Hello, I'm Father Joe Roche of the Marian Fathers of the Eumaclit Conception. Thank you for joining us as we continue with our year-long journey, reading the diary of St. Maria Faustina Kovalska from beginning to end. Today we take up from where we left off, beginning with diary entry number 882. I rarely have such visions, but I'm more often commune with the Lord in a more

profound manner. My sense is sleep, and although not in a visible way, all things become more

real and clearer to me than if I saw them with my eyes. My intellect learns more in one moment than

during long years of thinking and meditation, both as regards the essence of God and as

regards reveal truths, and also as regards the knowledge of my own misery. Nothing disturbs my union with the Lord, neither conversation with others, nor any duties.

Even if I am able to go about settling very important matters, this does not disturb me.

My spirit is with God, and my interior being is filled with God, so I do not look for

him outside myself. He, the Lord, penetrates my soul, just as a ray from the sun penetrates

clear glass. When I was enclosed in my mother's womb, I was not so closely united with her as I am with my God.

There it was an unawareness, but here it is the fullness of reality and the consciousness

of union. My visions are purely interior, but the more I understand them,

the less I am able to express them in words. Oh, how beautiful is the world of the Spirit,

and so real that, by comparison, the exterior life is just a vain illusion and powerlessness.

Jesus, give me the strength and wisdom to get through this terrible wilderness,

that my heart may bear patiently this longing for you, O my Lord.

I always remain in holy amazement when I sense that you are approaching me,

you, the Lord of the awesome throne, that you descend to this miserable exile and visit this

poor beggar who has nothing but misery. I do not know how to entertain you, my royal prince, but you know that I love you

with every beat of my heart. I see how you lower yourself, but nevertheless your majesty does not

diminish in my eyes. I know that you love me with the love of a bridegroom, and that is enough for me.

Although we are separated by a great chasm, for you are the Creator and I am your creature,

nevertheless, love alone explains our union.

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