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 Entry Number 1488. Conversation of the Merciful God with a soul striving after perfection.

Jesus, I am pleased with your efforts, O soul, aspiring for perfection, but why do I see you so often sad and depressed? Tell me, my child,

what is the meaning of this sadness and what is its cause? Soul, Lord, the reason for my

sadness is that, in spite of my sincere resolutions, I fall again into the same faults.

I make resolutions in the morning, but in the evening I see how much I have departed from them.

Jesus, you see, my child, what you are of yourself.

The cause of your falls is that you rely too much upon

yourself and too little upon on me. But let this not sadden you so much. You are dealing with the

God of mercy, which your misery cannot exhaust. Remember, I did not allot only a certain number of pardons.

Soul. Yes, I know all that, but great temptations assail me, and various doubts awaken

within me, and moreover, everything irritates and discourages me.

Jesus, my child, know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety.

These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue.

All temptations united together ought not disturb your interior peace, not even momentarily. Sensitiveness and discouragement are the fruits of self-love.

You should not become discouraged, but strive to make my love reign in place of your self-love.

Have confidence, my child. Do not lose heart in coming for pardon, for I am always ready to forgive you.

As often as you beg for it, you glorify my mercy.

Soul, I understand what is the better thing to do, what pleases you more, but I encounter

great obstacles in acting on this understanding.

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