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“But what can be too great for Jesus, for Him whom I love with all the strength of my heart?”
(Diary, # 185).
II B. 30 “Suffering: Like the Wood that Feeds the Fire of Gratitude for God’s Blessings” 175
(Diary, # 1367): Sr. Faustina was on her eighth day of retreat that started on October 20,
1937 (Diary, # 1325). She was inspired to thank God and to repay Him in some way for all of
His blessings to her. She proposed to immerse herself in thanksgiving for seven days and seven
nights. During the day, although externally fulfilling her duties; she would remain in spirit before
God, with all of her acts permeated with the “spirit of thanksgiving” to the Lord. At night, in her
cell, she would spend half an hour kneeling in prayer in thanksgiving; and then continue it, as
often as she woke up at night. To make it more pleasing to the Lord, she secured the blessing of
her Spiritual Director for all of her thanksgiving prayer exercises (Diary, # 1368).
(Diary, # 1369): She started her great act of thanksgiving the next day and renewed her
perpetual vows, as well (which she undertook more than four years earlier on May 1, 1933). 176
She was filled with immense joy as her soul became thoroughly immersed in God. From the
depths of her very being burst forth a single flame of gratitude for God. And, there was hardly
any need for words because the blessings were like fierce fire that consumed her soul.
On the other hand, in the heart of Sr. Faustina, her sufferings and sorrows were like wood
thrown into the flames, without which the fire of gratitude would go out. Sr. Faustina had
chronic health problems, which worsened on-and-off. Six weeks earlier on September 6, 1937,
due to her “increasing ill health,” her job assignment was changed from a gardener to a
175
176
Ibid., Faustina, Diary, # 1367-1369.
Ibid., Faustina, Diary, xxxiv.
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