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 121.

There is a series of graces which God pours into the soul after these

trials by fire. The soul enjoys intimate union with God. It has many visions, both corporal

and intellectual. It hears many supernatural words and sometimes distinct orders, but despite these graces it is not self-sufficient.

In fact, it is even less so as a result of God's graces, because now it is open to many dangers and can easily fall prey to illusions.

It ought to ask God for a spiritual director, but not only must it pray for one,

but it must also make every effort to find a leader who is an expert in these things,

just as a military leader must know the ways along which he will lead his followers into battle.

A soul that is united with God must be prepared for great and hard-fought

battles. After these purifications and tears, God abides in the soul in a special way, but the soul

does not always cooperate with these graces. Not that the soul itself is not willing to work, but it encounters so many

interior and exterior difficulties that it really takes a miracle to sustain the soul on these

summits. In this, it absolutely needs a director. People have often sown doubt in my soul,

and I myself have sometimes become frightened at the thought

that I was after all an ignorant person and did not have knowledge of many things above all spiritual things

but when my doubts increased I sought light from my confessor or my superiors, yet I did not obtain what I desired.

When I opened myself to my superiors, one of them, probably Mother Michael or Mother Mary

Joseph, understood my soul and the road God intended for me. When I followed her advice, I made

quick progress towards perfection, but this did not last me. When I followed her advice, I made quick progress towards perfection. But

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