Winning the Only Contest that Matters
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Solemnity of All
Saints
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Father James Swanson, LC
Matthew 5:1-12a
When
Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his
disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: "Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who
mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will
inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown
mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who
are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter
every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.
Introductory
Prayer:
Lord, I believe in You
with a faith that never seeks to test You. I trust in You, hoping to learn to
accept and follow Your will, even when it does not make sense to the way that
I see things. I love You, and I want to love You and those around me with a
love similar to the love You have shown to me.
Petition:
Lord, help me accept
sacrifices and overcome difficulties in order to gain heaven.
1.
The Beatitudes Don’t Make Sense: As we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints’ Day, the Church
calls us to contemplate the promises Jesus makes to all those who follow him.
At first, they don’t seem very attractive. Jesus lists a whole series of
things that most people would probably avoid. They would see them as
interfering with their wants and desires, Yet, Jesus says that we will be blessed
if we have them in our lives. The word in the original Greek is “makarios”,
which means “happy”. This doesn’t make sense. I am supposed to be happy when
I am poor, mourning, meek, lacking righteousness, merciful, clean-hearted, a
peacemaker, persecuted and insulted? That’s not what I see on TV, in the
movies, on the Internet. It’s not what many of the people I know would advise
me. So what is Jesus’ big idea telling me this? Is he out to make me
miserable?
2.
Sacrificing for Worldly Glory: We can see that the whole picture isn’t gloomy. Jesus says
that if we accept these difficult things, there will be rewards. And the
rewards sound pretty good. In fact, they sound great: the Kingdom of Heaven,
comfort, inheriting the land, satisfaction in seeing righteousness done,
receiving mercy, seeing God, being a child of God, a great reward in heaven.
Who wouldn’t want these things? Don’t people work a lot harder for a lot
less? Don’t athletes train for years, giving up all kinds of pleasures,
submitting themselves to intense suffering at times only for a brief moment
of glory in some competition? Don’t businessmen work long hours, giving up
pleasures and making immense sacrifices just to make a few more dollars?
Isn’t what Jesus offers us much better than any of that? Better than a gold
medal or even a million dollars?
3.
But I Am Not Interested in Heavenly Things: Anything worth having is worth making
sacrifices for, and the more it is worth, the greater sacrifices we should be
willing to make for it. Perhaps a gold medal is worth the sacrifices the
athlete makes to win it. Perhaps a million dollars are worth the sacrifices
that a businessman makes to gain them. If heaven is really all it is supposed
to be, isn’t it worth all the sacrifices Jesus mentions here – and more? If
people are willing to make such great sacrifices to gain things they cannot
keep, shouldn’t I be willing to make even greater sacrifices to gain the
eternal happiness of heaven? Of course, many people with the talent to do
great things in this world never do them because they just aren’t that
interested or motivated. Is that why I don’t do more to gain heaven? Just not
that interested? What will it take to motivate me to really desire what Jesus
offers?
Conversation
with Christ:
Dear Jesus, I don’t do much to make the Beatitudes come to life in me.
Help me to give heaven its full value. Help me to desire it more each
day. Help me to meditate on what heaven will be like so I will love it more
and more and be willing to do anything – whatever it takes – to get there and
help many others arrive as well.
Resolution: I will spend at
least five minutes today imagining what heaven will be like. What would I
like heaven to be like? Jesus is setting up a mansion there for me. He is
going to put everything that he can in it to please me and make me happy.
Spend some time imagining what he would put there to surprise and delight me.
He will go far beyond my wildest imaginations, but by dedicating some time to
this today, I will increase my desire for heaven and to make the
sacrifices necessary to get there.
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
116 My Jesus, You
know what my soul goes through at the recollection of these sufferings. I
have often marvelled that the angels and saints hold their peace at the sight
of a soul suffering like that. Yet they have special love for us at such
moments. My soul has often cried out after God, as a little child who cries
as loudly as he can when his mother covers her face and he cannot recognize
her. O my Jesus, honor and glory to You for these trials of love! Great and
incomprehensible is your mercy. All that You intended for my soul, O Lord, is
steeped in Your mercy.
118 The tongue is a
small member, but it does big things. A religious who does not keep silence
will never attain holiness; that is, she will never become a saint. Let her
not delude herself-unless it is the Spirit of God who is speaking through
her, for then she must not keep silent. But, in order to hear the voice of
God, one has to have silence in one's soul and to keep silence; not a gloomy
silence, but an interior silence; that is to say, recollection in God. One
can speak a great deal without breaking silence and, on the contrary, one can
speak little and be constantly breaking silence. Oh, what irreparable damage
is done by the breach of silence! We cause a lot of harm to our neighbor, but
even more to our own selves.
In my opinion, and
according to my experience, the rule concerning silence should stand in the
very first place. God does not give himself to a chattering soul which, like
a drone in a beehive, buzzes around but gathers no honey. A talkative soul is
empty inside. It lacks both the essential virtues and intimacy with God. A
deeper interior life, one of gentle peace and of that silence where the Lord
dwells, is quite out of the question. A soul that has never tasted the
sweetness of inner silence is a restless spirit which disturbs the silence of
others. I have seen many souls in the depths of hell for not having kept
their silence; they told me so themselves when I asked them what was the
cause of their undoing. These were souls of religious. My God, what an agony
it is to think that not only might they have been in heaven, but they might
even have become saints! O Jesus, have mercy!
150 + I want to write down a dream
that I had about Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. I was still a novice at
the time and was going through some difficulties which I did not know how to
overcome. They were interior difficulties connected with exterior ones. I
made novenas to various saints, but the situation grew more and more
difficult. The sufferings it caused me were so great that I did not know how
to go on living, but suddenly the thought occurred to me that I should pray
to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. I started a novena to this Saint,
because before entering the convent I had had a great devotion to her. Lately
I had somewhat neglected this devotion, but in my need I began again to pray
with great fervor.
On the fifth day of the novena, I dreamed of Saint Therese, but it was as if she were still living on earth. She hid from me the fact that she was a saint and began to comfort me, saying that I should not be worried about this matter, but should trust more in God. She said, "I suffered greatly, too," but I did not quite believe her and said, "It seems to me that you have not suffered at all." But Saint Therese answered me in a convincing manner that she had suffered very much indeed and said to me, "Sister, know that in three days the difficulty will come to a happy conclusion." When I was not very willing to believe her, she revealed to me that she was a saint. At that moment, a great joy filled my soul, and I said to her, "You are a saint?" "Yes," she answered, "I am a saint. Trust that this matter will be resolved in three days:" And I said, "Dear sweet Therese, tell me, shall I go to heaven?" And she answered, "Yes, you will go to heaven, Sister." "And will I be a saint?" To which she replied, "Yes, you will be a saint." "But, little Therese, shall I be a saint as you are, raised to the altar?" And she answered, "Yes, you will be a saint just as I am, but you must trust in the Lord Jesus." I then asked her if my mother and father would go to heaven, will [unfinished sentence] And she replied that they would. I further asked, "And will my brothers and sisters go to heaven?" She told me to pray hard for them, but gave me no definite answer. I understood that they were in need of much prayer. This was a dream. And as the proverb goes, dreams are phantoms; God is faith. Nevertheless, three days later the difficulty was solved very easily, just as she had said. And everything in this affair turned out exactly as she said it would. It was a dream, but it had its significance.
161 Immaculate Virgin,
Pure crystal for my heart,
You are my strength, O sturdy anchor!
You are the weak heart's shield and protection.
Mary you are pure, of purity incomparable;
At once both Virgin and Mother,
You are beautiful as the sun, without blemish,
And your soul is beyond all comparison.
Your beauty has delighted the eye of the Thrice-Holy One.
He descended from heaven, leaving His eternal throne,
And took Body and Blood of your heart
And for nine months lay hidden in a Virgin's Heart.
O Mother, Virgin, purest of all lilies,
Your heart was Jesus' first tabernacle on earth.
Only because no humility was deeper than yours
Were you raised above the choirs
of Angels and above all Saints.
220 O my eternal Lord and Creator,
how am I going to thank You for this great favor; namely, that You have
deigned to choose miserable me to be Your betrothed and that You are to unite
me to yourself in an eternal bond? O dearest Treasure of my heart, I offer
You all the adoration and thanksgiving of the Saints and of all the choirs of
Angels, and I unite myself in a special way with Your Mother. O Mary, my
Mother, I humbly beg of You, cover my soul with Your virginal cloak at this
very important moment of my life, so that thus I may become dearer to Your
Son and may worthily praise Your Son's mercy before the whole world and
throughout all eternity.
286 +Once, after an adoration for our country, a pain
pierced my soul, and I began to pray in this way: "Most merciful Jesus,
I beseech You through the intercession of Your Saints, and especially the
intercession of Your dearest Mother who nurtured You from childhood, bless my
native land. I beg You, Jesus, look not on our sins, but on the tears of
little children, on the hunger and cold they suffer. Jesus, for the sake of
these innocent ones, grant me the grace that I am asking of You for my
country." At that moment, I saw the Lord Jesus, His eyes filled with
tears, and He said to me, You see, My daughter, what great compassion I
have for them. Know that it is they who uphold the world.
401 The days at home passed in
much company, as everybody wanted to see me and talk with me. Often I could
count as many as twenty-five people there. They listened with great interest
to my accounts of the lives of the saints. It seemed to me that our house was
truly the house of God, as each evening we talked about nothing but God.
When, tired from these talks and yearning for solitude and silence, I quietly
slipped out into the garden in the evening so I could converse with God
alone, even in this I was unsuccessful; immediately my brothers and sisters
came and took me into the house and, once again, I had to talk, with all
those eyes fixed on me. But I struck on one way of getting some respite; I
asked my brothers to sing for me, inasmuch as they had lovely voices; and
besides, one played the violin and another, the mandolin. And during this
time I was able to devote myself to interior prayer without shunning their
company.
What also cost me a lot was that I had to kiss the children. The women I knew came with their children and asked me to take them in my arms, at least for a moment, and kiss them. They regarded this as a great favor, and for me it was a chance to practice virtue, since many of the children were quite dirty. But in order to overcome my feelings and show no repugnance, I would kiss such a dirty child twice. One of these friends came with a child whose eyes were diseased and filled with pus, and she said to me, "Sister, take it in your arms for a moment, please." My nature recoiled, but not paying attention to anything, I took the child and kissed it twice, right on the infection, asking God to heal it. I had many opportunities to practice virtue. I listened to people pour out their grievances, and I saw that no heart was joyful, because no heart truly loved God; and this did not surprise me at all. I was very sorry not to have seen two of my sisters. I felt interiorly that their souls were in great danger. Pain gripped my heart at the thought of them. Once, when I felt very close to God, I fervently asked the Lord to grant them grace, and the Lord answered me, I am granting them not only necessary graces, but special graces as well. I understood that the Lord would call them to a greater union with Him. I rejoice immensely that such great love reigns in our family.
448
Feast of St. Ignatius. I prayed fervently to this Saint, reproaching him for
looking on and not coming to my aid in such important matters as doing the
will of God. I said to him, "You, our Patron, who were inflamed with the
fire of love and zeal for the greater glory of God, I humbly beg you to help
me to carry out God's designs. "[97] This was during Holy Mass. Then I saw Saint Ignatius at the left
side of the altar, with a large book in his hand. And he spoke these words to
me, "My daughter, I am not indifferent to your cause. This rule can be
adapted, and it can be adapted to this Congregation." And gesturing with
his hand toward the big book, he disappeared. I rejoiced greatly at the fact
of how much the saints think of us and of how closely we are united with
them. Oh, the goodness of God! How beautiful is the spiritual world, that
already here on earth we commune with the saints! All day long, I could feel
the presence of this dear Patron Saint.
683 + Once, when I was praying fervently to the Jesuit Saints, I suddenly saw my Guardian Angel, who led me before the throne of God. I passed through great hosts of saints, and I recognized many of them, whom I knew from their pictures. I saw many Jesuits, who asked me from what congregation I was. When I answered they asked, "Who is your spiritual director?" I answered that it was Father A.... When they wanted to say more, my Guardian Angel beckoned me to be silent, and I came before the throne of God. I saw a great and inaccessible light, and I saw a place destined for me, close to God. But what it was like I do not know, because a cloud covered it. However, my Guardian Angel said to me, "Here is your throne, for your faithfulness in fulfilling the will of God."
845 Before the
vigil supper, I entered the chapel for a moment to break the wafer
spiritually with those dear to my heart. I presented them all, by name, to
Jesus and begged for graces on their behalf. But that wasn't all. I commended
to the Lord all those who are being persecuted, those who are suffering,
those who do not know His Name, and especially poor sinners. O little Jesus,
I fervently ask You, enclose them all in the ocean of Your incomprehensible
mercy. O sweet little Jesus, here is my heart; let it be a little cozy
dwelling place for Yourself. O Infinite Majesty, with what sweetness You drew
close to us. Here, there is no dread of the thunderbolts of the great
Jehovah; here, there is the sweet little Jesus. Here, no soul is afraid,
although Your majesty has not lessened, but only concealed itself. After
supper, I felt very tired and was in pain. I had to lie down. But I kept
vigil with the Most Holy Mother, awaiting the arrival of the little Child.
875 Today, I
experienced a great suffering during the visit of our sisters. I learned of
something that hurt me terribly, but I controlled myself so that the sisters
didn't notice anything. For some time, the pain was tearing my heart apart,
but all that is for the sake of poor sinners.... O Jesus, for poor
sinners.... Jesus, my strength, stay close to me, help me....
885 Jesus, give me
the strength and wisdom to get through this terrible wilderness, that my
heart may bear patiently this longing for You, O my Lord! I always remain in
holy
amazement when I
sense that You are approaching me, You, the Lord of the awesome
throne; that You
descend to this miserable exile and visit this poor beggar who has nothing
but misery! I do not know how to entertain You, my Royal Prince, but You know
that I love You with every beat of my heart. I see how You lower yourself,
but nevertheless Your majesty does not diminish in my eyes. I know that You
love me with the love of a bridegroom, and that is enough for me. Although we
are separated by a great chasm, for You are the Creator and I am Your
creature, nevertheless, love alone explains our union. Without it, all is
incomprehensible. Only love makes it possible to understand these
incomprehensible intimacies with which You visit me. O Jesus, Your greatness
terrifies me, and I would be in constant astonishment and fear, if You
yourself did not set me at peace. You make me capable of communing with You
before each approach.
892 Today the Lord
gave me to know, in spirit, about the Convent of Divine Mercy. I saw a great
spirit in this convent, but everything was poor and very scanty. O my Jesus,
you are allowing me to live in spirit with these souls, but perhaps I shall
never set foot there; but may Your Name be blessed, and whatever You have
intended, may it be done.
908 + O Jesus, how
sorry I feel for poor sinners. Jesus, grant them contrition and repentance.
Remember Your own sorrowful Passion. I know Your infinite mercy and cannot
bear it that a soul that has cost You so much should perish. Jesus, give me
the souls of sinners; let Your mercy rest upon them. Take everything away
from me, but give me souls. I want to become a sacrificial host for sinners.
Let the shell of my body conceal my offering, for Your Most Sacred Heart is
also hidden in a Host, and certainly You are a living sacrifice.
Transform me into
Yourself, O Jesus, that I may be a living sacrifice and pleasing to You. I
desire to atone at each moment for poor sinners. The sacrifice of my spirit
is hidden under the veil of the body; the human eye does not perceive it, and
for that reason it is pure and pleasing to You. O my Creator and Father of
great mercy, I trust in You, for You are Goodness Itself. Souls, do not be
afraid of God, but trust in Him, for He is good, and His mercy is
everlasting.
912 Then I heard
the following words spoken thus: I want you to be My spouse. Fear
pierced my soul, but I calmly continued to reflect on what sort of an
espousal this could be. However, each time fear would invade my soul, a power
from on high would give it peace. After all, I have taken perpetual vows, and
I have taken them of my own completely free will. And so I continued to
reflect on what this could mean. I sensed, and came to realize, that this was
some special kind of grace. Whenever I think about it, I feel faint for God,
but in this swooning, my mind is clear and penetrated with light. When I am
united to Him, I faint from an abundance of happiness, but my mind is bright
and clear and free from all shadows. You a base Your majesty to dwell with a
poor creature. Thank you, O Lord, for this great grace that makes it possible
for me to commune with You. Jesus, Your Name is my delight, I have a
presentiment of my Beloved from afar, and my languishing soul rests in His
embrace; I don't know how to live without Him. I would rather be with Him in
afflictions and suffering than without Him in the greatest heavenly delights.
920
+There is a woman here [165] who was
once one of our students. Naturally, she puts my patience to the test. She
comes to see me several times a day. After each of these visits I am tired
out, but I see that the Lord Jesus has sent that soul to me. Let everything
glorify You, O Lord. Patience gives glory to God. O how poor the souls are!
927 On these two
days, I received Holy Communion as an act of reparation, and I said to the
Lord, "Jesus, I offer everything today for sinners. Let the blows of
Your justice fall on me, and the sea of Your mercy engulf the poor
sinners." And the Lord heard my prayer: many souls returned to the Lord,
but I was in agony under the yoke of God's justice. I felt I was the object
of the anger of the Most High God. By evening my sufferings had reached such
a stage of interior desolation that moans welled up involuntarily from my
breast. I locked the door of my room and began an adoration; that is to say,
a Holy Hour. Interior desolation and an experience of God's justice-that was
my prayer; and the moans and pain that welled up from my soul took the place
of a sweet conversation with the Lord.
929 When I had
rested near His sweetest Heart, I told Him, "Jesus, I have so much to
tell You." And the Lord said to me with great love, Speak, My
daughter. And I started to enumerate the pains of my heart; that is, how
greatly concerned I am for all mankind, that "they all do not know You,
and those who do know You do not love You as You deserve to be loved. I also
see how terribly sinners offend You; and then again, I see how severely the
faithful, especially Your servants, are oppressed and persecuted. And then,
too, I see many souls rushing headlong into the terrible abyss of hell. You
see, Jesus, this is the pain that gnaws at my heart and bones. And, although
You show me special love and inundate my heart with streams of Your joys,
nevertheless, this does not appease the sufferings I have just mentioned, but
rather they penetrate my poor heart all the more acutely. Oh, how ardently I
desire that all mankind turn with trust to Your mercy. Then, seeing the glory
of Your name, my heart will be comforted."
Jesus listened to
these outpourings of my heart with gravity and interest, as if He had known
nothing about them, and this seemed to make it easier for me to talk. And the
Lord said to me, My daughter, those words of your heart are pleasing to
Me, and by saying the chaplet you are bringing humankind closer to Me.
After these words, I found myself alone, but the presence of God is
always in my soul.
934 Small practices
for Lent. Although I wish and desire to do so, I cannot practice big
mortifications as
before, because I am under the strict surveillance of the doctor. But I can
practice little things: first-sleep without a pillow; keep myself a little
hungry; every day, with my arms outstretched, say the chaplet which the Lord
taught me; occasionally, with arms outstretched, for an indefinite period of
time pray informally. Intention: to beg divine mercy for poor sinners, and
for priests, the power to bring sinful hearts to repentance.
936 + A certain
person in our ward was beginning to die. Amidst terrible tortures, she was
dying for three days, sometimes regaining consciousness. Everyone in the ward
was praying for her. I longed to go to her, but Mother Superior had forbidden
me to go to visit the dying, so I prayed for that poor soul in my room. But
when I heard that she was still in agony, and there was no saying how long it
was going to take, I suddenly felt inspired in my soul and said to the Lord,
"Jesus, if all I do is pleasing to You, I ask You, as evidence, to let
that soul stop suffering and pass on immediately to her happy eternity."
A few minutes later I learned that the person had passed away so peacefully
and quickly that they did not even have time to light the candle.
953 + February 15,
1937. Today my suffering increased somewhat: I not only feel greater pain all
through my lungs, but also some strange pains in my intestines. I am
suffering as much as my weak nature can bear, all for immortal souls, to
plead the mercy of God for poor sinners and to beg for strength for priests.
Oh, how much reverence I have for priests; and I am asking Jesus, the High
Priest, to grant them many graces.
1156 The second is
prayer joined to the act of mercy. In particular, they will defend the souls
of children against the spirit of evil. Prayer and merciful deeds are all
that will be required of these souls, and even the poorest persons can be
admitted to their number. And in this egoistic world they will try to rouse
up love, the mercy of Jesus.
1158 A member of
this group ought to perform at least one act of mercy a day; at least one,
but there can be many more, for such deeds can easily be carried out by
anyone, even the very poorest. For there are three ways of performing an act
of mercy: the merciful word, by forgiving and by comforting; secondly, if you
can offer no word, then pray-that too is mercy; and thirdly, deeds of mercy.
And when the Last Day comes, we shall be judged from this, and on this basis
we shall receive the eternal verdict.
1167 Satan has
admitted to me that I am the object of his hatred. He said that "a
thousand souls do me less harm than you do when you speak of the great mercy
of the Almighty One. The greatest sinners regain confidence and return to
God, and I lose everything. But what is more, you persecute me personally
with that unfathomable mercy of the Almighty One." I took note of the
great hatred Satan has for the Mercy of God. He does not want to acknowledge
that God is good.
1274 I experience
great torments of soul when I see God offended. Today I recognized that
mortal sins were being committed not far from our door. It was evening. I
prayed earnestly in the chapel, and then I went to scourge myself. When I
knelt down to pray, however, the Lord allowed me to experience how a soul
rejected by God suffers. It seems to me that my heart was torn to pieces, and
at the same time I understood how much such a soul wounds the most merciful
Heart of Jesus. The poor creature does not want to accept God's mercy. The
more God has pursued a soul with His mercy, the more just will He be towards
it.
1282 + When the
same poor people come to the gate a second time, I treat them with greater
gentleness, and I do not let them see that I know they have been here before;
[I do this] in order not to embarrass them. And then they speak to me freely
about their troubles and
needs.
Although Sister N.
tells me that is not the way to deal with beggars, and slams the door in
their faces, when she is not there, I treat them as my Master would.
Sometimes more is given when giving nothing, than when giving much in a rude
manner.
1309 When I make
the Way of the Cross, I am deeply moved at the twelfth station. Here I
reflect on the omnipotence of God's mercy which passed through the Heart of
Jesus. In this open wound of the Heart of Jesus I enclose all poor humans...
and those individuals whom I love, as often as I make the Way of the Cross.
From that Fount of Mercy issued the two rays; that is, the Blood
and the Water. With the immensity of their grace they flood the whole
world....
1312 + Jesus came
to the main entrance today, under the guise of a poor young man. This young
man, emaciated, barefoot and bareheaded, and with his clothes in tatters, was
frozen because the day was cold and rainy. He asked for something hot to eat.
So I went to the kitchen, but found nothing there for the poor. But, after
searching around for some time, I succeeded in finding some soup, which I
reheated and into which I crumbled some bread, and I gave it to the poor
young man, who ate it. As I was taking the bowl from him, he gave me to know
that He was the Lord of heaven and earth. When I saw Him as He was, He
vanished from my sight. When I went back in and reflected on what had
happened at the gate, I heard these words in my soul: My daughter, the
blessings of the poor who bless Me as they leave this gate have
reached My ears. And your compassion, within the bounds of obedience,
has pleased Me, and this is why I came down from My throne-to taste the fruits
of your mercy.
1313 O my Jesus,
now everything is clear to me, and I understand all that has just happened. I
somehow felt and asked myself what sort of a poor man is this who radiates
such modesty. From that moment on, there was stirred up in my heart an even
purer love toward the poor and the needy. Oh, how happy I am that my
superiors have given me such a task! I understand that mercy is manifold; one
can do good always and everywhere and at all times. An ardent love of God
sees all around itself constant opportunities to share itself through deed,
word and prayer. Now I understand the words which You spoke to me, O Lord,
some time ago.
1487 Jesus: Poor
soul, I see that you suffer much and that you do not have even the strength
to coverse with me. So I will speak to you. Even though your sufferings were
very great, do not lose heart or give in to despondency. But tell Me, my
child, who has dared to wound your heart? Tell me about everything, be
sincere in dealing with Me, reveal all the wounds of your heart. I will heal
them, and your suffering will become a source of your sanctification.
Soul: Lord, my
sufferings are so great and numerous and have lasted so long that I become
discouraged.
Jesus: My child,
do not be discouraged. I know your boundless trust in Me; I know
you are aware of My
goodness and mercy. Let us talk in detail about everything
that weighs so
heavily upon your heart.
Soul: There are so
many different things that I do not know what to speak about first, nor how
to express it.
Jesus: Talk to
Me simply, as a friend to a friend. Tell Me now, My child, what hinders you
from advancing in holiness?
Soul: Poor health
detains me on the way to holiness. I cannot fulfill my duties. I am as
useless as an extra
wheel on a wagon. I cannot mortify myself or fast to any extent, as the
saints did. Furthermore, nobody believes I am sick, so that mental pain is
added to those of the body, and I am often humiliated. Jesus, how can anyone
become holy in such circumstances?
Jesus: True, My
child, all that is painful. But there is no way to heaven except the
way of the cross. I
followed it first. You must learn that it is the shortest and
surest way.
Soul: Lord, there
is another obstacle on the road to holiness. Because I am faithful to You, I
am persecuted and suffer much.
Jesus: It is
because you are not of this world that the world hates you. First it
persecuted Me.
Persecution is a sign that you are following in My footsteps
faithfully.
Soul: My Lord, I am
also discouraged because neither my superiors nor my confessor
understand my
interior trials. A darkness clouds my mind. How can I advance? All this
discourages me from
striving for the heights of sanctity.
Jesus: Well, My
child, this time you have told Me a good deal. I realize how painful
it is not to be
understood, and especially by those whom one loves and with whom one has been
very open. But suffice it to know that I understand all your troubles and
misery. I am pleased by the deep faith you have, despite everything, in My
representatives. Learn from this that no one will understand a soul
entirely-that is beyond human ability. Therefore, I have remained on earth to
comfort your aching heart and to fortify your soul, so that you will not
falter on the way. You say that a dense darkness is obscuring your mind. But
why, at such times, do you not come to Me, the light who can in an instant
pour into your soul more understanding about holiness than can be found in
any books? No confessor is capable of teaching and enlightening a soul in
this way. Know, too, that the darkness about which you complain I first
endured in the Garden of Olives when My Soul was crushed in mortal anguish. I
am giving you a share in those sufferings because of My special love for you
and in view of the high degree of holiness I am intending for you in heaven.
A suffering soul is closest to My Heart.
Soul: One more
thing, Lord. What should I do when I am ignored and rejected by people,
especially by those on whom I had a right to count in times of greatest need?
Jesus: My child,
make the resolution never to rely on people. Entrust yourself
completely to My
will saying, "Not as I want, but according to Your will, O God, let
it be done unto
me." These words, spoken from the depths of one's heart, can
raise a soul to the
summit of sanctity in a short time. In such a soul I delight. Such a soul
gives Me glory. Such a soul fills heaven with the fragrance of her virtue.
But understand that the strength by which you bear sufferings comes from
frequent Communions. So approach this fountain of mercy often, to draw with
the vessel of trust whatever you need.
Soul: Thank You,
Lord, for Your goodness in remaining with us in this exile as the God of
mercy and blessing us with the radiance of Your compassion and goodness. It
is through the light of Your mercy that I have come to understand how much
You love me.
|
(Diary of
Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-116, 118, 150, 161, 220, 286, 401, 448)
(Diary of
Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II-683, 845, 875, 885, 892, 908, 912, 920)
(Diary of
Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II-927, 929, 934, 936, 953)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-III-1153, 1158, 1167, 1274, 1282, 1309)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-III-1312, 1313
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska
Notebook-V-1487)
http://www.saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS10.shtml
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