• THE DIARY

BEGINNING OF JUANITA'S DIARY

Juanita's Diary was dedicated to Mother Julia Ríos, a sister of the Sacred Heart, who was spiritual adviser of the students of Sacred Heart school in Santiago where Juanita studied for several years.

Dear Mother: You believe your are going to find an interesting story, but I don't want you to be deceived; the story you are going to read is not the story of my life, but the intimate life of a poor soul who, without merit on her part, Jesus Christ loved in a special way and filled abundantly with His favors and graces.

The story of my soul is summed up in two words: "To suffer and to love." here is the whole of my life from the time I became aware of everything, that is to say from 6 years of age or before. I used to suffer, and the good Jesus taught me to suffer in silence and to unburden my poor little heart to Him.

My life is is divided into two periods: the first, more or less from the age of reason until my First Communion. Jesus filled me with favors both in the first period as well as in the second: from my First Communion till now. Or better still, until my soul enters the harbor of Carmel.

(Diary, §1, trans. Michael D. Griffin, Teresian Charism Press, 1989).

Photo : A notebook of Juanita's Diary