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 146.

Prayer

A soul arms itself by prayer for all kinds of combat.

In whatever state the soul may be, it ought to pray.

A soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty.

A soul which is striving after this purity must pray, or else it will never attain it.

A soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall again.

A sinful soul plunged in sins must pray so that it might rise again.

There is no soul which is not bound to pray, for every single grace comes to the soul through prayer.

I recall that I have received most light during adoration which I made lying prostrate

before the Blessed Sacrament for half an hour every day throughout Lent. During that time I came

to know myself and God more profoundly. And yet, even though I had the superior's permission to do so, I encountered

many obstacles to praying in such a way. Let the soul be aware that, in order to pray and

persevere in prayer, one must arm oneself with patience and cope bravely with exterior and interior difficulties.

The interior difficulties are discouragement, dryness, heaviness of spirit and temptations.

The exterior difficulties are human respect and time.

One must observe the time set apart for prayer.

This has been my personal experience,

because when I did not pray at the time assigned for prayer,

later on I could not do it because of my duties.

...