Retreat Meditations, Sacrifice and Prayer

We continue to follow Saint Faustina's retreat, recorded in diary entries 1761-1767.

Second Day.

My daughter, today consider My Sorrowful Passion in all its immensity. Consider it as if it had been undertaken for your sake alone.

Application: When I began to immerse myself in the Divine Passion, the great worth of the human soul and the great evil of sin were revealed to me. I understood that I did not know how to suffer. In order to gain merit for my suffering, I will unite myself more closely, in suffering, to the Passion of the Lord Jesus, asking of Him grace for dying souls, so that the mercy of God may embrace them in this grave moment.

Second Meditation.

My daughter, consider the rule and the vows which you have offered to Me. You know how highly I value them; all the graces that I have for the souls of religious are connected with the rule and the vows.

Application: O my Jesus, I feel guilty of many imperfections on this score but, by Your grace, I do not recall any conscious and voluntary transgression of the rule or the religious vows. Continue to guard me, O my good Jesus, for of myself I am weak.

Today, My daughter, for your reading you shall take chapter nineteen of Saint John's Gospel, and read it, not only with your lips, but with your heart...

During this reading, my soul was filled with deep repentance. I saw all the ingratitude of creatures toward their Creator and Lord; I asked God to protect me from spiritual blindness.

Conference on Sacrifice and Prayer.

My daughter, I want to instruct you on how you are to rescue souls through sacrifice and prayer. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone. I want to see you as a sacrifice of living love, which only then carries weight before Me. You must be annihilated, destroyed, living as if you were dead in the most secret depths of your being. You must be destroyed in that secret depth where the human eye has never penetrated; then will I find in you a pleasing sacrifice, a holocaust full of sweetness and fragrance. And great will be your power for whomever you intercede. Outwardly, your sacrifice must look like this: silent, hidden, permeated with love, imbued with prayer. I demand, My daughter, that your sacrifice be pure and full of humility, that I may find pleasure in it. I will not spare My grace, that you may be able to fulfill what I demand of you.


I will now instruct you on what your holocaust shall consist of, in everyday life, so as to preserve you from illusions. You shall accept all sufferings with love. Do not be afflicted if your heart often experiences repugnance and dislike for sacrifice. All its power rests in the will, and so these contrary feelings, far from lowering the value of the sacrifice in My eyes, will enhance it. Know that your body and soul will often be in the midst of fire. Although you will not feel My presence on some occasions, I will always be with you. Do not fear; My grace will be with you...