Hello, I'm Father Joe Roche of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.

Thank you for joining us as we continue with our year-long journey,

reading the diary of St. Maria Faustina Cavalska from beginning to end.

Today we take up from where we left off, beginning with Diary Entry Number 577.

Once, when my confessor told me to say,

Glory be to the Father as my penance,

it took me a very long time,

and I began many times, but did not finish,

because my spirit became united with God,

and I could not stick to the prayer. Quite frequently, I am unwittingly

enveloped by God's omnipotence and become entirely plunged in him through love, and then I do not know

what is going on around me. When I told my confessor that this short prayer often takes very much of my time,

and that sometimes I cannot even finish it, he told me to say it right away there at the confessional.

However, my spirit became immersed in God, and in spite of my efforts, I could not think as I wished.

And so the confessor said, please, repeat after me. I repeated

every word, but while I was pronouncing each word, my spirit would be steeped in the person

I was naming. On one occasion, Jesus told me, concerning a certain priest, probably Father Sopochko, that these present

years would be the adornment of his priestly life. The days of suffering always seem longer,

but they too will pass, though they pass so slowly that it seems they are moving backwards.

However, the end is near, and then will come

endless and inconceivable joy. Eternity! Who can understand this one word which comes from you,

O incomprehensible God, this one word, eternity.

...