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 Kowalska, from beginning to end.

Today we take up from where we left off, beginning with Diary Entry No. 842.

Sister Chrysostom came to visit me today.

She brought some lemons and apples and a tiny Christmas tree.

I was delighted with them.

Through Sister Christosdom, Mother Superior asked the doctor, Adam Silberg, to let me come home for Christmas, and he readily agreed.

I was very happy and burst into tears like a little child.

Sister Chrysostom was surprised that I looked so bad and had changed so much, and she told me,

you know little Faustina, probably you will die. You must be suffering a great deal, sister. I answered that I was suffering more that day than on other days, but that it was nothing, and that for the salvation of souls, it was not too much. O merciful Jesus, give me the souls of sinners.

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. 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.

Sister C. came in the afternoon and took me home for the holidays.

I was happy to be reunited with the community. As we were riding through the

city, Krakow, I imagined it was the town of Bethlehem. As I watched all those people hurrying about,

I thought, who is meditating today in recollection and silence on this inconceivable mystery. O pure Virgin, you are traveling

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