Lourdes explains, through the life of St. Faustina, how the light of God wants to reveal to us our misery so that, through this knowledge, we may enter His mercy. When we come face-to-face with our misery we begin to live totally dependent on God and the fruit of this grace is freedom and joy.

Notes
MISERY DRAWS US INTO MERCY
Cenacle, October 17, 2019
I.               Fr Ron's teaching on TRUST (9/17/19):
-       "The distrust of a chosen soul causes me even greater pain." #50 St Faustina.
-       We who want to be one with Him, to suffer with Him, can then be the cause of His greatest pain if we do not trust.
-       EXTRAORDINARY TRUST – We cannot have a half-hearted trust.
-       If God gives us no answer or an answer we do not want, we trust Him. Trust doesn't mean that everything I want will be granted.
-     Continuously check your barometer of trust.
·      In what areas have I failed God through mistrust?
·      EX. – my not trusting – doubt – in what God said to my heart in my weekly silent retreat.
·      What is the level of my trust in Divine Mercy?
·      Signs of lack of trust:

• Anxiety/worried in situations in families, work, community… in the worse things that may happen.

• Doubting

• Discouraged
   

I –hope we are discovering that it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to have PERFECT TRUST through our own doing. Trust is the work of the Holy Spirit.
II. –Knowing our misery draws us into Mercy
-       Coming to receive the self-knowledge of our lack of trust brings us to know our misery. (You must live wrapped in the gift of self-knowledge)

·      #56 St Faustina's Diary: 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.

·      #1318 St Faustina: October 10, [1937], O my Jesus, in thanksgiving for Your many graces, I offer You my body and soul, intellect and will, and all the sentiments of my heart. Through the vows, I have given myself entirely to You; I have then nothing more than I can offer you. Jesus said to me, My daughter, you have not offered Me that which is really yours. I probed deeply into myself and found that I love God with all the faculties of my soul and, unable to see what it was that I had not yet given to the Lord, I asked, "Jesus, tell me what it is, and I will give it to You at once with a generous heart." Jesus said to me with kindness, Daughter, give Me your misery, because it is your exclusive property. At that moment, a ray of light illumined my soul, and I saw the whole abyss of my misery. In that same moment, I nestled close to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus with so much trust that even if I had the sins of all the damned weighing on my conscience, I would not have doubted God's mercy but, with a heart crushed to dust, I would have thrown myself into the abyss of Your mercy. I believe, O Jesus, that you would not reject me, but would absolve me through the hand of Your representative.

-       What does it mean to know my misery?
To know that I am centered on me, that my desires are attached to my "I" – It's all about me, even my good works and virtuous acts, because of the impurity of my intention, are really for my own glory. 
To know my lack of trust in the God who created me and loves me. To know my pride in all its disguises—how I control, insist on my own way, manipulate, judge, compare, criticize…

I AM MISERY AND GOD IS MERCY > HUMILITY
-       He Leadeth Me Walter J. Ciszek
Slowly, reluctantly, under the gentle proddings of grace, I faced the truth that was at the root of my problem and my shame. The answer was a single word: I. I was ashamed because I knew in my heart that I had tried to do too much on my own, and I had failed. I felt guilty because I realized, finally, that I had asked for God's help but had really believed in my own ability to avoid evil and to meet every challenge." 
I had spent much time in prayer over the years, I had come to appreciate and thank God for his providence and care of me and of all men, but I had never really abandoned myself to it. In a way, I had been thanking God all the while that I was not like the rest of men, that he had given me a good physique, steady nerves, and a strong will, and that with these physical graces given by God, I would continue to do his will at all times and to the best of my ability. In short, I felt guilty and ashamed because in the last analysis, I had relied almost completely on myself in this most critical test—and I had failed.
I was so intent on hearing only one message, the message I wanted to hear, that I was not really listening at all. This tendency to set acceptable conditions upon God, to seek unconsciously to make his will for us coincide with our desires, is a very human trait. And the more important the situation is, the more totally we are committed to it, or the more completely our future depends upon it. Then, the easier it becomes for us to blind ourselves into thinking that what we want is surely what God must also want.

III.  "The knowledge of my own misery allows me, at the same time, to know the immensity of Your mercy." —St. Faustina.

• Coming to know the love and mercy of God brings us to hope and trust.

This knowledge of self and God brings us to DEPENDENCY—being childlike. It is the way of the Spirit that brings us to prayer.
 

• Prayer follows an awareness of dependence: a little child relies on his parents for everything, and a child of God feels like this about his heavenly Father. So his prayer is a need, a life, a way in which the spirit expresses its sense of poverty and trust. Through such an expression of dependence, we come to recognize God's mercy, his goodness, his beauty…, for he fulfills all our longings. Then petition is transcended, for God himself will open our eyes. –Fr Perquin
   

• Luke 11:9-13 - "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for[e] a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit[f] to those who ask him!"
   

It is the Holy Spirit that inflames that deep longing in our hearts for holiness, for union. This interior longing possesses the fire of the Spirit.

The more childlike we want to be, according to the teaching of our Master, Jesus Christ, the more we shall urge the Holy Spirit to achieve our transformation. He seems to work too slowly for our liking, so we plead with him to come, to complete his work before we die.

When we understand what adoption means, that the Father is our Father, we also see what it must lead to likeness to the Son. Then we shall have a growing devotion to the Holy Spirit, feeling our need of him, for he alone can make us childlike. Veni, Sancte Spiritus!… —Father Perquin.

My journal:  Through the gift of immersing myself in the ocean of my Lord's mercy, to my surprise, I am seeing how my life is mainly focused on me, my gaze is mainly centered on me—my desires, expectations, hurts, wants, needs.

Questions:
How do I love myself over Christ?
Where am I still centered on myself?
 

• 77. Listen to My Groans —Diary of a MOC.

Can you hear My groans that come forth from the depth of My Crucified Heart? The groans of My agony of love. Listen to My groans of love. (3/11/12)

• 78. Living Tabernacle of God —Diary of a MOC.[1]

To be one with Me means that you become the living tabernacle of God. My loving, pulsating Heart lives in you as one with you. You feel My sorrows and participate in My groans for the fulfillment of humanity's transformation into LOVE.

[1] Cf., Mk 8:31-38.