Daily Reflections on Divine Mercy

A honey bee works diligently, day after day, and a colony of bees all work toward the same natural end. They work to produce honey. This is no small task and requires constant work on the part of thousands of bees to produce a small amount of honey. But, in the end, their efforts pay off and honey is made and stored in the hive. So it is with our lives. We are all called to serve the Lord individu...

We cannot do anything good on our own. This is a fact. All we can do on our own is sin. In fact, the only way to please God and to do good things for Him is to rely upon Him for everything. We must have a relationship of complete dependence upon God in all things. It’s easy to think that we will please God if we simply try harder with an action we have undertaken on our own and believe is good. If...

One common tendency we all have is curiosity. We easily become curious about almost everything, desiring to know. Magazines, news articles, shows, daily gossip sessions, etc., all have as their aim the satisfaction of our curiosity. This curiosity must turn into a desire to know God and all He speaks to us. But, with that said, we must also know that we cannot know. The wisdom and Will of God are...

Is it better to do great works, or small sacrifices? It’s easy to conclude that some great work for God is far better than any small sacrifice. But is it? That all depends upon the Will of God. Sometimes we take on some “great work” for God but, in the end, it’s not part of His plan. A work is great only when it is done because God inspired it and remains the one leading it. Conversely, if God ins...

There is little doubt that each one of us will encounter, from time to time, the sin of another. It could be in their words, actions or the omission of what they ought to do. Sin hurts and requires correction. Very often, when we are sinned against, we tend to get angry. But the anger we have is not always “holy anger” and is not, therefore, always from God. We can easily allow our wounded pride t...

“Do not be afraid; just have faith” (Mark 5:36). These four words, “Do not be afraid,” are spoken countless times throughout the Scripture. We should pay attention to them. Fear can paralyze us and lead us into many forms of foolish thinking and acting. The person who acts out of fear truly acts like a fool. That may seem harsh at first, but it’s not if you understand what it means. It simply mean...

Have you encountered the sweetness of Jesus? He, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, come to you in the secret depths of your soul. There, in this hidden place, they desire to communicate with you. Their communication is beyond words and concepts. It’s a communication of profound love that leaves the soul at peace and with a delight of the greatest sweetness. Their encounter with you is not an em...

You are called to love God with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength. But how do you do this? What does an active loving of God look like in our lives? Ultimately, we love God through holy obedience. We must obey His Divine Will above all else. Perhaps that seems like a strange concept, that love of God is best expressed in holy obedience. But it is. It’s expressed in holy obedience because o...

Do you have fear in your life? It’s important to know that some fear is quite unhealthy, stemming from a form of pride, while another form of fear is quite healthy, resulting from your profound love of God. The “holy fear” is filial fear , which is the fear of a child of God. This particular form of fear is present when your love of God is so deep that you fear doing anything that would harm your...

Do you know that our Lord chooses certain people for a specific mission of suffering? He picks certain people, who are few in number, to more fully resemble His innocent suffering here on Earth. These holy souls suffer in many and varied ways. They are the continuation of the innocent suffering of Jesus Himself. They have a very specific mission on Earth and it is a mission requiring the greatest...

Do you want to see The Divine Mercy of God pour forth upon the world in an abundant way? Hopefully and presumably the answer to that question is an easy, “Yes.” It’s important to know that, in some ways, you are responsible for whether or not that happens. Specifically, Jesus has chosen to make His abundance of Mercy flow forth as a direct result of your intercession for others. It’s true. Your pe...

Who, in their right mind, would want to be humiliated? What would you do if you were humiliated? Most people would be tempted to seek ways to avoid humiliation. Some would become deeply hurt as a result. Others would become angry and defensive. And though the source of one’s humiliation may not be fair, it’s important to understand that humiliations can become an invitation to the deepest depths o...

If you could choose between all the wealth in the world or an intimate and loving relationship with Jesus, which would you choose? Do not answer that too quickly. We may know that choosing Jesus is the right answer, but would you choose Him? Imagine the power and worldly “freedom” you would enjoy if you had unlimited earthly wealth. And yet, the truth is that all the wealth in the world cannot pro...

Imagine that your home had an inner, hidden courtyard in which you had a garden. No one knew about this secret garden. It was a place where you planted, tilled, labored, weeded and harvested. The produce from this garden was then secretly distributed to many to nourish and delight them. This is an image of the depths of your soul. The home symbolizes your whole self. The inner and hidden garden sy...

The ultimate purpose of your life is love. And, more specifically, it is first to love God with a pure love. For love to be pure, it must be freed from all selfishness. Pure love looks only at the one being loved. When we love God with a pure love, we will find that we are drawn to God for His sake, because He is glorious and worthy of our love, and because loving Him is right and just. When we ca...

Mortification is a practice of denying your will so as to grow in greater detachment from the passing things of this world. We must seek to detach from everything but God and His holy Will. It’s not that everything we like or desire is bad, but if we want true holiness, our desire for God must transform every other desire and direct them all. Interior mortification consists of ways in which we den...

One of the primary ways we stop the Mercy of God from entering into our lives is through obstinacy . Specifically, when we obstinately hold onto our own opinion, as a result of our pride, and therefore fail to be open to the truth, we shut the door to grace. This is a particularly dangerous sin because obstinacy, by its very definition, implies there is an unwillingness to repent and change. The o...

Some religious sisters and monks live a cloistered life within the confines of an enclosure. No one may enter that enclosure without good reason, unless they are a member of that community of faith. Others may enter only with the permission of the superior. It may be that a sister is gravely ill and in need of the Sacrament of Anointing, or it may be that a workman must enter for a needed repair....

God is wholly independent in that He perfectly sustains Himself. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit form a perfect unity through which they are interconnected and interdependent. And this interdependence is all They need. However, the Trinity freely chose to become dependent upon each one of us in a unique way. By choosing to enter into our lives, uniting with us, and forming a bond of love with us,...

The Will of God is much more than a future plan God has laid out for you. It’s more than His hopes and dreams for you. His Will is your path to holiness and it is a source of the greatest consolation and joy. His Will is both active and passive (permissive). It’s active in that He has definite plans for you and calls you to discern those plans and embrace them. It’s passive in that He will permit...

The “world” is referred to in Scripture many times, especially by Jesus Himself. He said that the world will hate you and will not understand you. The world will, in fact, persecute you. This could become the cause of fear and distress for some. It causes these effects within us when we are overly concerned about looking good in the eyes of the world and acting so as to win its esteem. Do not fall...

The greatest prayer we can make is the “prayer of offering.” A prayer of offering is a sacrifice offered to the Father in union with the One Sacrificial Offering of Christ on the Cross. We do not offer ourselves, by ourselves. We offer ourselves in union with Christ Jesus. Specifically, we must offer our prayers, fasting, mortification and daily work to God. Pray prayers every day. Mortify your fl...

When you love God and rejoice in that love, your desire for God will increase. The more you know Him, the more you will want to know Him, and the more you want to know Him, the more you will know Him. Similarly, the more you love Him, the more you will want to love Him, and the more you want to love Him, the more you will love Him. Finally, the more you serve Him, the more you will want to serve H...

The devil will tempt us in many ways. One common way the devil likes to attack us is to remind us of our sins, including those we have confessed. He loves to try to convince us that we are on the wrong path, that we are not pleasing to God, that we are liars and sinners. And while it’s true that we are sinners, the evil one always fails to see our sin through the lens of God’s Mercy. To overcome h...

The Mercy of the Heart of Jesus shines forth with great radiance. This was the image of Divine Mercy seen by Saint Faustina. The open Heart of our Lord burst forth with an outpouring of light and grace on the world. Jesus wants to continue to shine forth on the world, and He wants to rest in your heart so that He may shine on others through you (See Diary #514). What is in your heart? Is it bitter...