Journeying With The Saints

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 492-497. Sister Faustina is really struggling with her upcoming Confession. She has all kinds of doubts and thoughts about why she shouldn't have to follow God's Will for her life. Her Confession doesn't go very well. I think we can all relate to this. There are so many temptations that come to us that try to get us to NOT go to Confession. It's the on...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 489-491. Sister Faustina's has frequent visits from her Guardian Angel. He seems to be present in order to give her strength.  I don't think we call on our Guardian Angels enough. They are such wonderful helps from God. I share my story of when I believe I met mine. It's a good story.   

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 485-488. Should we care about what other people say about us? Sister Faustina says that she has given up caring about what other people say about her. There is a fine line to walk here. Of course, we should always be open to constructive criticism from others. However, if people are just saying nasty things about us or trying to call us out without doi...

Today's readings from Notebook 1, numbers 479-484.  Sister Faustina professes her love for the Catholic Church. As a former Protestant, I wish that lukewarm Catholics could fully  understand what they have in the Church. It is where we receive the Sacraments, it is where we receive teachings from the Magisterium. I lived without these things for 30 years and I know  what it is like to be without t...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 474-478. I'm so excited for today's readings because we hear the prayers that we pray when praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet. There are people that are against this diary and feel that it is a dangerous book. But, if you just read today's words and prayers, it is baffling to think that anyone takes issue with such beautiful prayers and the message behin...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 471-473. Sister Faustina sees a vision of one of the angels that stand before the throne of God. She describe him as very beautiful. She attributes this beauty to the closeness this angel has with God. As humans, we spend tons of time, effort, and money working on our external beauty. How often do we work to grow our internal beauty? Internal beauty ma...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers  466-470.  Let's have fun talking about God's Creation today. Sister Faustina stares out her window and looks at the heavens. The stars and moon cause her heart to burn with adoration for God. It is so good to marvel at creation and it helps us grasp at the mind of God. I give you a few of my favorite places in creation that I have seen. Share yours!  

This week we are reading the 16th number from "Way to Inner Peace." Bishop Sheen is going to talk about the reasons why mental cases are increasing in our modern world. Though he wrote this some 60+ years ago, it is as pertinent today as it ever was. It is important that we ask questions as to why mental cases are increasing. We can't help people if we don't understand the source of the problem. ...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 456-465. The readings are a little bit longer today, but Sister Faustina is on a three-day retreat and I wanted to keep a flow of thought. The speaker speaks about God's goodness--one of His greatest attributes. Many people--believers and non-believers--struggle with fully believing in God's goodness. Lots of people who have experienced deep pain have...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 450-455.  Till our last breath, our lives have purpose and meaning. No matter our age, no matter our place in life, we can fight the good fight against evil and work to save souls. When I was in college, I cleaned house for a retired couple that had forgotten that their lives had purpose and meaning. Sister Faustina's writings reminded me of them.   

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 445-449. One line from Christ in today's readings gets me fired up. When we look around at the present state of things, there is a real desire to just hunker down and keep our Catholic Faith to ourselves. While things may look bleak, we were made for times such as this. This is our fight and we must have courage. In the present state of things, there i...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 440-444. Sister Faustina's confessor talks to her about the three degrees of accomplishing God's Will. The first degree is following rules and statues of our faith. The second one is listening to internal inspirations and finding a way to heed the call. I share a story of a time when I got a big internal inspiration from God, but I ignored it.   

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 435-439.   Does Sister Faustina's writings seem heavy to you? I read an article that said Sister Faustina's Diary may not be good for people that struggle with scrupulosity. Sister Faustina does have a tendency to second guess herself and to feel that she is just the worst sinner out there. If you struggle with scrupulosity know that you aren't alone....

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 429-434.  I think fear is one of the most crippling things plaguing our world today. Everyone is afraid of something and that fear has caused us to draw in on ourselves. I'm not immune. Sister Faustina writes about how she is frightened by the greatness of what God is asking her to do. When it comes to spiritual matters, we can't let fear control us an...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 424-428. Sister Faustina has a vision of a soul that was in front of the judgment seat of God. Many wounded souls were coming to bear witness to how they were treated by the newly judged soul. It wasn't a pretty sight. There are so many wounded souls walking around about us and it is imperative that we pray for people and, also, that we are aware of th...

This week we are reading the 15th number from "Way to Inner Peace." This week is all about our moods and dispositions. Do you have a pessimistic attitude or an optimistic one? I tend towards pessimism and it's something that I have to constantly check myself on. As Bishop Sheens teaches, too often our moods come from allowing ourselves to revolve around our external circumstances. What we must lea...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 420-423. 100 DAYS! Congratulations on listening in for 100 days. I hope you all understand that it is no coincidence that we are reading this diary together during this time. There is so much angst in the world and the way we are going about handling it as a culture is not helpful. What is left out is mercy. It is time to put what we have been reading...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 413-419. The image is finally up! This is causing the demons much torment because of all the souls that are being flooded with mercy. Satan does not want the message of mercy to be known. He wants us to feel sunk in sin and feel left to be judged by a callous and spiteful god. Mercy, though, heals and drives out evil from souls.   

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 411-412.  The closer you get to God, the harder Satan will try. I don't know about you but I feel I would be hysterical if Satan were openly attacking me as he sometimes does Sister Faustina. Yet, she handles it with great confidence in God. She prays, she calls on her Guardian Angel, she stays calm. We need never worry when Satan attacks because God w...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 405-410.  The Sorrowful Mysteries are my favorite set of mysteries to pray. I know that might sound weird, but those mysteries ground me in Christ's love. Sister Faustina is reflecting on the Passion of our Lord. It is good for us to be reminded of what He endured because when we don't it becomes even hard to appreciate Christ's Resurrection and His vi...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 401-404.  Sister Faustina is still at home with her family and she is being inundated with visitors. She loves that she gets to talk so much about God, but she also is a little overwhelmed by it all. She's used to silence and solitude in the convent. She says that this is a chance for her to practice "much virtue." It is jarring to come back to the "re...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 395-400.  We get a break today from convent life. Sister Faustina is going home to spend some time with her dying mother. While on the train, she has a deep conversation with a woman. This reminded me about how important it is to be aware of people around us. If we are constantly buried in our phones and have headphones in, we close ourselves off from...

This week we are reading the 14th number from "Way to Inner Peace." We will be talking about the mystery of suffering and it's probably one of the central reasons why people leave the faith or never come into the faith. People can't understand why God would allow any kind of suffering and we have lots of questions about suffering. I think God is okay with our questions and we can bring them to Him...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 387-394. What is love? Is it good feelings? Is it romantic words spoken and words of flattery? No, love is an act of the will. It is shown in deeds. Real love shows up when we do acts even if they are hard, even if we don't feel  like doing them. In our faith life, we must show up. There will be times when our faith life will "feel" dry. This doesn't m...

Today's readings are from Notebook 1, numbers 383-386.  We have to talk about a phrase written down in Sister Faustina's writings--the blackest ungratefulness. I detail my recent trip to the middle of Turkey to see the cave churches of the first Christians. They were so grateful to Christ that they were willing to hold Mass no matter what.