Daily Reflections on Divine Mercy

One common temptation that many face is that of living either in the past or in the future, and failing to live in the present moment. You live in the past when you remain controlled by past events, sins, hurts, etc. The past must be healed and your sins of the past must be forgiven. Once that is done, you must let go of the past and not allow it to affect you in a negative way. The past can affec...

The message of God’s Mercy is so simple that we can easily miss it, even after reflecting upon the many pages of this book or upon the Diary of Saint Faustina. The simple truth that the message of God’s Mercy must convey is that we should have no fear, whatsoever, of admitting our sins and trusting in God’s perfect forgiveness. Fear easily paralyzes us and keeps us from being honest in regard to o...

This heading may not seem immediately attractive to you. Who would want to endure these things? But we ought to remember that Jesus endured them all to the greatest degree. Was Jesus happy? Was His soul at peace? Most certainly. This reveals to us that these crosses in life cannot ultimately do us harm if we are immersed in the presence of God. Remember Jesus agonizing in the Garden, or the mocker...

At times, when we love God with a profound love, we may find that we have strong impulsions to do great things for God. And yet, despite our desire and firm resolve, it can seem as if God is not permitting our work to move forward. This may be because the Lord is not ready to act. Though it’s good to have a strong desire to do great things for God, we must always remember that our desires must ali...

Do you ignore God? It’s far too easy to do and, therefore, all too common. Very often, God is ignored after receiving Holy Communion. Many people get in the habit of coming forward to receive Him and do so with many distractions and little attention to the sacredness of this encounter. Do not allow yourself to fall into this habit. Receiving our Lord in Holy Communion must become a profoundly inti...

You must seek to hear God speak to you through an inner conviction within your soul. At times you may sense that God’s Voice is loud and clear, and at other times it may seem faint and confusing. There are many things that can compete with the Voice of God but if you are open, you will come to know His Voice with familiarity. This is important for your spiritual life. Learning to hear Him speak an...

Saint Faustina was asked to have an image of Jesus painted with rays of Mercy flowing from His Heart. She did so and Jesus affirmed to her that many souls would be drawn to Him through this image. It’s interesting to think about the importance that Jesus and Saint Faustina gave to this image. Indeed it speaks volumes regarding the Mercy flowing radiantly from His wounded Heart. It’s also insightfu...

Tension is often a part of life. Some deal with much tension, frustration and even extreme anger in their daily lives. At first, the anger of another can set you on guard and tempt you to fear. This is a normal reaction. The anger of another can also push you to react and to fight back with anger, spite and bitterness of your own. You may get defensive and even lash out. But the Mercy of God is ab...

Does God get angry with you when you do not accomplish a certain task for His glory? It depends. He may issue forth His holy wrath if the failure is on account of your sin. This wrath is an act of His Mercy calling you to repentance. But at other times your work and service of God may be hindered by things beyond your control. The Lord knows this and sees it. You may wonder at times why God does n...

At first thought, “humdrum” and “glory” may not appear to go together unless they were used in contrast. But these two words are married together in the Mind of God. They are “married” in the sense that we are able to glorify God and obtain holiness through our day-to-day humdrum duties. Though this may not be immediately apparent, understanding this unlocks a door to the treasures of Heaven in co...

It is a common practice for those who are married to renew their vows from time to time, especially on significant anniversaries. The renewal of vows and promises also takes place by priests and religious. This practice is a good and holy one in that we must constantly renew our total dedication to God in our vocation. But the renewal of vows and promises to God should go beyond our particular voc...

The pinnacle of our relationship with God includes being stripped of every other earthly tie so that nothing holds us back from running toward God with great passion and purpose. We must be freed of every attachment in this life so that our one attachment is God and His holy Will. This does not mean we ought to neglect our love for others. This is especially true with family love. Love for those i...

No one can see your heart except you and God. God is aware of every detail of your interior life to a perfect degree; you see the details of your interior life to an imperfect degree. Nonetheless, it is important to become increasingly aware of the reality of your inner life. See your soul as a hidden and secret world in which the Mercy of God resides. Allow the inner chambers of your heart to bec...

One very common tendency and temptation most people struggle with is to become fixated upon sufferings, humiliations and the false opinions of others. When we experience one or more of these burdens, we can be tempted to make them the central focus of our life. For example, if you are unjustly humiliated and others have an erroneous opinion of you, it can be exceptionally hard to keep this from do...

Are you willing to accept the Will of God in your life? If so, you must be open to all the details. God’s Will is not some grandiose generalization. Choosing His Will is not simply a matter of saying that you choose to follow Him with broad strokes. Rather, choosing His Will is saying “Yes” over and over to every little prompting and every inspiration that the Lord gives. It’s about building a hab...

If you could pick two things to gaze at, what would they be? Ideally, the two greatest things to gaze at are the Mercy of God and your own misery. Most likely, it immediately makes sense that the Mercy of God would be one of the most important things to gaze at, but the wisdom of gazing at your own misery may not be immediately apparent. What we need to understand is that there is danger in seeing...

Perhaps thinking about your death is frightening. It may not be something that you actually consider very often. But it is a grace to be able to look at one’s death directly and with full confidence. And this is only possible to do with full confidence if your life is in order and given completely to God. If you can honestly look into your soul and see that you have made holiness your ultimate goa...

It is proper to speak of both the Justice of God as well as His Mercy. They are not opposed to each other. His Justice will be dealt to those who refuse to repent just as it was dealt to the angels who refused to serve God. But, for now, is it more proper to say that God is Merciful. In fact, the evil one would love for us to become consumed with the idea that God is only Just and that He imposes...

Do you want to be a saint? Hopefully the answer is “Yes.” But what about this question: Do you think you can become a saint? This may be more difficult to answer. It’s easy to dream of sanctity and to desire it, but when faced with the task of achieving it, discouragement can easily set in. Discouragement comes when you see the high call of holiness and conclude that you will never be able to achi...

God created us with passions. These can be either great blessings in our Christian walk or they can become great snares. It all depends on what controls each passion. Passions of anger, for example, can either be used for good or ill. When anger takes over and the source of this anger is a wound or lack of mercy toward another, then we become bound by this sin. But holy anger is a gift from God in...

Have you ever made a retreat? Some are privileged to take time away from the busyness of life so as to spend an extended time listening to our Lord and being in His merciful presence. Others find it hard to find even a day to enter such a retreat. Regardless of whether you have or have not had this opportunity, know that you need time alone with Jesus. It is not possible to speak to Him only durin...

Imagine being a small child on a small boat in the middle of the sea. A storm sets in and you cannot see land in any direction. You are tossed and turned in the waves as they cover the bow with each crash and you wonder how you will survive. Now imagine that your dad is also on the boat with you. He tells you to sit and hold on and that all will be well. He is confident and in charge and shows no...

We cannot escape the Hand of God. He is the one who sustains the Universe and keeps all things in being. Without His constant care we would cease to exist. But we remain under His providential Hand in one of two ways. Either we are guided by the “rule of love” or by the “rule of justice.” The rule of justice is God’s way of guiding our lives when we turn away from Him. We cannot escape His justice...

Imagine if Jesus came to you in poverty, hunger and cold and He asked you to care for Him. This experience might startle you and cause you to question if this person really was Jesus. But it is Jesus. Jesus comes to us every day in the person who is in need. It may be that we encounter someone who is homeless, hungry and in need of clothing. If this is the case then this is Jesus. But there are ma...

Do you want to do amazing things in this world? Do you sometimes have grandiose ideas and dreams? Sometimes we have more secular dreams of wealth and fame, and sometimes we may have dreams of doing extraordinary things for God and for the Church. But these do not have to be dreams because each and every one of us is called to extraordinary things. The problem is that we often misunderstand what “e...