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(Diary, # 1394): On November 26, 1937, during a monthly one-day retreat of the
Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy, Sr. Faustina wrote in her Diary that Jesus gave her a great
understanding on suffering and living in God’s will, which gave her a sense of deep peace of
soul. The following are her insights gleaned from this retreat, as she noted in her Diary:
1. Abandon myself completely to the holy will of God.
2. I should fear nothing except sin.
3. Whatever God sends me, I accept with complete submission to His holy will.
4. Wherever He puts me, I will try faithfully to do His holy will (and) His wishes.
5. I will try faithfully to do His holy will, to the extent of my power to do so; even if
His will were as hard and difficult for me; as the will of the Heavenly Father was to
His Son, as He prayed in the Garden of Olives.
6. If the will of the Heavenly Father was fulfilled in this way, in His well-beloved
Son; it will be fulfilled in us in exactly the same way, by suffering persecution,
abuse, (and) disgrace.
7. It is through all this (sufferings) that my soul becomes like unto Jesus.
8. And the greater the sufferings, the more I see that I am becoming like Jesus.
9. This is the surest way. If some other way were better, Jesus would have shown it
to me.
10. Sufferings in no way take away my peace.
11. On the other hand, although I enjoy profound peace, that peace does not lessen
my experience of suffering.
12. Although my face is often bowed to the ground and my tears flow profusely, at
the same time, my soul is filled with profound peace and happiness.
Certainly, to do God’s will is to act on the call to, “Be perfect as the Father is perfect”
(Mt 5:48), lviii which is to imitate Jesus, His Incarnate Son (Diary, # 1394). For He is the Self-
sacrificing Servant of God (CCC, 601), whose whole Being was freely offered in union with the
Father’s salvific love for man (CCC, 60 6, 609). For by taking the “form of a slave” (Phil 2:7), lix
His whole lifetime became one of suffering (Diary, # 1394, 1487); and in due course of time,
“consummated on the Cross” (CCC, 616).
Thus, the measure of the suffering soul is Jesus Christ Himself; all the way, to the extent
that the Heavenly Father did not spare His Only Begotten Son from fully embracing redemptive
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