St. Faustina's Diary

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Have any of you read St. Faustina’s Diary? What did you think?

I decided to try to read it before Divine Mercy Sunday. I would say I am about 3/4 of the way through it. On the one hand I find it very readable, and very beautiful. On the other hand, there are a couple of things about it I find quite disturbing. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail because I don’t wish to be disrespectful. I am just wondering if anyone else has read it and been surprised to find it unsettling?

I do pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy regularly. And one good thing to come out of reading this Diary is that I have been paying a lot more attention to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and trying to increase the number I do each day.
 
Ya, I know where your coming from. I don’t believe in the Divine Mercy Chaplet myself. I find it too repetitive with little medititation.

I sometimes wonder about St Faustina’s mentality (mental disorder of some kind). I don’t want to offend anyone though, but it’s worth checking out. 🤷

Maybe I misinterpreted it. I don’t know.:confused:
 
Don’t forget that St. Faustina was a very lightly educated woman, and a simple soul. A lot of her diary entries are personal reflections about her daily struggles of living in her convent and that’s why they don’t read like sophisticated theology. What she writes of her own accord is different in tone from what was dictated by Jesus to her.

Personally, I think that this devotion was given by Jesus to help us moderns who have such short attention spans…it uses the rosary, but takes less time to say. What a generous gift for us! He wants to give everyone just every opportunity for grace and salvation.
 
I have read the Diary more than once and there are things in it I find unsettling, and things I find helpful and beautiful. It is really a mixed bag for me. But that’s how I feel about most private revelation, which is why I don’t read it much.
 
A good bit of it is beautiful. A good bit of it is, if true, scary.
 
Not saying she’s wrong or anything but I’m wondering if they asked her to see a psychologist. We must be certain it’s Jesus and not her.
 
Julianna,

I found some of the images unsettling and graphic, like several times she sees the Infant Jesus on the altar and then sees the priest break Him up, literally. I won’t go into more detail than that. Images I am having a hard time getting out of my mind.

There are theological points I disagree with too, but have an easier time with that since she was not a theologian. I think they are more understandable in the context of who she was, how she was educated, (or not), and so on. It is the images I struggle with.

Interestingly, I still love the devotion to the Divine Mercy.
 
She does say on numerous occasions seeing baby Jesus breaking apart but I believe this is at communion time when the priest breaks the bread apart. Now each part of the Eucharist is the whole person of Christ and this is what is being reflected in seeing the baby Jesus broken. But she was delighted seeing baby Jesus and in no way bothered her that he broke apart. It seemed she saw this at each communion time.

One of the unnerving things was when she expressed the idea that there were sisters that enjoyed being mean to others. That was rather hard for me to understand since that seems contrary to their vocation to love. But that is what she said and I don’t think she would say this unless it were true.

Her experience in being transported to Hell and seeing the awefull misery there was indeed frightening. It went into some detail. One interesting thing about this story is that she said that most of those there had not believed in hell.

She also seems to be able to read souls. “I suffer great pain in my hands, feet and side, the places where Jesus’ body was pierced. I experience these pains particularly when I meet with a soul who is not in the state of grace. Then I pray fervently that the mercy of God will embrace that soul.”

I believe it was a marvelous piece of work and said so simply. Some of her beautiful poetry to God went over my head since I’m not a poet. But someone who is would enjoy that part.

If a person is unfamilar with the religious life of a sister or brother, then some of this would be puzzeling. But all in all, it is a wonderful book.

Just a thought.
 
longing4Jesus said:
I found some of the images unsettling and graphic, like several times she sees the Infant Jesus on the altar and then sees the priest break Him up, literally. I won’t go into more detail than that. Images I am having a hard time getting out of my mind.

There are theological points I disagree with too, but have an easier time with that since she was not a theologian. I think they are more understandable in the context of who she was, how she was educated, (or not), and so on. It is the images I struggle with.
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Funny, that was not at all what bothered me. I thought the image of the Infant Jesus being broken up and eaten was very powerful and brought home more fully the sacrificial reality of the Eucharist. What bothered me was more theological things.
 
Ok, what were the theological things that were bothersome?

Thank you for the other replies. Keep those coming as well.
 
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