Saturday, September 19, 2020

Diary of St. Faustina: Divine Mercy in My Soul

         I first read the diary of St. Faustina when I was still in my teen years. I got her diary from the store of a local Divine Mercy  promoter here in my country. When I was young, the Divine Mercy prayer, called "the 3'o clock habit," was often aired in a few local channels. Now, only one local tv channel remains in airing the Divine Mercy prayer, but the airing was halted in that lone local network because they were not granted the permission to renew their franchise. Anyway, I'm still saying the prayer, and even playing the video prayer at work. As they say old habits die hard, and this is one habit that I don't want to stop. 


Maybe, most of you dear readers of this blog of mine knew that I got sidetracked for once in my life. I left our church for quite a while, and joined a Baptist (Protestant) gathering before. But do not worry I already returned to our church, and had a reconciliation with the help of a priest through confession. The devotion to the Divine Mercy helped me the most. Most of my collections of Catholic books were gone but there were a few I have kept. Among those that were gone was the diary of St. Faustina. She was still not a saint when I got that diary of hers. I just bought another one, a new edition of her diary, and in this diary we can see that she's already a saint! Time really flies fast! The cover of her diary was also changed. Before, the cover was her photo (painting version), now, we can see the image of the Divine Mercy, aside from St. Faustina's whole image. 

I bought this diary of hers from the Marian Fathers here in the Philippines. That is where I got the beautiful original Divine Mercy painting poster that I posted in our door post, and the Divine Mercy laminated prayer cards. I gave away the laminated card to my office mates, boss, and to the family of my fiance.

I have read a bit of St. Gemma Galgani, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, and St. Therese of the Child Jesus, diary. Those diaries that I mentioned above (diary of St. Gemma and St. Margaret Mary), were a bit hard for me to digest because of the writing style, it's in old English. If you're like me, maybe you will prefer to read St. Faustina's diary. I admit that the written numbers on the side of every diary entry of hers is not that appealing. Anyway, the important thing is the message of her diary, and that is the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus for us. I was reminded by the late Msgr. Severino G. Casas, H.P. message to me before. He said that in reading diaries or autobiographies of Saints, the church grants an indulgence. So it is a good practice to read wholesome, and good books that is not only enriching to our mind, and heart, but also to our soul. Let us pray, that through this we may learn to draw near to God, and love Him more, and more each day. 

+ Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

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