Not well-known or highly touted in conversations about the “Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska” are the pangs of abortion she suffered on behalf of souls who experienced this tragic occurrence. It’s quite obvious from Saint Faustina’s entry that abortion is not just an issue with Catholicism or the Pro-Life movement, but is also an issue with God Himself. Here is Saint Faustina’s entry (1276):September 16, 1937. I wanted very much to make a Holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament today. But God’s will was otherwise. At eight o’clock I was seized with such violent pains that I had to go to bed at once. I was convulsed with pain for three hours; that is, until eleven o’clock at night. No medicine had any effect on me, and whatever I swallowed I threw up. At times, the pains caused me to lose consciousness. Jesus had me realize that in this way I took part in His Agony in the Garden, and that He Himself allowed these sufferings in order to offer reparation to God for the souls murdered in the wombs of wicked mothers. I have gone through these sufferings three times now. They always start at eight o’clock in the evening and last until eleven. No medicine can lessen these sufferings. When eleven o’clock comes, they cease by themselves, and I fall asleep at that moment. The following day, I feel very weak.
This happened to me for the first time when I was at the sanatorium. The doctors couldn’t get to the bottom of it, and no injection or medicine helped me at all or did I myself have any idea of what the sufferings were about. I told the doctor that never before in my life had I experienced such sufferings, and he declared he did not know what sort of pains they are. But now I understand the nature of these pains, because the Lord himself has made this known to me. Yet when I think that I may perhaps suffer in this way again, I tremble. But I don’t know whether I’ll ever again suffer in this way; I leave that to God. What it pleases God to send, I will accept with submission and love. If only I could save even one soul from murder by means of these sufferings!
Something to keep in mind is that Saint Faustina was a victim soul. God called her to experience suffering on behalf of the world’s sins. As Christians, God calls all of us to pray for mercy on behalf of our own sins and the sins of the world. Saint Faustina’s Diary is not her own. She was God’s instrument to express His thoughts to the world. This diary is a diary of mercy not judgment. It is the mercy of God we seek in prayer, not the judgment of God. There are many women who have had abortions who today very much wish they had not. Jesus gave us the Divine Mercy Chaplet as a means to seek His mercy for all souls. And certainly it is no coincidence that Jesus arranged that the Divine Mercy Chaplet could be prayed using His Mother’s beads.
Something to keep in mind is that Saint Faustina was a victim soul. God called her to experience suffering on behalf of the world’s sins. As Christians, God calls all of us to pray for mercy on behalf of our own sins and the sins of the world. Saint Faustina’s Diary is not her own. She was God’s instrument to express His thoughts to the world. This diary is a diary of mercy not judgment. It is the mercy of God we seek in prayer, not the judgment of God. There are many women who have had abortions who today very much wish they had not. Jesus gave us the Divine Mercy Chaplet as a means to seek His mercy for all souls. And certainly it is no coincidence that Jesus arranged that the Divine Mercy Chaplet could be prayed using His Mother’s beads.
