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 765.

On one occasion, I saw the convent of the new congregation.

As I walked about, inspecting everything, I suddenly saw a crowd of children who seemed to be no older than five to eleven years of age.

When they saw me, they surrounded me and began to cry out, defend us from evil.

And they led me into the chapel, which was in this convent. When I entered the chapel, I saw the distressful Lord Jesus.

Jesus looked at me graciously and said that he was gravely offended by children.

You are to defend them from evil.

From that moment I have been praying for children, but I feel that prayer alone is not enough.

O my Jesus, you know what efforts are needed to live sincerely and unaffectedly with those from whom our nature flees,

or with those who deliberately or not have made us suffer.

Humanly speaking, this is impossible.

At such times more than at others, I try to discover the Lord Jesus in such a person,

and for this same Jesus, I do everything for such people. In such acts, love is pure,

and such practice of love gives the soul endurance and strength.

I do not expect anything from creatures, and therefore I am not disappointed.

I know that a creature is poor of itself, so what can one expect from it?

God is everything for me. I want to evaluate everything according to God's ways.

My communion with the Lord is now purely spiritual. My soul is touched by God and wholly absorbs

itself in him, even to the complete forgetfulness of self.

...