[Ecumenical] Lent through Eastertide - Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: Obstacles to God's Grace in Souls

This series will be excerpts from the Diary of St. Faustina. Some are short. Some are longer. I am keeping the spelling from the website in the title.

Obstacles to God's Grace in Souls

The Lord gave me to know how displeased He is with a talkative soul. I find no rest in such a soul. The constant din tires Me, and in the midst of it the soul cannot discern My voice. (3; 1008)

I want to give myself to souls and to fill them with My love, but few there are who want to accept all the graces My love has intended for them.My grace is not lost; if the soul for whom it was intended does not accept it, another soul takes it. (3; 1017)

Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a feeble image and likeness of My love. (1447)

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. 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. (Jesus to souls striving for perfection and holiness - 1488)

Tell souls not to place within their own hearts obstacles to My mercy, which so greatly wants to act within them. My mercy works in all those hearts which open their doors to it. Both the sinner and the righteous person have need of My mercy. Conversion, as well as perseverance, is a grace of My mercy. (1577)

At adoration during the Forty-Hours' Devotion, the Lord said to me, My daughter, write that involuntary offences of souls do not hinder My love for them or prevent Me from uniting Myself with them. But voluntary offences, even the smallest, obstruct My graces, and I cannot lavish My gifts on such souls. (1641)

Today, I was talking with the Lord, and He said to me, There are souls with whom I can do nothing. They are souls that are continuously observing others, but know nothing of what is going on within their own selves. They talk about others continuously...Poor souls, they do not hear My words; their interior remains empty. They do not look for Me within their own hearts, but in idle talk, where I am never found. They sense their emptiness, but they do not recognise their own guilt....Instead of correcting themselves, their hearts swell with envy, and if they do not come to their senses, they plunge in even deeper. A heart, which thus far is envious, now begins to be filled with hate. And they are already at the edge of the precipice. They are jealous of my gifts in other souls, but they themselves are unable and unwilling to accept them. (1717)

Strive for a life of recollection so that you can hear My voice, which is so soft that only recollected souls can hear it... (1779)

I have come to know that, in order for God to act in a soul, it must give up acting on its own; otherwise, God will not carry out His will in it. (1790)

Wow! So profound and very applicable to this forum.

[Ecumenical] Lent through Eastertide - Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: Obstacles to God's Grace in Souls
[Ecumenical] Lent through Eastertide - Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: Obedience
[Ecumenical] Lent through Eastertide - Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: Mystery of God and His Ways
[Ecumenical] Lent through Eastertide - Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: God's Infinite Mercy
[Ecumenical] Lent through Eastertide - Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: Mary, Mother of Jesus
[Ecumenical] Lent through Eastertide - Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts: Love

Lenten Series Ping!

Thank you so very much for posting this, Salvation. I’m pinging it for later study- but I already have one line which struck me deeply- about discouragement being a form of self love.

Strive for a life of recollection so that you can hear My voice, which is so soft that only recollected souls can hear it... (1779)

In your opinion, what does he mean by a recollected soul. Is it like the prayer of recollection of saint teresa ? Or something else ?

When we say we recollect something, doesn’t it mean that we remember it?

Or does it mean in this context, to be quiet and collect yourself unto yourself so that you can really listen to the Voice of Jesus

When we say we recollect something, doesn’t it mean that we remember it?

Or does it mean in this context, to be quiet and collect yourself unto yourself so that you can really listen to the Voice of Jesus

I went back and re-read st teresa's the Way of Perfection last night, about the prayer of recollection. I think that it is what is referred to. St Faustina would probably have known of it, wouldn't she ? (I don't know anything about her). Its an interior prayer of turning the attention to focus on the Jesus within- of re-remebering His presence there and being aware of it.

( I hadn't read anythng of St Teresa's book except the part on the prayer of quiet because I love Father Thomas Keating and have practiced centering prayer for a few years now).

A neat thing is that I have been practicing that prayer style for a few months- quite spontaneously it came upon me, but I had stopped doing it.I will pick it back up.

I shared your post with mr rb this morning in our devotion period and it sure rang true. Thank you again for sharing.