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, beginning with diary entry number 104.

I want to add that, although my soul was already in the rays of his love,

traces of my past tortures remained on my body for two days, a deathly pale face and bloodshot eyes.

Jesus alone knows what I suffered. What I have written is very poor compared to the reality.

I cannot put it in words. It seemed to me that I had come back from the other world. I feel

an aversion for everything that is created. I snuggle to the heart of God like a baby to its

mother's breast. I see everything differently now.

I am conscious of what the Lord, by one single word, has done in my soul, and I live by it.

I shudder at the recollection of this past torture.

I would not have believed that one could suffer so if I had not gone through it myself.

This is a completely spiritual suffering.

However, in all these sufferings and struggles, I was not omitting Holy Communion.

When it seemed to me that I should not communicate, I went before Holy Communion to the

directress and told her that I could not approach the

sacrament because it seemed to me that I should not do so.

But she would not permit me to omit Holy Communion, so I went, and I understand now that

it was only obedience that saved me.

The Directoress herself told me later that my trials had passed quickly, and this solely

because you were obedient, sister, and it was through the power of obedience that you struggled

...