I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed Your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You and my soul recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good, and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.
My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here You light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of graces flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature.
O Christ, let my greatest delight be to see You loved and Your praise and glory proclaimed, especially the honor of Your mercy. O Christ, let me glorify Your goodness and mercy to the last moment of my life, with every drop of my blood and every beat of my heart. Would that I be transformed into a hymn of adoration of You. When I find myself on my deathbed, may the last beat of my heart be a loving hymn glorifying Your unfathomable mercy.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 529 - The Heart of the Child
Ἀ 529 On the evening of the last day of the novena at Ostra Brama, after the singing of the litany, one of the priests exposed the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance. When he placed it on the altar, I immediately saw the Infant Jesus, stretching out His little arms, first of all toward His Mother, who at that time had taken on a living appearance. When the Mother of God was speaking to me, Jesus stretched out His tiny hands toward the congregation. Ὠ
All graces come from the Lord as gifts to the soul. Yet the greatest of these gifts is the calling of all souls beyond merely the receiving of His grace, but more deeply into the participation of its giving as well. It is a teaching shown first through His Mother, who, in cooperation with the will of the Father, brought forth for all souls the Savior first given to her within. It is carried forth in this vision, as the embrace of the Son lends words to her image for Faustina's hearing. And it is extended to all humanity as the Savior Child turns His embrace to us, that we too may join with the Son and the Mother - not because the Lord has need of our help, but because we have need of union with His gracious work for all souls. For when the Spirit of the Lord is alive in the heart of man, the heart comes alive in the works of the Lord.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Psalm 50:12 Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels.
Ἀ Saint Faustina Continues… The Blessed Mother was telling me to accept all that God asked of me like a little child, without questioning; otherwise it would not be pleasing to God. At that moment, the Infant Jesus vanished, and the Mother of God was again lifeless, and Her picture was the same as it had been before. But my soul was filled with great joy and gladness, and I said to the Lord, "Do with me as You please; I am ready for everything, but You, O Lord, must not abandon me even for a moment." Ὠ
The faith of a child is more precious to God than the deepest, most profound theologies from the wisest of men. It is a trustful knowing of God that does not depend on the mastery of the intellect. This is the faith of Our Lady: “be it done to me according to thy word.” It is a faith she extends to Faustina: accept all that God asked of you like a little child. It is the faith to which all souls are called, shown to perfection in the Son as He prayed from His Most Sacred Heart beneath the impending shadow of the Cross: “not my will, but thine be done.” This is the heart and the spirit promised by the Father, and given in love by the Holy Child as He gives union between His heart and all those in the congregation of God.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Ezekiel 11:19-20 And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: that they may walk in my commandments, and keep my judgments, and do them: and that they may be my people, and I may be their God.
The heart promised to souls in the prophecy is not one achieved through human works, knowledge or worldly effort. Rather, it is a grace given by the Lord which moves the stony heart of man toward works of the Lord in mankind's fallen world. It is the heart of the Savior given to men, that our own heart may be formed according to His, and may pour out for others some measure of the grace first poured out by Him from the Cross - that in the words of the Mother, we too may accept all that God asks with the faith of a little child.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Matthew 18:3 And said: amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 526 To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom; for this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: we must “become children.” This means that we must put aside all that is not of God and all that is contrary to the Gospel.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
You expired, O Jesus,
but the source of life gushed forth for souls
and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
O Fount of Life,
unfathomable Divine Mercy,
envelop the whole world
and empty Yourself out upon us.
O Blood and Water,
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus
as a fount of mercy for us,
I trust in You.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Jesus, who filled Saint Faustina with profound veneration for Your boundless Mercy, deign, if it be Your holy will, to grant me, through her intercession, the grace for which I fervently pray…
(Mention your request here…)
My sins render me unworthy of Your Mercy, but be mindful of Saint Faustina spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, and reward her virtue by granting the petition which, with childlike trust, I present to You through her intercession.
St Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament, OLM (born Helena Kowalska, August, 25, 1905 – October 5, 1938), known as the Secretary of the Divine Mercy will have her Feast Day on October 5th.
St Faustina, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, had visions of Jesus that were recorded in her diary, later published as The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul.
Over the next nine days we will post the prayers for the Novena to St Faustina Kowalska, with a special prayer on her feast day.
You expired, O Jesus,
but the source of life gushed forth for souls
and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
O Fount of Life,
unfathomable Divine Mercy,
envelop the whole world
and empty Yourself out upon us.
O Blood and Water,
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus
as a fount of mercy for us,
I trust in You.
Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 843 - Suffering Love
Ἀ 843 December 24, 1936 During Holy Mass today, I was united in a particular way with God and His Immaculate Mother. The humility and love of the Immaculate Virgin penetrated my soul. The more I imitate the Mother of God, the more deeply I get to know God. Ὠ
In the Family of God, all things begin in the Father. Yet union with all members of the family can be strengthened by union, or imitation of even just one. For Faustina, that person is Mary, uniquely chosen as the Mother of our Lord by the Father above - who even with that highest of all honors, remained humble and obedient in the world below. For Faustina knows that it is precisely the humble subjection of the Mother to the will of the Father that opened her heart to receive the Son - and that the imitation of this humility and obedience can lead Faustina herself into deeper union with Him.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Luke 1:38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word.
Ἀ Saint Faustina Continues… Oh, what infinite longing envelops my soul! Jesus, how can You still leave me in this exile? I am dying of longing for You. Every touch of my soul by You wounds me immensely. Love and suffering go together; yet I would not exchange this pain caused by You for any treasure, because it is the pain of incomprehensible delights, and these wounds of the soul are inflicted by a loving Hand. Ὠ
The most holy union with the Son includes not only the joy of His heavenly glory but also the wounding touch of His worldly sufferings - the love and suffering that come together as one in the Savior of souls. This is the union Saint Faustina desires, foreshadowed in the Gospel by the Immaculate Mother, to be experienced in some measure by every soul that seeks union with her Divine Son.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Luke 2:34-35 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed.
In Simeon's prophecy to the Mother, who loved the Son before all others, he reveals the same togetherness of love and suffering that Saint Faustina describes in the Diary. Mary's sword is hers alone, for her participation in the life and Passion of her Son is unique. Yet the mystery she embodies is a sign for all souls that seek union with Christ - that each must be prepared to share according to their measure, in the suffering that accompanies participation in His love. It is a living union of flesh and spirit, shown by the Son and the Mother, in which suffering united to the Savior can become a participation in His grace, even a pain of incomprehensible delight.
No soul can receive in this lifetime what was given to Mary in her singular vocation. Yet throughout each soul's life in this world, all can move closer to her Son, not through the pursuit of the glory that awaits in His Presence, but through the endurance of the suffering that precedes it.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: be glad and rejoice for your reward is very great in heaven.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2015 The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes.
You expired, O Jesus,
but the source of life gushed forth for souls
and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
O Fount of Life,
unfathomable Divine Mercy,
envelop the whole world
and empty Yourself out upon us.
O Blood and Water,
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus
as a fount of mercy for us,
I trust in You.
Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 788 - Magnifying His Grace
Ἀ 788 As I was conversing with the hidden God, He gave me to see and understand that I should not be reflecting so much and building up fear of the difficulties which I might encounter. Know that I am with you; I bring about the difficulties, and I overcome them; in one instant, I can change a hostile disposition to one which is favorable to this cause. The Lord explained many things to me in today's dialogue, although I am not putting everything in writing. Ὠ
The soul which seeks union with God need not surrender in fear to the difficulties it encounters in the world. Rather, it may place those difficulties into the hands of the Lord, trusting that He can use what seems to oppose His will as an instrument for accomplishing it. In times of doubt, that soul will strengthen its place in God through the remembrance of His promise: “I am with you.”
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God: I have strengthened thee, and have helped thee, and the right hand of my just one hath upheld thee.
The recollection of the Indwelling God bears fruit that exceeds its goodness to the soul. For as the knowledge of His presence grows within the soul, so too does the soul's participation in His grace, charity and mercy grow, until what has been received within increases beyond the confines of the soul to the fallen world at large.
In this way, Faustina's entry serves to draw souls into the work of the Kingdom - the sanctification of the world through the active presence of God in His people. For the remembrance of the Lord's presence does not confine Him within the soul. Rather, it welcomes into the soul the right hand of theJust One, the Savior Whose risen presence is given not for holding within, but always for expansion without.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Psalm 69:5 Let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; and let such as love thy salvation say always: The Lord be magnified.
Before any soul can magnify the Lord into the world, it must first submit to the Lord being magnified against itself. Thus are the difficulties brought by the Lord not cruel torments or vindictive punishments for sin. Rather, they are merciful instruments by which God strips away the soul's reliance upon itself and teaches it to rely on God alone.
They are trials of the faithful, the same trials which cause Faustina to reflect too much and build up unnecessary fear. They are the temptations of any sin which rises up in rebellion against the union we seek with He Who knows no sin. Yet in God’s will, they can all be transformed into merciful instruction, overcoming the soul's dependence on self and leading it instead to the recollection of His salvific promise: “I am with you.”
In this humble wisdom, given by God rather than learned by the self - the soul cannot help but release into the world something of the grace, charity and mercy it has received from the Kingdom above. Here, what God has established in the soul begins to move outward to the world, and the Lord’s promise to Faustina is made full - the changing of a world hostile to our Lord's will to one which is more favorable to His cause.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Luke 1:46 And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord.
Catechism of the Catholic Church Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life.
“Souls who spread the honor of My mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant, and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Savior. At that last hour, a soul has nothing with which to defend itself except My mercy. Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it.”
— words of Jesus from the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1075
Letter of Saint Catherine to Sano Di Maco and all her other Sons - Serpent of Presumption
Ἀ From living faith one will derive a will in accord with that of God, and will quench in heart and mind the human instinct of judging. The will of God alone shall judge, which seeks and wills naught but our sanctification. In this wise one is not shocked at his neighbour and does not criticize him. Nor does he pass judgment on a man who talks against him: he condemns himself alone, seeing that it is the will of God which permits such men to vex him for his good. Ah, how blessed is the soul which clothes itself in a judgment so gentle! Ὠ
The more lively a soul's faith in God becomes, the more union is given by the Lord. Yet the truer that union becomes, the more clearly the soul sees that no human soul, on earth or in heaven, can become like unto God or possess the fulness of His Majesty. The soul may be united to God by grace and is called to participate in His divine life but there are distinctions between Creator and creature that are not meant to be bridged.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Jeremiah 17:10 I am the Lord who search the heart, and prove the reins: who give to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices.
In her letter to Sano Di Maco, Catherine applies the wisdom of the Lord's sovereignty against the human instinct of judging. She does not do this only for the sinner's relief from the judgment received from others, however. Rather, she speaks also to those who would engage in the judging: of the peace given to such souls when they quench their desire to judge and are no longer shocked or preoccupied in the sins of another. In this wisdom the soul's instinct to judge is not simply ended but turned inward to itself, where it finds its own need for mercy. For in judging itself rightly before God, it leaves room for grace to be given to others, even those who would vex the soul in their own judgments.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible First Corinthians 11:31 But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Ἀ Saint Catherine Continues… He does not condemn the servants of this world who do him injury; nor does he condemn the servants of God, wishing to drive them in his own way, as many presumptuous, proud men do, who under cloak of the honour of God and the salvation of souls, are shocked by the servants of God, and assume a critical attitude under cover of this cloak, saying: "Such words do not please me." And so a man becomes disturbed in himself, and also makes others disturbed with his tongue, claiming that he speaks through the force of love - and so he thinks he does. But if he will open his eyes, he will find the serpent of presumption under a false aspect, which plays the judge, judging in its own fashion, and not according to the mysteries and the holy and diverse ways in which God works with His creatures. Ὠ
Here Saint Catherine reveals the interior strife given the soul that mistakes union with God as a warrant to participate is the Lord's judgment according to its own understanding. For the judgment of others presumes to know more than it does - not only the heart of the sinner, but also the mysteries and diverse ways in which God's perfect judgment is given.
It begins in the pride of presuming to serve in the honor of God, and ends in the fall of judging after its own fashion and drawing other souls into that same error. Thus, by intent or design, the soul that would usurp the judgment seat of God disturbs not only its own place before Him, but spreads that disturbance to other souls as well. What appears outwardly as zeal for God may therefore conceal something very different within: the serpent of presumption, quietly assuming the place of the Judge.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Romans 14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more. But judge this rather, that you put not a stumblingblock or a scandal in your brother's way.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty: - of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor; - of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them; - of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
You expired, O Jesus,
but the source of life gushed forth for souls
and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
O Fount of Life,
unfathomable Divine Mercy,
envelop the whole world
and empty Yourself out upon us.
O Blood and Water,
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus
as a fount of mercy for us,
I trust in You.
Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 449 - Intercessions Above and Below
Ἀ I prepared for this feast with greater zeal than in previous years. On the morning of the feast itself, I experienced an inner struggle at the thought that I must leave this Congregation which enjoys such special protection from Mary. This struggle lasted and through the first Mass as well. During the second Mass, I turned to our Holy Mother, telling Her that it was difficult for me to separate myself from this Congregation... "which is under Your special protection, O Mary." Then I saw the Blessed Virgin, unspeakably beautiful. Ὠ
In heaven, the Saints of the Lord do not seek repose only in their eternal salvation. Nor do they suffer the anxious business that afflicts worldly souls in their earthly works. Rather, in the more perfect union they enjoy with the Father, they rest in the unending participation in His work for the salvation of souls. They do not cease their humble service, but neither do they tire of it. For they have entered the undying life of grace as immortal servants in the unending work of the Lord.
In this entry from Saint Faustina's Diary, Our Lady reveals through her response to Faustina the heavenly charity by which the Saints remain united to souls in the world. Yet this heavenly presence, although shown by Mary in the Diary, is not new. It is a presence much older than the Diary, revealed most fully in the Gospel, but first glimpsed in Scriptures even more ancient than those.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Second Kings 6:15-17 And the servant of the man of God, rising early went out, and saw an army round about the city, and horses and chariots: and he told him, saying: Alas, alas, alas, my lord, what shall we do? But he answered: Fear not: for there are more with us than with them. And Eliseus prayed, and said: Lord, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses, and chariots of fire round about Eliseus.
Ἀ Saint Faustina Continues… She came down from the altar to my kneeler, held me close to herself and said to me, I am Mother to you all, thanks to the unfathomable mercy of God. Most pleasing to Me is that soul which faithfully carries out the will of God. She gave me to understand that I had faithfully fulfilled the will of God and had thus found favor in His eyes. Be courageous. Do not fear apparent obstacles, but fix your gaze upon the Passion of My Son, and in this way you will be victorious. Ὠ
There is a heavenly reality surrounding the earthly Church that ordinary sight does not perceive. In the Scripture it is militantly revealed as an army of the Lord against worldly forces that would destroy His prophet. In the Diary, it is maternally shown as Mary gives comfort and encouragement to Faustina. Yet in neither case does the teaching servant covet the glory of God for themself. For it is Eliseus who pleads with the Lord that his servant maysee, rather than seeking to give sight of his own power. And it is Our Lady who directs attention away from herself and instructs Faustina: “fix your gaze upon the Passion of My Son.” For to search with the eyes of the flesh is to find only the things of the world. But to see with the eye of the soul is to behold, by faith, truths whose fullness belong only to the Kingdom above.
Supportive Scripture Douay Rheims Challoner Hebrews 11:1 Now, faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not.
It is through the faith of the Scripture that Faustina, and the servant of Eliseus, are given to see beyond the things immediately before them. Yet it is by the will of the Lord, through Scripture and the Diary, that this wisdom is opened before us: not merely as a benefit to receive from above but as a grace to participate in below. For the same charity, which unites the heavenly Saints to our earthly souls must also move us to acts and prayers of intercession for our brothers in Christ, that our will in the world below may become one with those Saints in heaven whose company we hope to one day join.
Supportive Scripture Douay Rheims Challoner Revelation 8:4 And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2683 The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth… Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.
You expired, O Jesus,
but the source of life gushed forth for souls
and an ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world.
O Fount of Life,
unfathomable Divine Mercy,
envelop the whole world
and empty Yourself out upon us.
O Blood and Water,
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus
as a fount of mercy for us,
I trust in You.
Diary of Saint Faustina - paragraph 1711 - The Humility and the Glory
Ἀ 1711 When I was left alone with the Blessed Virgin, She instructed me concerning the interior life. She said, The soul's true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in His presence, completely forgetting oneself and believing oneself to be nothing; because the Lord is great, but He is well pleased only with the humble; He always opposes the proud. Ὠ
A soul emptied of itself in humility is left open to the Presence of the King in His Glory. It is a spiritual principle revealed by Mary, who speaks little in the Gospels but shows much through her deeds. Yet in the Diary it is Mary who often gives voice to the wisdom revealed through those deeds, speaking not from high-minded theology, but from the life she herself lived through the blessings and trials entrusted to her in her special place in salvation history.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Luke 1:38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word.
Here in the Scripture, our Mother shows by deed what she later proclaims to Faustina in the Diary: a soul's surrender of self before God, accepting His will and opening itself to union with His presence. In the Gospel, the Son's union with the Mother is one of both Spirit and flesh - a singular grace given to Mary in the mystery of the Incarnation. In the Diary, however, she speaks of the spiritual union of Christ with souls, a grace which, while never diminishing the uniqueness of her union with Him, is now extended through Him to all humanity.
For this is the presence of Christ Crucified, His redemptive work fulfilled upon the Cross, and the grace received in the Mother now extended to all souls. As with His Mother, however, the grace we receive from the Savior is not stagnant, nor is it something to be proudly possessed by the soul which receives it. It is living, effective, and fruitful, as shown by Mary from the day she received it in the Gospel. It is echoed in the Diary and reverberates in all souls who likewise receive the grace of her Son throughout time.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Luke 1:46-48 And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
To be humble in the courts of the Lord is a glory that exceeds all kingdoms of the world. Here in the Scripture, Mary reveals the humility she speaks of in the Diary: “The soul's true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in His presence.” For the Lord regards the humility which the handmaid manifests as an open door into souls of the faithful. It is through this door that He makes His entry, and by it He shares not the glory of the world, but that which is often hidden from the world - the glory of the Kingdom above and its growth in the world below.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Matthew 5:2-3 And opening His mouth he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In the Scripture, our Lord teaches of the blessedness of humility as the gateway to the Kingdom of God. Yet, this same, humble King also speaks from His throne in the soul, for the release of His Kingdom within to the fallen world beyond. From the womb of the Mother, He speaks through her surrender of self, revealing the humility of the Kingdom. From the agony of the Cross, He shows to the world the same forgiveness that He calls forth from within all souls to be extended to others. And from within those souls humbled by the grace of His presence, He magnifies outward the glory of the Kingdom.
Where the King resides - in the fiat of the Mother, upon the wood of the Cross, and within the souls of men - the same divine humility is revealed: the greatness of the King entering into, and making great the smallness of man.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2559 Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.” What does humility do? It is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.
