Why we rejoice

Why We Rejoice

I prayed continuously, asking Jesus to strengthen me and to grant me the power of his Holy Spirit that I might carry out his holy will in all things, because from the beginning I have been aware of my weakness. I know very well what I am of myself, because for this purpose Jesus has opened the eyes of my soul; I am an abyss of misery, and hence I understand that whatever good there is in my soul consists solely of his holy grace. The knowledge of my own misery allows me, at the same time, to know the immensity of your mercy. In my own interior life, I am looking with one eye at the abyss of my misery and baseness, and with the other, at the abyss of your mercy, O God.

O my Jesus, you are the life of my life. You know only too well that I long for nothing but the glory of your Name and that souls come to know your goodness. Why do souls avoid you, Jesus?—I don’t understand that. Oh, if I could only cut my heart into tiny pieces and in this way offer to you, O Jesus, each piece as a heart whole and entire, to make up in part for the hearts that do not love you! I love you, Jesus, with every drop of my blood, and I would gladly shed my blood for you to give you a proof of the sincerity of my love, O God, the more I know you the less I can comprehend you [but] it is this impossibility of comprehending you which enflames my heart anew for you, O Lord. From the moment when you let me fix the eyes of my soul on you, O Jesus, I have been at peace and desired nothing else, I found my destiny at the moment when my soul lost itself in you, the only object of my love. In comparison with you, everything is nothing. Sufferings, adversities, humiliations, failures, and suspicions that have come my way are splinters that keep alive the fire of my love for you, O Jesus….

I want never to be rewarded for my efforts and my good actions. You yourself, Jesus, are my only reward; you are enough, O Treasure of my heart!

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

From Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska († 1938), a Polish Sister of Our Lady of Mercy. She was canonized in 2000.