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.

Diary number 1486

Conversation of the Merciful God with a despairing soul.

Jesus, O soul steeped in darkness, do not despair, all is not yet lost.

Come and confide in your God who is love and mercy.

But the soul, deaf, even to this appeal, wraps itself in darkness.

Jesus calls out again, my child, listen to the voice of your merciful father.

In the soul arises this reply.

For me, there is no mercy, and it falls into darker, greater darkness, a despair, which is a foretaste of hell, and makes it unable to draw near to God. Jesus calls to the soul a third time,

but the soul remains deaf and blind, hardened, and despairing. Then the mercy of God begins to

exert itself, and without any cooperation from the soul, God grants it final grace.

If this too is spurned, God will leave the soul in this self-chosen disposition for eternity.

This grace emerges from the merciful heart of Jesus and gives the soul a special light,

by means of which the soul begins to understand God's effort.

But the conversation depends on its own will.

The soul knows that this, for her, is final grace, and should it show even a flicker

of goodwill, the mercy of God will accomplish the rest. My omnipotent mercy is active here. Happy the

soul that takes advantage of this grace.

Jesus,

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