SOR FAUSTINA'S DEVOTION OF THE DIVINE MERCY, IS IT REALLY CATHOLIC OR A TRAP OF THE DEVIL?

Please observe the gaze of Christ, it is not a normal gaze, nor divine but preternatural.

 

Note. "Very dear, I conjure you before God and Jesus Christ ... Proclaim the word, insist on time and misfortune; rebuke, pray, exhort, with patience always and an eagerness to teach. Because the time will come when they will not support sound doctrine ... Teachers will be chosen in bulk and divert and divert their ears from the TRUTH ”(Saint Paul to Tim. 2,) It is the duty of the good shepherd to direct the sheep entrusted to him not only to teach the truth but also to point out the errors wherever they are, above all And above all, just as we did with Luisa Picarreta, now we do it with Sister Faustina for opposing a very dear devotion to us, which is the SACRED HEART OF JESUS.

First, we must recognize that many people have undoubtedly received, in spite of the devotion itself, thanks to the prayer of the Divine Mercy devotion propagated by Sister Faustina.

It must also be said that a soul of assiduous prayer is appreciated in her. However, these two facts do not necessarily imply that this devotion comes from God. Here it is not our intention to judge your intentions, your good or bad faith, which is the domain of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our only intention is to do what the Church has said in times past on this subject for the good of souls.

We Catholics know with certainty, thanks to the promise that Jesus Christ himself made us, that the Holy Spirit would be the guide of the Catholic Church until the end of the world.

Precisely for this reason every time the Church pronounces on a point of faith or morals, she always relies on His infallible assistance. Thanks to this, the Popes, Vicars of Christ, are obliged to faithfully transmit the divine deposit entrusted to them and cannot get out of it under penalty of going against the Holy Spirit. A future Pope could not then go against the infallible decrees of the Church in matters of faith and morals that have been defined and transmitted through his Magisterium through the centuries. If a Pope did that, he would be speaking in his own name and would undoubtedly be teaching human doctrines against the Holy Spirit himself and in that case all Catholics would be under the obligation to disobey that Pope. The truth is immutable, it does not change and cannot change. Modernists deny this, relativize everything, and pretend to put themselves in the place of God. In the present case, without paying attention to his predecessors, John Paul II introduced this devotion already prohibited by the Church and this is unheard of.

First, it must be remembered that The Devotion of Divine Mercy was already definitively prohibited by the Catholic Church. Sister Faustina Kowalska's Diary placed the Church on the banned books index. That was the decision of Pope Pius XII. These decisions are part of the infallible Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

The Holy Father considered Sister Faustina's work represented a very great danger against the Catholic Faith because of the “apparitions” and messages that she received.

Supported by this, by order of the Holy Father, The Holy Office, meeting in plenary session on November 19, 1958, declared the following:

 

1.- The supernatural aspect of the revelations made to Sister Faustina are not evident. (They are private revelations that absolutely cannot influence or change the fidei deposit, since something that goes against it must be condemned)

 

2.- No feast of Divine Mercy should be established under penalty of incurring excommunication.

 

3.- Therefore, it is forbidden to disclose the images and writings that propagate this devotion according to the way it was received by Sister Faustina.

 

- Totally contrary to this decision of the Church are the words of "Jesus" in the Diary: "I promise that the soul that venerates this image will not perish" (No. 48, Diary).

A second decree of the Holy Office made on March 6, 1959 ratified the above, also asking the bishops of the world to act in that direction. This office (the secretary of state) was under the direct control of the Pope, and was responsible for maintaining the purity of Catholic Doctrine by protecting it from false or dangerous doctrines.

The reason for this prohibition is because Sister Faustina's diary places a lot of emphasis on the Mercy of God while minimizing the reality of Divine Justice. The Church had never allowed divine mercy to be worshiped without explicitly alluding to its justice and to the detriment of it. In God his Mercy cannot be separated from his Justice. (Let's be clear on this, divine mercy is the act proper to the virtue of charity, it is not by any means a virtue. Instead, divine justice is an essential virtue in God, that is, it is something essential to his divine being par excellence.) Our sins and the seriousness of the offense made, as well as the damage caused by them with its consequences, cannot be ignored when seeking God's mercy. There must be humility, repentance, a desire to make reparation, and a purpose for amendment every time one approaches God asking for forgiveness of our sins while at the same time appealing to his infinite goodness.

These conditions that represent the fear of God are indispensable conditions to obtain the mercy of God (the Blessed Virgin clearly says this in her canticle of the Magnificat). These conditions are completely ignored in the devotion proposed by Sister Faustina. This repentance, reparation, and penance is precisely what the Blessed Virgin Mary insisted on so much in her great apparitions at La Salette, Lourdes and Fátima as an INDISPENSABLE condition to be able to obtain God's mercy and forgiveness.

The traditional image of God's mercy coupled with his justice was always the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There his Most Sacred Heart, pierced with a spear, crowned with thorns, and shedding his Most Precious Blood, always shows us, first, that we must abandon sin, that we have to repent, and make reparation. The image of the Sacred Heart reminds us through the pains of his Passion of the gravity of sin and the price he had to pay on the Cross to be able to forgive us; there his Sacred Wounds explicitly ask us to NO longer offend him. These dispositions are what make us receive the infinite Love of God and his forgiveness. We must never separate in Jesus Christ himself from his Passion or from his Cross. Mercy comes from the Cross and from our participation in it. Mercy cannot be seen separated from the Cross, from Justice, from the price of our redemption.

Now we are going to address several particular errors found in Sister Faustina's diary to convince ourselves of how dangerous this doctrine is:

 

1.- In Sister Faustina's diary many allusions are made to the fact that in the PRESENT time is a time of mercy and that it IS ENOUGH to trust her mercy to be saved. It says that the time of Justice will be until the end or until after death.

 

These teachings are false and very dangerous. At the present time there is mercy, but it is CONDITIONED to our sincere repentance; if there is no repentance then there will ONLY be justice. Mercy is for the present and for eternity. Justice is also justice for the present and for eternity. It is up to us who is going to touch us. IT IS NOT ENOUGH just to trust in mercy to save yourself. This false "confidence" that in fact should be called "presumption" (sin against hope), is what sums up what this devotion that Sister Faustina preaches truly is. "Jesus, I trust you!" It is the title that characterizes the image of Divine Mercy. This is the typical presumptuous Protestant teaching that does NOT demand of the sinner neither repentance nor amendment. For the Protestant "it is enough to have faith, trust in Jesus" to be saved. Trust without regret is NOT enough to save us.

- On page 101, it says: “Humanity will not find peace until it confidently turns to my mercy” (No. 300, Diary of Sister Faustina).

- On page 187, it says “The soul that trusts in my mercy will not perish” (No. 723, Diary of Sister Faustina).

- On page 101, it says: “Humanity will not find peace until it confidently turns to my mercy” (No. 300, Diary of Sister Faustina).

- On page 187, it says “The soul that trusts in my mercy will not perish” (No. 723, Diary of Sister Faustina).

- On page 118, it says: “The moment I knelt to cross out my own will, as the Lord had commanded me, I heard this voice in my soul: “From today do not be afraid of God's judgment, since you will be judged. " (No. 374, Diary of Sister Faustina, February 4, 1935)

 

2.- The strange promise made to Sister Faustina to be freed from all the temporary punishment due to sin, for those who pray the Chaplet at 3:00 pm, is a sample of that false mercy. It is the superstition and the presumption of obtaining forgiveness, even if one has sinned, and even if there is no repentance, even if there is no reparation. The Church in its tradition only grants this privilege, through plenary indulgence, to those who have NO ATTACHMENT even to venial sin, that is, to those who are repentant and amended. This is another infallible and constant teaching that our Mother the Church has taught us for 20 centuries.

- "Even the most inveterate sinner, if he prays the Chaplet of Divine Mercy only once, he will receive the graces of My infinite mercy" (No. 687, Diary of Sister Faustina).

 

3.-In her diary, Sister Faustina lacks that deep humility, that sense of unworthiness, that sense of the gravity of sin and her confession and continuous pain are missing; dispositions of the great mystics and seers of God. Jesus Christ his children who loves punishes and humiliates them so that they bear more fruit in virtue and holiness. That "Jesus" of which Sister Faustina speaks rather resembles the tempter of the desert. She writes the following in her journal:

- On page 185 “Jesus” said: “Now I know that you do not love me because of the graces or because of the gifts, but because My will is dearer to you than life. That is why I unite myself with you as closely as with any other creature” (No. 707, Diary of Sister Faustina).

- On page 355 it says: “my soul was invaded by a great desire that there would also be a saint in our house and I burst into tears like a little girl. And the Lord Jesus told me: Don't cry, you are” (No. 1650, Diary of Sister Faustina).

- On page 259 we read that "Jesus" said to Faustina: "Tell the Superior General to count on you as the most faithful daughter of the Order." (No. 1130 Diary of Sister Faustina).

- Sister Faustina prays like this: “Oh Jesus, I know perfectly well that I can be a missionary priest and preacher, I can die in martyrdom” (No. 302, Diary of Sister Faustina).

 

4.- It is not surprising that John Paul II promoted this devotion when we know that he also teaches, in his encyclical "Dives in Misericordia", this concept of false mercy. In his theology of the "Paschal Mystery" he himself sets aside any consideration about the gravity of sin and the need to do penance as satisfaction to Divine JUSTICE. Denies that the Holy Mass is a sacrifice

expiatory and overlooks the need to earn indulgences to mitigate divine punishment. For him, since God is "infinitely" merciful, our sins do not matter and we do not have to worry about their consequences. This is NOT a Catholic spirit. Each and every one, on the contrary, is obliged "to make reparation for our sins and for those of the whole world", as the Sacred Heart of Jesus himself taught Saint Margarita María de Alacoque. This is part of the great mystery of the Cross with which we must associate to help Christ Our Lord to save souls.

- “Mercy itself, as the perfection of infinite God, is also infinite. Infinite, therefore, inexhaustible is the readiness of the Father in welcoming the prodigal children who return home. The promptness and strength of forgiveness are infinite. Dives in Misericordia No. 13).

NOTE: This promptness of God is infinite but CONDITIONAL. In practice, due to our imperfect dispositions, the application of God's mercy to each individual person will only be conditional and finite. It is important to note here that the attributes of God that flow from his Divine Essence are always infinite, such as Goodness, Power, Love, etc. Human beings are not infinite in creation, that is why one cannot speak of an infinite Creation. It is the same with mercy. Mercy, as its name implies, means God's compassion for the miserable, compassion for the one who recognizes himself as miserable by having a humble and repentant spirit, as in the parables of the Gospel of the publican or of the prodigal son; there they showed repentance before receiving mercy. That is why God exercises mercy and compassion towards us only in proportion to our dispositions, to our humility, to our faith, to our repentance. That is why our Lord says:

"Blessed are the merciful for they will obtain mercy" (Matthew 5,7).

Our Lord is here conditioning his mercy. Mercy is never exercised by God without relation to us. Mercy would then be as gigantic as possible in proportion to our humility and repentance. For this reason, we will not find in the Sacred Scriptures ANY mention or use of the term "infinite mercy" of God towards men. However, it is used continuously by both John Paul II and Sister Faustina, and the new Evangelization since the Second Vatican Council as well. The Catholic tradition of mercy generally describes it with the term "ETERNAL

mercy”, that is, that“the mercy of God extends from generation to generation to those who fear him ”(Magnificat of the Blessed Ever Virgin Mary, Luke 1,46-55).

- On page 181 it says: “I heard these words: You will give the testimony of My infinite mercy”. (No. 689 diary of Sister Faustina).

 

5.- We also see with great pain that the Chaplet of Divine Mercy has been used as a substitute for the Holy Rosary. Would God reveal a new devotion that is said in the Rosary beads shortly after His Mother appeared in many places for 8 centuries, and lately in Fatima, until performing a powerful miracle to reveal, among other things, the need for the Rosary beads? The specific instruction given to Sister Faustina on how to perform the Divine Mercy Devotion is that it should be recited using the same Rosary beads. This has actually caused many people to substitute the recitation of the Holy Rosary for that of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. In fact, "Jesus" in Sister Faustina's diary grants the Chaplet THE SAME PROMISES of salvation (and even more!) That the Holy Rosary enjoys. That is not like that! In fact, the Holy Rosary is irreplaceable since it was expressly requested by God and the Church for 8 centuries without interruption.

- On page 139 it says “This prayer is to appease My anger, you will pray it for nine days with a common rosary” (No. 476).

 

6.- Another very serious problem, which in fact is an “invitation” to commit sacrilege, is the promotion of the practice of communion in the hand, which is supposedly promoted by Our Lord in the daily. The Host is transported to Sister Faustina's hands several times; Our Lord supposedly says that he wants to rest in his hands.

This was in fact a "divine" foundation used by John Paul II himself to approve Communion in hand in modern liturgies. When we know with certainty from Tradition that not even the Blessed Virgin was ever allowed to touch the Sacred Host. (Only the priest, Christ, through the consecrated priestly hands, is Who gives Himself as food to his children. Giving communion is a priestly ministry that no lay person can assume. Perhaps there was an exception in the great Roman persecutions. where lay people raised to communion wrapped in a linen cloth to those who would be martyred the next day or on the same day. It was also practiced in the Cristero war in Mexico in 1925 outside of there I do not remember another time)

- On page 29 of Sister Faustina's Diary, it says: “… and the Host came out of the tabernacle and rested in my hands, and I joyfully placed it in the tabernacle. That was repeated again, and I did the same with Her, however, that was repeated the third time ..."

- On page 68 of the Diary, Faustina says: “When the priest approached again, I gave him the Host to put in the chalice, from the Host I heard these words:" I wanted to rest in your hands, not only in your heart". (No. 60).

7.-The Devotion of Divine Mercy has caused the Church to focus on mercy at a time when humanity is about to overflow the cup of divine justice. The problem today is that man does not fear God and is offending him in the most serious way that has ever existed. What we need to hear today is about your DIVINE JUSTICE. This is what the Blessed Virgin of Fatima did, warning of hell and divine punishments on countries and the Church if people "DO NOT CONVERT" (which has not happened). He said that the devotion to her Immaculate Heart and the recitation of the Holy Rosary were "the LAST means that God gave to the world so that it could be converted and saved." Asked Sister Lucia about what the words "the last remedies" meant, she replied: "He said 'last' since THERE WOULD BE NO OTHERS" (that is, The Crown! ").

Divine Mercy devotion was false devotion and the perfect message to make people believe that they would obtain God's mercy even if they continued in their sins. Faustina insists that her mercy must be "adored" ("my destiny is to adore and glorify Divine Mercy" (No. 729, Diary of Sister Faustina).

CONCLUSION

Considering all these things together, and supported in obedience to the infallible Magisterium of the Catholic Church, and to the dire consequences of this false doctrine, false piety and ultimately false means of salvation, we conclude, inescapably, that Sister Faustina's Diary together with His devotion to Divine Mercy, which is included there, is something forbidden and that Catholics should avoid.

 

“He who has ears to hear, let him listen. ¨ (Mt 13,9)

 

With our blessing.

 

REV. FATHER RAFAEL OSB

 

REV. FATHER Arturo Vargas Meza