Compare the Teachings of St. Faustina and Bl. Dina

Here are ten examples of the remarkable similarities between the teachings of Bl. Dina Belanger and her near contemporary, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska.

(1) First, on suffering with Christ for the good of souls (reparative suffering), Bl. Dina wrote:

I have no words to express my thirst for suffering.... Love is the unique motive of my desires; I would have Jesus crucified reproduced in me that I may resemble Him more closely, and then by Him, apply to souls His inexhaustible merits. None the less, I submit my boundless desires to His good pleasure. As He wills, no more, no less!

On the same subject, St. Faustina wrote (Diary entries 323 and 1574):

I united my sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus and offered them for myself and for the conversion of souls who do not trust in God....

O my Jesus, may the last days of my exile be spent totally according to Your most holy will. I unite my sufferings, my bitterness, and my last agony itself to Your Sacred Passion; and I offer myself for the world to implore an abundance of God's mercy for souls....

(2) Bl. Dina wrote:

If the angels could desire anything, it seems to me that they would envy us our privilege of suffering, as well as the priceless gift of the Eucharist.

Similarly, St. Faustina wrote (Diary entry 1804):

If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering.

(3) St. Faustina had a vision of the Risen Christ, His right hand raised in blessing, His left hand touching His garment at the breast, with red and pale rays streaming from the area of His Heart. This was the pattern she received for the painting of the great Image of The Divine Mercy (Diary entries 47-48).

Bl. Dina wrote:

At times it seemed to me that Jesus appeared laden with graces. They flowed out of His hands and from His Sacred Heart like impetuous torrents. It was His desire that I should apply these treasures to save souls.

(4) St. Faustina received from Christ revelation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy (Diary entry 476):

Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins, and those of the whole world. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.

And Jesus promised to St. Faustina: "Through the Chaplet you will obtain everything, if what you ask for is compatible with My will" (Diary entry 1731).

Now listen to the form of prayer that God gave to Bl. Dina, on the other side of the world, just a few years prior to Faustina. Dina wrote:

When a soul in whom [Jesus] lives freely and divinely, offers Him to His Father for His glory, the Eternal Father can refuse nothing to His Son; moreover, He is satisfied with this offering.... This is how I make the offering each time: "Eternal Father, through Mary and Thy Spirit of Love, I offer Thee the Eucharistic Heart of My Jesus...."

(5) Jesus taught St. Faustina that He has a special compassion and love for the lost and the broken, in other words, for those who are most in need of His mercy. Jesus said to her (in Diary entry 1182):

My daughter, write that the greater the misery of a soul, the greater its right to My mercy.

Now listen to what Bl. Dina wrote in the same subject:
If I could pour boundless confidence into all those poor souls who mistrust their heavenly Father! Infinite Mercy is exercised on our behalf in the measure that it finds us miserable and unworthy.

(6) Jesus said to St. Faustina (in Diary entry 300):
Oh how much I am hurt by a soul's distrust!

Bl. Dina wrote in her autobiography:

To give God a chance to exercise His mercy by our repentance and confidence causes Him joy. Nothing wounds His Heart so much as a lack of trust.

(7) The center of St. Faustina's spiritual way is the virtue of trust in The Divine Mercy. Jesus said to her (in Diary entry 718):

You see what you are of yourself, but do not be frightened at this. If I were to reveal to you the whole misery that you are, you would die of terror.... Because you are such great misery, I have revealed to you the whole ocean of My mercy... you are a daughter of complete trust.

Similarly, Bl. Dina wrote:

I am penetrated with my nothingness, I feel myself poor, weak, and powerless. But because of this, my confidence in Jesus is like a shoreless ocean, engulfing the abyss of my misery. I spring up with faith and love into the regions of infinite Mercy, the goodness of God being my firm assurance and my unalterable peace.

(8) Through St. Faustina we learn that during His Agony and Passion, the soul of Jesus was consoled by His prevision of all devout souls of all future generations. Jesus said to her in the Novena he taught her (Diary entry 1214):

Today bring to Me all devout and faithful souls, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. These souls brought Me consolation on the Way of the Cross. They were that drop of consolation in the midst of an ocean of bitterness.

And Bl. Dina wrote:

I long to console my Jesus: oh what suffering was His in the Garden of Olives.... What a mysterious privilege to be specially chosen to console Him.... [And Jesus said to her]: Very few souls wish to compassionate my Agony... I confide precious secrets to souls who are willing to console Me in My agony.

(9) St. Faustina learned from Jesus that His Heart rejoices especially when He is able to indwell and sanctify human souls (Diary entry 1784):

How very much I desire the salvation of souls! My dearest secretary, write that I want to pour out My divine life into human souls and to sanctify them, if only they are willing to accept My grace.... My delight is to act in a human soul and to fill it with My mercy.... My kingdom on earth is my life in the human soul.

And now listen to what Jesus said to Bl. Dina):

My happiness is to reproduce Myself in the souls that I created through love. The more a soul allows me to reproduce Myself truly in itself, the more happiness and repose I feel in it. The greatest joy a soul can give me is to let me raise it to the Divinity. Yes, My little spouse, I feel an immense pleasure in transforming a soul into Myself, in deifying it, in absorbing it entirely in the Divinity.

(10) Finally, both St. Faustina and Bl. Dina died of the same disease - tuberculosis - and both died of it at the age of 33. Now what are we to make of all this? Clearly, Jesus Christ communicated a remarkably similar treasury of spiritual wisdom to these two women of prayer, religious who were almost contemporaries of each other, living on opposite sides of the world, and who were completely unknown to each other.

(Continued next week on the Divine Mercy spirituality of Bl. Dina Belanger).

PLR

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