said:
Yes, thank you, I know it’s a diary, but it’s just so poorly written, I couldn’t read it. I believe most of it was just for her anyway. It helps many people, though, so I’m sure it’s quite worthwhile.
Click to expand...
 
Edit: I believe most of it was just for her. I would never suggest anyone not read it since we are all helped by different things.
 
Lily_Bernans said:
Edit: I believe most of it was just for her. I would never suggest anyone not read it since we are all helped by different things.
Click to expand...
I don’t believe it was mostly for her, Jesus wanted us to know Him more and have a closer relationship with Him so He worked through her.
There is a part in the book were Jesus talks about confession and I can honestly say it has really changed my way of thinking in regards to going to confession, I used to basically rhyme off the same thing everytime I went without actually thinking about what I was doing or more importantly who was really waiting for me. I go to confession now knowing fully Jesus awaits me and His mercy is unending.
 
Another aspect that makes it a little awkward to read, its a translation, the beauty is therefore mostly lost.

It is why I am searching to replace my translation of St. John of the Cross’ works for the original Spanish, as I can read that and therefore appreciate the actual words he chose to write.
 
Lily_Bernans said:
Edit: I believe most of it was just for her. I would never suggest anyone not read it since we are all helped by different things.
Click to expand...
Another book, “Tell My Priests” is a shorter one on her more noteworthy parts, about 110 pages. It is quite good. It eliminates a good deal of the fill in and states the good parts.
 
My wife was a lukewarm convert until she started reading this book a few years ago. She is the type of person that doesn’t necessarily like to read books in order, from start to finish, so she just started opening it up to different pages, and started reading here and there.

It changed her life, and now that I’ve read most of it, it changed my life as well. This book has greatly affected us, and we pray a divine mercy chaplet every day as just one result.

A lot of the book is somewhat boring “this is what happened today in the convent”, but if you do manage to read the whole thing, you see a soul gradually coming closer and closer to God. And there are truly profound, but also simple insights.

I had to put the book aside for a year or so because “St. Faustina is just so holy that I can’t really relate to it…”

But at this point, I recommend it to everybody I know, and a lot of people I don’t know!

I have the book on Kindle now, and as I go through it I highlight things I want to remember (because I teach RE classes and Bible study at our church). The deeper I get, the more I highlight, and it seems now that more of each page is highlighted than when I started highlighting. I’ll probably read it again, and maybe I will highlight only the stuff I don’t want to remember!

Read it. Either from start to finish, or just the bolded stuff, or in random page order. If you can’t connect, put it aside, then try again later.
 
fred_conty said:
Another book, “Tell My Priests” is a shorter one on her more noteworthy parts, about 110 pages. It is quite good. It eliminates a good deal of the fill in and states the good parts.
Click to expand...
Thank you! 🙂
 
ricmat said:
My wife was a lukewarm convert until she started reading this book a few years ago. She is the type of person that doesn’t necessarily like to read books in order, from start to finish, so she just started opening it up to different pages, and started reading here and there.
Click to expand...
I’ve read this book here and there too, and actually I have yet to have read the entire thing. What I have read of it, I fully believe, and have found to be fascinating. It can be interesting, as well as spiritually helpful.
 
I was wondering have you read the diary of St Faustina? Many people have changed their lives after reading it and have a closer relationship with Jesus. People have also converted to the Catholic faith which is astounding. Such a powerful book. Jesus I trust in you.
Click to expand...
I read it quite a few years ago, cover to cover, and it changed my life. It opened my eyes to the Mercy of God in a time in my life when I was pretty hard on myself. I’d already morally converted before reading the book, but God through this book converted by heart.

‘Divine Mercy in My Soul’ is private revelation. The Church teaches the role of private revelation is to shine the light on what is already there in Public Revelation which is the deposit of our faith (CCC 67). Nothing can add to Pubic Revelation but private revelations can help us appreciate and understand our faith better.

I found this to be the case with this book. My favourite excerpt from the Diary is as follows:
Let souls who are striving for perfection particularly adore my Mercy, because the abundance of graces which I grant them flows from My Mercy. I desire that these souls distinguish themselves by boundless trust in my mercy. I myself will attend to the sanctification of such souls. I will provide them with everything they will need to attain sanctity. The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is - trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. Souls that trust boundlessly are a great comfort to me, because I pour all the treasures of My graces into them. I rejoice that they ask for much, because it is My desire to give much, very much. On the other hand, I am sad when souls ask fro little, when they narrow their hearts. (Diary, 1578).
Click to expand...
 
John_Columba said:
I read it quite a few years ago, cover to cover, and it changed my life. It opened my eyes to the Mercy of God in a time in my life when I was pretty hard on myself. I’d already morally converted before reading the book, but God through this book converted by heart.

‘Divine Mercy in My Soul’ is private revelation. The Church teaches the role of private revelation is to shine the light on what is already there in Public Revelation which is the deposit of our faith (CCC 67). Nothing can add to Pubic Revelation but private revelations can help us appreciate and understand our faith better.

I found this to be the case with this book. My favourite excerpt from the Diary is as follows:
Click to expand...
Another beautiful quote. Thank you, John! I fully intend on reading this book when I finish this semester come May.

Thank you also for the official word on what we are to take from private revelations. 👍
 
I read it.

Even though she suffered greatly, she had a close personal relationship with God and the saints.

I’m jealous. I’ll never have that.
 
You’re welcome Lily! I’m certain you’ll draw some profit from reading he diary, and that St. Faustina’s intercession will be with you 🙂

Concerning the purpose of the Diary, our Lord Himself says to St. Fasutina:
My daughter, be diligent in writing down every sentence I tell you concerning My mercy, because this is meant for a great number of souls who will profit from it. (Diary 1142).
Click to expand...
Bless!
 
When I came back into the Church in 2005, the parish priest asked me what made me want to come back. When I told him that it was because I read the Diary of St. Faustia his eyes practically bugged out of his head! :eek:

He told me that he couldn’t believe a young man like myself took up to reading the Diary and came back into the Church. Perhaps all the mentions of mercy and love that is preached are indeed true.
 
Lily_Bernans said:
I don’t know why, but I couldn’t read it. I started it and had to put it down. It was recommended to me in such glowing words, I was sure I’d love it. I’m a PhD candidate in theology and also teach. Maybe I’ve just been reading too many academic books. The writing style really put me off. I felt bad about not being able to finish the book.
Click to expand...
While “Divine Mercy in My Soul” resonates with me I could not get through “Story of a Soul” by St. Therese. 🤷 🙂 Like you said, we are helped by different things.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top