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 Kavalska from beginning to end.

Today we take up from where we left off, beginning with Diary Entry Number 696.

September 24, 1936

Mother Superior, Irene, ordered me to say one decade of the Rosary

in place of all the other exercises and to go to bed at once.

As soon as I lay down, I fell asleep, for I was very tired.

But a while later I was awakened by suffering. It was such a great suffering that it prevented me from making even the slightest movement.

I could not even swallow my saliva. This lasted for about three hours. I thought of waking

up the novice sister who shared my room, but then I thought she cannot give me any help,

so let her sleep. It would be a pity to wake her. I resigned myself completely to the will of God, and thought that the day of my death, so much

desired, had come. It was an occasion for me to unite myself with Jesus, suffering on the cross.

Beyond that, I was unable to pray. When the suffering ceased, I began to perspire, but I still could not move

as the pain would return at each attempt. In the morning I felt very tired, though I felt no further

physical pain. Still, I could not get up to attend Mass. I thought to myself, if after such suffering,

death does not come, then how great the sufferings of death must be. Jesus, you know that I love

suffering and want to drain the cup of suffering to the last drop,

and yet my nature experienced a slight shudder and fear.

Quickly, however, my trust in the infinite mercy of God was awakened in all its force,

and everything else had to give way before it, like a shadow retreating before

the sun's rays.

...