Revisiting St. Faustina

Several years ago, we looked briefly at a few saints who had a lot to say to 'cloistered hearts.' While these holy ones may never have thought of their hearts as 'cloistered,' indeed that was the reality.

One of these was St. Faustina Kowalska, whose feast we celebrate today.

'I find pleasure, not in large buildings and magnificent structures,' said Jesus to St. Faustina, 'but in a pure and humble heart.'  (Diary #532)

'In the dwelling of my heart is that wilderness to which no creature has access.  There, You alone are King.'  (St. Faustina, Diary #725)

'My heart is a permanent dwelling place for Jesus.  No one but Jesus has access to it.' (St. Faustina, Diary #193)

'Nothing terrifies me, even if the whole world should turn against me.  All adversaries touch only the surface, but they have no entry to the depths, because God, who strengthens me, who fills me, dwells there.'  (St. Faustina, Diary #480)

'Nothing disturbs my union with the Lord, neither conversation with others nor any duties; even if I am to go about settling very important matters, this does not disturb me.  My spirit is with God, and my interior being is filled with God, so I do not look for Him outside myself.  He, the Lord, penetrates my soul just as a ray from the sun penetrates clear glass.  When I was enclosed in my mother's womb, I was not so closely united with her as I am with my God.  There, it was an unawareness; but here it is the fullness of reality and the consciousness of union.'  (St. Faustina, Diary #883)

'My daughter, I want to repose in your heart, because many souls have thrown Me out of their hearts today.'  (Jesus to St. Faustina, #866 )

All quotes above are from Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul by St. Faustina Kowalska, Marians of the Immaculate Conception, Stockbridge, 1996.

This is a slightly edited repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'

Blest Am I, Still

It is one of my favorite scenes in Scripture.

Thomas, who had not been present when Jesus appeared to the disciples just after His Resurrection, was skeptical. "'I will never believe it,' said he, 'without probing the nailprints in His hands, without putting my finger in the nailmarks and my hand into His side.' A week later, the disciples were once more in the room, and this time Thomas was with them. Despite the locked doors, Jesus came and stood before them. 'Peace be with you,' He said; then, to Thomas: 'take your finger and examine My hands. Put your hand into My side. Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe!' Thomas said in response, 'my Lord and my God!'" (John 20:25-29)

What strikes me most about this is Jesus' tender mercy to Thomas. There are no reprimands. Our Lord doesn't say "oh you of little faith, why do you doubt? You've got to exercise faith, Thomas! You can do it! Just make up your mind!"

No. Jesus simply offers Thomas the precise help he needs. He invites the disciple to probe and examine His sacred wounds. What an act of mercy! "Yes, it is I." Come and see.

Thomas, as we know, cried out "my Lord and my God!" To which Jesus responded "You became a believer because you saw Me. Blest are they who have not seen and have believed."

Blest are you. Blest am I. We haven't had the privilege of probing Our Lord's wounds, yet we have believed. We've had other privileges. We have been given the gift of faith. Perhaps at times we've doubted God's love or even His reality, and maybe we've told Him this. I certainly did, years ago, when I said "God, I don’t believe in you, but if you’re real, and if you can hear me, I’m asking you to show me once and for all who or what you are." (the story of that can by found by clicking here). 

Years later, I still want to fall on my face in thanksgiving for Our Lord's response to my pleading. He gave me the precise help I needed, help that was tailor made for me, at that exact time.

I remember thinking, when I cried out to God that day, that maybe He would show up in the room so I could see Him.  He did not do that. He even let me go on doubting for a tiny bit longer, but He did not leave me alone.

He led me not to probe His physical wounds, but to probe His scriptures.

He drew me to examine and appreciate the truth of His Church.

He let me experience not His nailprints, but His presence.

Thanks to His great mercy, I believe. Blest am I.

This is a repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You  and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'



Text not in quotes © 2015-2016 Nancy Shuman
thecloisteredheart.org 

A Fount Overflowing

 

 'My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners... It is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy.' Jesus to St. Faustina

 

Jesus, I Trust in You

"Those who sincerely say 'Jesus, I trust in You' will find comfort in all their anxieties and fears."

Pope St. John Paul II

The Door of Mercy

'Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy.'

Jesus to St. Faustina

A Shower of Mercy

 'Saints' image credit 

'Who can say that he is free from sin and does not need God’s mercy? As people of this restless time of ours, wavering between the emptiness of self-exaltation and the humiliation of despair, we have a greater need than ever for a regenerating experience of mercy.' (Pope John Paul II, Regina Caeli message; April 10, 1994)

'Prayer is the raising of the mind to God.  We must remember this.  The actual words matter less.'  (Pope John XXIII)

'I considered this message (of Divine Mercy) my special task. Providence has assigned it to me in the present situation of man, the Church, and the world.' (Pope John Paul II; November 22, 1981) 

              May Sts. John XXIII and John Paul II pray for us! 
          
 






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Jesus, Here is my Heart

"I want to repose in your heart, because many souls have thrown Me out of their hearts today."  (Jesus to St. Faustina)

Imagine throwing Jesus Christ, my Lord and King and Savior, out of my heart!  Imagine Him living within me, and my suddenly saying one day: "I don't want You here, there's no room for You in my life anymore... here's the door."

Such a horrible thought.  It's tough for me to even write the words.   Yet, people push Jesus out of their hearts every minute.  Maybe not with full consciousness of what they're doing (although that does happen, of course).  But every time one of us makes a decision to ignore God's serious commands in favor of our own, Christ is being shown the door.  

How great is the mercy of Our Lord, for He persists, He comes back, He knocks and knocks again. 

"Here I stand, knocking at the door.  If anyone hears Me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house and have supper with Him, and he with Me.”  (Revelation 3:20)

In spite of His amazing persistence, there are some who never open (or re-open) the door.  It is a tragic, sobering thought. 

Is there anything I can do about this? 

I can pray intensely for those in whose hearts He is longing to dwell.  

I can share His love and mercy with those around me.

And, knowing He is unwelcome in the hearts of many, I can offer Him a place of loving refuge in my own.  

"I want to repose in your heart, because many souls have thrown Me out of their hearts today."  

Lord Jesus, here is my heart.  In it, may You find a refuge of love and praise.

Painting: Carl Bloch, Christ and Child, detail

This is a slightly edited version of a post from our archives.  Coming across it again today, I was again pierced by Our Lord's words to Sister Faustina.  As we approach the great feast of Divine Mercy, I pray that many hearts will welcome the One Who is Mercy and Love.  

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The Other Side of That Wall

If I have repented of sin, I've made more than a giant leap toward God.  I have allowed Jesus to break down walls between us and to carry me swiftly into His Presence.  

Today's post is a slightly edited version of one I wrote here over a year ago, for these words of St. Faustina give us a glimpse into what has actually happened.  If I've repented of sin, I may or may not feel any different, but the truth is:  I have been met with great love.

"I saw that God was well pleased with me and, reciprocally, my spirit drowned itself in Him.  Aware of this union with God, I felt I was especially loved and, in turn, I loved with all my soul….   And the Lord said to me, ‘You are the delight of My Heart; from today on, every one of your acts, even the very smallest, will be a delight to My eyes...'  My earthly body was the same, but my soul was different; God was now living in it with the totality of His delight.  This is not a feeling, but a conscious reality that nothing can obscure.”  (St. Faustina, Diary) 

God will not be outdone in generosity.  If I've taken even one step toward Him (no matter how timid the step, no matter how faltering), I can be sure that He is reaching out to receive me.  I am enfolded, encompassed, and totally embraced by Love.

Photo © 2010 Nancy Shuman

This is part of a 'mini'-series' of posts on walls.  To continue in chronological order, click this line.

Lord, Free Me of Sin

The picture of the wall on this post is not "pretty."  It isn't supposed to be.  It is here to represent the thing that walls us off most fully from connecting with God, and that thing is unspeakably ugly.  It is so ugly that our Lord Jesus suffered an excruciating death to free us from it, to break through the wall of it, so we can enter the presence of God.

I am speaking, of course, of the wall of sin.  The thick, dark, grungy wall of sin.  The sin that separates us from God, darkening our minds to the light of Christ and causing us to flee from that light as we might from a searing blaze. 

Hopefully, we are not experiencing a wall that thick as we read this.  However, I daresay many of us have known it, at one time or another, and many live in such bondage today.  It can be hard to even want to get out of it.

Such a wall, can, in time, begin to feel comfortable.  We fool ourselves into thinking of it not as the place of danger it is, but as actually something of a "safe place."  If I cannot perceive God because of this wall, maybe it works both ways (I tell myself).  Maybe He can't see ME.  Maybe He'll forget all about me, and then He won't notice that I'm living in sin.  Maybe there isn't any such thing as sin; I mean, all I have to do is turn on TV to know that "social norms" seldom recognize its reality.

I can do a lot to hide that pesky wall.  Add a bright coat of paint, plant some ivy, maybe even put up a hedge so I don't see the wall at all, in time. Sin can be made to look quite attractive and normal.  Just a spray of denial and a dulling of conscience, and I'm all set.

Except that I'm not.  I'm not set at all.  I'm walled off from God; and in my moments of honesty, I am miserable. 

If I find myself in such a spot as I read this, I don't have to stay there.  If I am in serious sin, I daresay I know it.  I might have tried fooling myself, playing some "everybody's doing it" games in my head.  But I know.

The great thing is that I don't have to break down this wall myself.  There is a hole in it.  It is not a wide hole, but it's large enough for a person to get through.  It is a hole the size of a cross.

photo attribution

"Jesus, uttering a loud cry, breathed His last.  At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom."  (Mark 3-38)

"It is in Christ and through His blood that we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven.:  (Ephesians 1:7)

"If we confess our sins, He who is just can be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrong."  (1 John 1:9)

Lord Jesus Christ, I confess to You that I am a sinner.  In particular, I ask forgiveness for these  transgressions___________.  I am so sorry.  If my sins have been grave, help me get to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Give me the strength to turn away from sin and temptation, and to avoid occasions that would lead me into sin.  Thank You for Your grace and mercy.  I ask You to break down any walls of sin that keep me from You.  Jesus, I trust in You.  Amen.

"I am more generous toward sinners than toward the just.  It was for their sake that I came down from heaven; it was for their sake that My blood was spilled.  Let them not fear to approach Me; they are most in need of My mercy."  (Jesus to St. Faustina)

Text not in quotes © 2013 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org   



This is part of a 'mini'-series' of posts on walls.  To continue in chronological order, click this line.

Jesus, I Trust in You

The rays of His Light have broken through.  Pierced aridity, shattered a hardening heart, put darkness to flight... and all with a single aspiration uttered again and again.  

"Jesus, I trust in You." 

It is, perhaps, my favorite aspiration; its every word is filled with power.  I said I would let you know how my distracted attempts at prayer were going, and I'm happy to report that I have, in some ways, been praying unaware.  This morning I realized how automatically my heart turns to Our Lord in the midst of everyday life, often without a conscious decision on my part.  I don't think it's a coincidence that this awareness broke through on Mercy Sunday.

I used to have a wristwatch with an hourly alarm.  Each time it chimed, I'd pray inwardly: "Jesus, I trust in You."  No matter where I was or what I was doing, this little beep served as a monastery bell.  It was good training.

Is there value in simple, quick prayer that's so "automatic?"  I would say that indeed there is.  I have formed the habit of aspiration(s) by an act of my will, and Jesus (in His mercy) meets me much more than half way.  

Like someone groping along in the darkness of a cavern, I move one step at a time, my way lit by the beams of prayer, my trust placed in the knowledge that there is Light.  I may not always be able to see it, but I believe in the Light.  Once in awhile, the Light breaks through with majestic power, as happened when Jesus appeared to St. Faustina and revealed the rays of Blood and Water flowing from His Heart.

Jesus shatters darkness, deception, sin.  Jesus breaks through walls of unforgiveness, woundedness, distraction, fear.

Jesus is Mercy.  Jesus is Love.

Jesus, I trust in You.

"The Lord gave his blessing, and the rays extended over the whole world....  I heard a Voice: 'This Feast emerged from the very depths of My Mercy, and it is confirmed in the vast depths of My tender mercies.  Every soul believing and trusting in My Mercy will obtain it.'"  (St. Faustina) 

"The Light shines on in darkness, a darkness that did not overcome it."  (John 1:5)