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 pick up where we left off, beginning with diary entry number 96.

Trials sent by God to a soul which is particularly loved by off, beginning with diary entry number 96.

Trials sent by God to a soul which is particularly loved by him, Temptations and Darkness,

Satan.

The soul's love for God is still not such as God would have it.

The soul suddenly loses the tangible perception of God's presence. Various

defects and imperfections rise up within it, and it must fight them furiously. All her faults

lift up their heads, but the soul's vigilance is great. The former awareness of the presence

of God gives place to coldness and spiritual dryness.

The soul has no taste for spiritual exercises.

It cannot pray either in the old way or in the manner in which it had just begun to pray.

It struggles this way and that, but can find no satisfaction.

God has hidden himself from it, and it can find no consolation in creatures,

nor can any of these creatures find a way of consoling it.

The soul craves passionately for God, but sees its own misery.

It begins to sense God's justice. It seems to it that it has lost all the gifts that God had given it. Its mind is dimmed and darkness fills it. Unspeakable torment begins. The soul tries to explain its state to the confessor, but it is not understood and is assailed by an even greater unrest.

Satan begins his work. Faith staggers unto the impact. The struggle is fierce. The soul tries hard to cling to God by an act of will. With God's permission, Satan goes even

further. Hope and love are put to the test. These temptations are terrible. God supports the soul in

secret, so to speak. The soul is not aware of this, but otherwise it would be impossible to stand firm.

...