Gene & Bonnie
March 10th, 2015 - 15:24

663 & 666
These thoughts of St. Faustina are particularly probing to my soul as we attended 3 funerals in 6 days last week. Two were very special friends in our lives, one the Godfather of our youngest son. (This son through no fault of his Godfather, Jim, has written off faith in the God we know.) The other, a spiritual brother, led a prayer group devoted to the Blessed Mother and the Medjagore messages. Both had lingering and very difficult illnesses. The second kept in-touch by email with many from whom he had requested prayers. He approached his death with great faith and abandonment to God’s will. At his funeral the priest’s homily was simply to read from Dave’s emails. (The first time I ever knew anyone to preach his own funeral homily!)

To follow the will of God. What an awesome mandate! When I sin I am purposefully ignoring God’s will. When misfortune happens in my life, God’s will is to accept the circumstances as if coming from Him (without the kicking and the screaming!) Oh God, heal my resistance before I must meet you face-to-face.
Bonnie.

At times St. Faustina in 663 must have struggled with understanding God’s will, and what “deeds” or works she thought was His will: “… give me the courage and strength to fulfill Your holy will. Jesus, if You wish to leave me in uncertainty, even to the end of my life, may Your holy name be blessed.” But then in 666 “an extraordinary peace entered my soul… I had always faithfully followed God’s will as I knew it.” My prayer at 77 as I continue to struggle with understanding what is God’s will for me is St. Faustina’s prayer: “O, Jesus, grant me the grace to put your will into practice as I have come to know it.”
Gene.

creme emla
June 26th, 2013 - 02:15

Hoi, ik bewonder al uw teksten. Ik zou graag een bericht achterlaten omdat ik bewondering heb voor
dit blogartikel.

cocoa
July 4th, 2013 - 04:55

This reading made me smile when I read it. When we were in Krakow, Poland, last year, the two sisters who gave us the relic of Saint Faustina, shared this story about her & her angel & the angels guarding the churches. They told us that each time she drove by, they bowed down toward Saint Faustina. Saint Faustina’s comment was, “My angel must be pretty important for them to bow each time we go by.” One of the Sisters, a Sr., Gaudate, [not sure of the spelling,] who happened to be our translator, loved sharing this story & always smiled, almost laughing as she told us along with the other Sister.
Besides this memory of Poland & St. Faustina, I love the fact that angels guard our churches & what a re-asurrance for us to know & be aware of, our own guardian angels. I was told by a priest, many years ago, that we need to name our guardian angel. He told us that before we go to bed at night, ask God to help us name our guardian angels by giving us his or her name, when we wake up the next morning. I think giving them names, make them even more personal for us.
We are having summer weather right now, hope you are enjoying it also. God bless, Colette

Cocoa
March 29th, 2013 - 06:14

#477

While reading about the importance of silence, I couldn’t help but think of how many times, throughout our lives, we strive to learn more about words. Words get us what we want, repel what we don’t, etc. Reading St. Faustina’s note, she tells us that “silence” is a sword in our spiritual struggle.” As a matter of fact,” the Holy Spirit dwells within silent souls without hindrance”. Only in silence can we attain the closest union with God. What powerful words these are! What the world encourages us to do & what Our Lord encourages, seem, at times, to be polar opposites.

#677

This reading was like an epiphany for me in that my prayers for souls in purgatory could be used for other souls, only if God deems that they would be more beneficial given to another. Never thought of it that way. What a good & loving God we have who would do that for souls in purgatory. We could never have that kind of insight, only He does. This also reminds me of how imperative it is for us to “pray” for the souls in purgatory.

Bonnie & Gene
March 29th, 2013 - 06:23

Happy Easter to Everyone,

Aren’t these special Holy Days? Bonnie and I, as “one” of many, had the privilege to receive from our Bishop the Holy Oils of Chrism (Baptism, Confirmation & Priesthood), Anointing of the Sick, and for Catechumens at the Diocesan Holy Thursday Mass for both our Churches. The Cathedral was overflowing with every priest in the Diocese in attendance renewing his priesthood on this special day in remembrance of Jesus Christ establishing His Priesthood and Holy Eucharist. And each Parish throughout the Diocese was also represented with 109 different Parishes likewise receiving the Holy Oils from their Bishop. Truly we experienced the Church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic under the headship of The Bishop of Rome, during these very difficult times for our Universal Church.

477–Silence, such a precious commodity in today’s hectic world! Where are the “Sounds of Silence?” We find it in the stillness of a Church, especially in visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Weekly we try to spend an hour before the exposed Blessed Sacrament. Our prayer intent is mainly related to the Pro-Life issues. My status of prayer is yet in the meditative stage. I like to pray a continuous Rosary covering all 20 mysteries usually completed outside of the Holy Hour.

621–Prayer intentions, how did St. Faustina know her specific prayer for one “went ” to another? The wonder and the mystery of the economy of God’s graces! Our Pro-Life prayer intentions are for the conversion of the abortionists, and those who support abortion including our President and his Administration. We also pray to spiritually adopt that one special baby slated to be aborted that somehow, someone will intervene. And we always pray for the intentions of our family clan specifically, but also generally, “Lord, that you may meet so and so at their point of greatest need.” And we let the Lord figure out that one!
Gene.

477–Do I always have to have the last word? Do I “quickly want to answer back?” “Silence is a sword in the spiritual battle.” It’s as if silence cuts (sword) through the cacophony, the din of noise that usually envelops us.

621–He is in charge. Jesus is Lord. My role is simply to obey, “pray for other souls.” The Fatima Prayer: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.” (This prayer is often added at the end of each decade of the Rosary.)
Bill, on 517 your statement, “I wish I could be more successful in sharing this gift.” Oh, how I commiserate! Even some of those closest to me want nothing to do with Faith. But Jesus, through Faustina, offers us a way to ambush their “stiff necks” and “uncircumcised hearts.” It is by praying ” Eternal Father, I offer thee the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our sins and the sins of the whole world.” They can refuse our pleadings with them, but NOT our pleadings for them.

And to all –thank you so much for sharing what is so deep within your hearts, souls and minds. I long for this kind of sharing. It helps me to grow and to know that I am not alone.
Prayers for you Nicole. Great to hear of your happiness and willingness to “suffer” a little for a “little one.” (Do you know how counter-cultural you are?) Motherhood means being “nailed to the cross” often. ( I remember my own anger sometimes with 5 under 7 and 1 full term four month old already in heaven . NO TIME.!! Now of course, I realize those were my most precious days of my life. At 73, it took a while. I believe the key to patience, and thus the antidote to anger is humility. And humility is the key to being willing to confess before a priest-Jesus. Humility is easier in old age when life’s leveling events have done their work to enable humility. Note Our Lord’s promise to Faustina for the soul that will venerate this picture — to give that soul victory over it’s enemies. Our sins are our enemies, let us venerate/meditate on the Divine Mercy picture.)
Bonnie.

cocoa43
February 2nd, 2013 - 07:29

# 628

I don’t believe I ever thought that doubting my confessor was a sin unto itself, in that, it could hurt God more than the sin itself. What a relief that must have been for the elderly sister to once & for all, “know” & “accept” that those particular sins she confessed are truly gone. What a gift St. Faustina was for her & for us, many years later.

1725
This is another reminder that we are speaking to Christ Himself. His wonderful reminder that He will fill us with His light if we only make a good, repentent confession & always realize it is He whom we are speaking to!!!

1728
When He mentions “pursuing” our souls & how He detests the smallest sins, I have 2 thoughts. The classic poem, “The Hound of Heaven,” comes to mind when God pursues the soul until He catches him. The other part that comes to mind is not to dismiss the “venial” sins as not a big deal. What I got from these readings is that it IS a big deal because they are hurtful to our loving God. I must be fervent in getting rid of them.
The 2nd paragraph to this note is very sobering, where He talks about anyone leaving His merciful hands, we will run into His justice. How much we need His Mercy! I must be remorseful, offering my variety of sufferings to His Sacred Heart. Then He adds, if we turn away from Him we are left to ourselves. What an unthinkable thought that is. I remember hearing from a religious years ago that hell was being left totally alone with ourselves for all eternity.

Niece Jane
February 2nd, 2013 - 07:34

Ok, so for this week’s assignment…again, I have more questions than insights. I guess I’m not really very good at this. But I’ve been going to confession at St. Thomas ever since I moved back to Freeport, which was in 1998, because in the beginning I was too scared of the priest from St. Joes recognizing me in the confessional, and then after I started being the CRE, I thought it would just be too weird to go to confession to the same person that signs my paycheck! So anyway I’ve been going to St. Thomas and with the exception of a couple of months when they had an assistant priest hearing confessions, I’ve been going to the same priest. Now he’s a real nice guy and everything, he doesn’t yell at me or anything, but he doesn’t really give me any good concrete advice on overcoming my sins. Which may or may not be due to the fact that I confess the same stupid sins every time I go to confession. But anyway, before this assignment, I was thinking that maybe I need to find a new confessor, one that would actually give me advice in the confessional. Now, after reading what Jesus said to St. Faustina, I’m thinking maybe it doesn’t matter who I go to since I’m confessing to Jesus anyway? But what would He say if someone was going to a priest that just yelled at the person the whole time and wasn’t being nice at all? I don’t know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

At the risk of sending the longest email in the history of email, I would just like to add how grateful I am for the sacrament of confession (all the sacraments actually!). I know that many of our Protestant brothers and sisters really love Jesus and they are very close to Him, and I would venture to guess that many of them are closer to Him than I am, but how fortunate we are to have the fullness of the faith that Jesus gave us! He created us, and He knows how we are and what we need, so He gave us confession, where we can say our sins out loud and hear the words of absolution out loud so there’s no guessing if we’ve been forgiven or not. I can imagine if you just confess your sins to Jesus and then all you hear are the crickets chirping, that wouldn’t be as nice as hearing the words “and I absolve you from your sins, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” I just love hearing that!

UB/BB/FB
February 2nd, 2013 - 07:38

“Use it or loose it” is one of the messages I got (the benefit of confession); We who are given much have much expected from us. The importance of confession, for me, was re-inforced by these readings; So, I purposely missed going to confession this last Sunday before Mass and I felt strange, not good, (cannot explain) because of my actions. Something or someone gave me the idea and I fell for it.
(maybe I’m afraid of crickets- just kidding) One step forward two steps back for me! I guess God never said this would be easy.

All of your insights are giving me hope. Thanks!

cocoa43
June 3rd, 2012 - 04:19

#482

How wonderful it was for St. Faustina to know what her mission was. Her message of uniting our prayers with Jesus to the Father, is, what she remids us to strive to do. She brings home to me how much God the father loves His Son & when we combine our prayers with Christ they become powerful. I really need to remember to do that.

#484

“Pure intention,” I don’t think I have been consciously aware of the purity of my intentions. There are so many things that I think we can take for granted & assume, all is well. From now on I will attempt to become more vigilant where that is concerned.

# 517

It would be nice to think that the older one gets, the more evil takes flight from that person. As she pointed out, that just isn’t the case. I like what the older sister said, ” Old age does not dispense one from combat.” Sometimes I think it increases. Until we breathe our last, we will not beable to let our guard down. It is such a sobering thought to dwell on, but a necessary awareness.

Mike W
June 3rd, 2012 - 04:24

(482)

Still learning about the uniquely Catholic emphasis on union with Christ in His redemptive work. It all makes sense and rings true but I have much more to understand about real life application.

(484)

This I understand more, I think – I am very aware of how few of my intentions are pure, how most of my actions are in some way hypocritical, duplicitous or selfish – done out of fear of what others might think or trying to earn someone’s favor or love. The Protestant Reformed doctrine I most agreed with was Calvin’s teaching on ‘The Total Depravity of Man’. It has been difficult at times for me to ‘see’ the Catholic teaching – that man is good but disordered, wounded, not totally corrupt. I also think that we relate to and understand theological constructs like human sin and guilt partly based on how we were raised and loved (or not loved) early in life and what our family was like.

(517)

How I pray for final perseverance! We can never reach a point where we just coast. I enjoy a certain paraphrase of the Bible called ‘The Message’ – sometimes it really helps me ‘get’ a passage I have read so many times before. Like these words of St Paul to the Church in Corinth (first letter, chapter 9)

24-25 “You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.

26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.

1 Corinthians 10

1-5 Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.

6-10 The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did — “First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.

11-12 These are all warning markers — danger! — in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel — they at the beginning, we at the end — and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.”

Niece Jane
June 3rd, 2012 - 04:27

I don’t really have much new to say that wasn’t said better already. I guess I keep feeling awed at how powerful the Passion and suffering of Jesus is, all throughout the diary we see that, even in the chaplet we ask God to have mercy “for the sake of His sorrowful Passion”. And when we unite our sufferings to His suffering, they become meaningful too. I heard someone say one time that the worst thing in the world is wasted suffering. I need to be better about embracing my sufferings, not only the suffering that is given to me but I need to remember to look for opportunities to mortify myself voluntarily and offer those up as well.

Pure intentions……how well we have to know ourselves in order to know if our intentions are pure or not! I think this is when a daily examination of conscience would help, in addition to reviewing my day to see where I needed to improve, I could look at why I did what I did that day….not sure if I’ll like what I see!

“I have been preparing myself all my life long for this last hour”. I think I read somewhere that the last hour of one’s life is when satan really steps up the temptations, he wants to do whatever he can to get us to turn away from God at that last moment. That sister had been preparing for that moment for her entire life! I shouldn’t assume that when my time comes I’ll be ready, and that it will be easy (if I even have time to think before I die), I need to remember that my time can come at any moment, and I need to be ready always, and receive the sacraments as regularly as I can to help me to be ready!

cocoa43
April 21st, 2012 - 05:07

When our Lord referred to obedience, He talked about His parents, His tormentors, & now He obeys the priests. This really threw me, as I had no idea what He was referring to in His comment about, obeying priests. I saw a priest yesterday & asked him to help me with this. He also was surprised to see the reference. We came to the conclusion that this could be referring to 2 different events in Christs life. The first one thought of was during the Consecration, when the priest changes the bread to His body & the wine to His blood. Only priests can do this. The other point was when He said to Peter, “whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” Meaning that whatever the priests says in the confessional, Our Lord will honor. In #647.this seems to fit the meaning very much. She reiterates the necessity to pray for our confessors that they might obtain the light of the Holy Spirit. I honestly don’t think I ever thought of doing this before I entered the confessional.
Another point I noticed was the re-mentioning of praying the novenas. In one of our other studies, a novena was strongly mentioned. I never read why or where the practice of novenas started. If anyone knows, I would appreciate some enlightenment.

gene & Bonnie
April 21st, 2012 - 05:12

Some thoughts on 535/647. Obedience ~ isn’t the lack of it the crux of many of the world’s problems? I think of children/parent, student/teacher, citizen/government broken relationships, for examples. And one that is a heavy is the breakup of Catholicism over the centuries starting with the East/West Orthodox split around 1065, and the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s. Today there are more than 30,000! Christian denominations with all of this related to Authority and the lack of Obedience! “That all may be one!”

And the perfect model for Obedience? “I have come to do My Father’s will. I (The Son of God!) obeyed My parents, I obeyed My tormentors, and now I obey the priests.” “… and now obey the priests!” At the time of Consecration our priests facilitate the arrival of our Obedient Lord to humbly submit to be with us at their “invocating” command in remembrance of His Crucifixion. How mysteriously challenging all of this is. Gene.

These selections are a bit difficult because I needed to get the context of each so I read page after page with that purpose in mind. That did give me more understanding of what these entries meant to St. Faustina, but what can I take from them for my life. Obedience, confession — just then I saw Bishop Doran’s column in the Observer on Confession. He laments the decline in the practice of frequent confession since Vatican II, and encourages us to see Jesus as the Good Shepherd and ourselves as the sheep who need His care in the confessional as well as at the altar. For me frequent confession keeps me honest — therefore I need it. 647 entreats us to pray for our confessor for light for him. This I plan to adopt. Bonnie.

Cocoa43
March 11th, 2012 - 18:01

#474-
This note brings me to see more deeply the importance of God’s Mercy. If God’s Justice was the only way He dealt with us, who of us could survive? What incredible visions St. Faustina had! I can’t even imagine the depth of what she saw, felt & heard. This passage also reminds me of the biblical story of Sodom & Gomorrah. I shudder to think of how close this world is to that story.

# 475 & 476
These are obviously the prayers in which He taught us to say the chaplet. After reading #474 I can easily understand the importance of these prayers. What a time we live in now!!! It is interesting that our Lord instructed her to say the chaplet for 9 days right after He gave it to her.

bb/UB/FB
March 11th, 2012 - 18:06

God Blesses us with the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Giving the prayer to St. Faustina (us) to calm His Divine wrath, now how much Love is that. How God Loves His Son! Another call to action for getting the Divine Mercy message out there! Besides, now we know the story of how it came to be and we can share the story.

I noticed the prayer to be said when we enter Church (475) does not have “…and on the whole world” in it. I’m sure I’ll understand -someday-

I pray Lent goes well for all of us! All of the insights continue to inspire me.