St. Faustyna (2026)
One
Her mission
Before we share with you the special way Jesus teaches us to listen to God, it’s good to know that Jesus gave Faustyna the mission of telling the whole world about His infinite Goodness and encouraging them to trust in His Mercy before the Day of Justice arrives. The Day of Justice doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the world; it could mean the end of this age, but it certainly means the Day of Justice, otherwise known as our particular judgment that we will face at our death.
Jesus said to Faustyna, “I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful Heart…Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy.” (Diary, 1588).
To accomplish this mission, Jesus commanded Faustyna to keep a diary of all their conversations, calling her the secretary of his Mercy. At one point, Faustyna threw the Diary in the fireplace and burned it because she feared she was being deceived by the devil. But Jesus ordered her to rewrite it. He would at times read the notebooks and then say, “You have not written everything in the notebook about My goodness towards humankind; I desire that you omit nothing.” (459)
The Diary reveals a deep personal friendship between Jesus and Faustyna. As I read the Diary, I too was drawn into a deep friendship with Christ. If you read the Diary prayerfully, I’m sure the same will happen to you.
Two
Jesus taught St. Faustyna how to pray
Jesus taught Faustyna the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. But He also taught her how to speak to him in prayer, saying, “Talk to me simply as a friend to a friend.” 1487
But then the question is, how do we listen? Jesus told her, “When you reflect upon what I tell you in the depths of your heart, you profit more than if you had read many books. Oh, if souls would only want to listen to My voice when I am speaking in the depths of their hearts, they would reach the peak of holiness in a short time.” 584
Three
If we want to hear Jesus, then we need silence.
Jesus said to Faustyna, “Strive for a life of recollection so that you can hear my voice, which is so soft that only recollected souls can hear it…” 1779
Faustyna writes, “I see one rule as most important...and it is silence…the Holy Spirit does not speak to a soul that is distracted and talkative. He speaks by His quiet inspirations to a soul that is recollected, to a soul that knows how to keep silence. 552
We are not familiar with the word “recollected.” It means to remember that God dwells in our soul. He is always there. But we forget He is there and we pay him no attention. We are always living outside.
Turn within. Be attentive to God within. And try to make your world more silent.
We constantly give our attention to our phones, our screens, our entertainment, and not to God, and wonder why we never hear him…But if we want to hear the voice of God, then we have to become more comfortable with silence and without distraction.
Four
The Sword
Faustyna said (477), “Silence is a sword in the spiritual struggle. A talkative soul will never attain sanctity. The sword of silence will cut off everything that would like to cling to the soul. We are sensitive to words and quickly want to answer back, without taking any regard as to whether it is God’s will that we should speak. A silent soul is strong; no adversities will harm it if it perseveres in silence.
The silent soul is capable of attaining the closest union with God. It lives almost always under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God works in a silent soul without hindrance.”
Silence does not just mean to refrain from talking all the time. It also means removing our distractions so we can be attentive to God and hear his voice. St. Augustine said, “Late it was that I loved you, O Lord, for I was outside and you were within.”
When we have nothing to distract us, we panic. But push through the panic and get comfortable with just being with God who dwells within, and become familiar with him. For the more you do, the result will be peace.
Five
Saints
As I was walking into the chapel where the relics of St. Faustyna are, I said to Fr Robert, a Polish Franciscan, “You have such big saints here in Poland: Faustyna, Kolbe, John Paul II. We don’t have any big saints in America.” St. Faustyna felt the same. We see this in her Diary – “When I read the account of the canonization of Saint Andrew Bobola, my soul was instantly filled with a great longing that our Congregation, too, might have a saint, and I wept like a child that there was no saint in our midst. And the Lord Jesus said to me, ‘You are that saint.’” 1G50 You become that saint.
So, as I was walking in and complaining to Fr. Robert, what do you think he said to me? You be that Saint! But let’s end with those words of Jesus, “Oh, if souls would only want to listen to My voice when I am speaking in the depths of their hearts, they would reach the peak of holiness in a short time.”