Our Lord told Saint Faustina that the soul gives Him the greatest glory when in the midst of their difficulties and sufferings they continue to trust in My Mercy.   

​

There is no doubt that we are currently in a time of great turmoil.  Our personal situations may indeed be difficult.  Please take on board the following:  The greater the difficulties, the greater you can bring Jesus glory by trusting in His Mercy.

Jesus said to St Faustina on one occasion:

My daughter, consider these words: “And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.” When I started to think about them more deeply, much light streamed into my soul. I learned how much we need perseverance in prayer and that our salvation often depends on such difficult prayer.  

​

Many of us have come to know and love the Divine Mercy devotion and Our Lord's chosen instrument St Faustina.  Perhaps it is good for us to reflect that she herself was a product of difficult times.  Born in 1903, she was so poor that she could not always attend Sunday Mass.  Her other sibblings had to alternate Sundays because they could not all be dressed in a manner suitable for Holy Mass.  They did not have shoes, for instance, for all the family.  She herself, and her family lived through the terrible time of the First World War, the Spanish flu and the Great Depression.  

​

As many great saints experienced, when difficulties abound, God's grace also abounds.

​

As we approach the wonderful celebration of Easter and the exception time of God's Mercy that is so closely linked to Easter,  we may at this time also learn by Saint Faustina's example.

​

More and more she offered Herself for poor sinners.  She offered Herself to God as a living host imploring God's Mercy upon the world.   

​

It is very important during this time to establish a strong habit of prayer.  Many of us are feeling claustrophobic at this time.  Perhaps we could all learn from the spirituality of the cloistered sisters and monks.  They surrendered themselves completely to a life of isolation and surrendered their freedom willingly to the Lord, knowing that for most of them they would never again step outside of the convent for the rest of their lives. 

​

Yet, when we have visited these cloisters we have come across the most joy filled people we have ever met in our lives:  radiant with the love of God. 

​

Perhaps some of us will look back at this time as being the most grace filled time of our lives.  But this will not just happen.  It will need us to have some prayer structure to our days, to enable God's grace to lift us out of our misery and fill us with his wonderful light. 

​

A problem with being shut in is that with the whole day to ourselves it is easy just to drift from one distraction to the next.  That is why it is important to place some structure to the day, and to set aside two or three times in which prayer is the order of the day.  Typically this could be in the morning upon rising or after breakfast,  3.00pm in the afternoon for the Divine Mercy, and then perhaps rosaries in the evening.

​

Of course in between times it is good to read pius books, the lives of the saints, or perhaps to watch a Mass on the television or on the internet.    

​

There are some wonderful resources on the internet and we thought it may be useful to you to provide some links and also some prayers as well that will hopefully assist you in this time of grace.   

​

But we would like to leave you with this thought of St Faustina: 

"...if a soul loves God sincerely and is intimately united with Him, then, even though such a soul may be living in the midst of difficult external circumstances, nothing can disturb its interior life; and in the midst of corruption, it can remain pure and unsullied; because the great love of God gives it strength for battle, and God also protects in a special way, even in a miraculous way, a soul that loves Him sincerely."

​