Dr. Wojciech Kosek
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This translation was published here on 30 Dec 2023.
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(Duration of meditations and songs: about 28 min.)
Full text of St. Faustina’s Diary at ← click, please!
Introduction:
St. Sister Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament recorded in her Diary, “1419 Today there was nocturnal adoration. I could not take part in it because of my poor health, but before I fell asleep I united myself with the sisters who were at adoration. … 1420 When I steeped myself in prayer, I was transported in spirit to the chapel, where I saw the Lord Jesus, exposed in the monstrance. In place of the monstrance, I saw the glorious face of the Lord, and He said to me, What you see in reality, these souls see through faith. Oh, how pleasing to Me is their great faith! You see, although there appears to be no trace of life in Me, in reality it is present in its fullness in each and every Host. But for Me to be able to act upon a soul, the soul must have faith. O how pleasing to Me is living faith!” (1:24)
Prayer: Dearest Jesus, hidden beneath the whiteness of the Most Holy Host! Delightful is the gift that we can, in the communion of faith with the Immaculate Mary and all the saints, abide lovingly before Your Divine Majesty! Though our sight does not perceive Your loving eyes, though the word spoken by Your mouth does not reach our ears, though we do not smell the fragrance of Your garments that Immaculate Mother wove for You… though we cannot feel the beating of Your loving heart as did St. John at the Last Supper (cf. John 13:24), nor experience the warmth of the touch of Your hands with which You so generously blessed Your sisters and brothers, bestowed on them the health, life, bread or fish… although You do not reveal Your presence in any way, yet by Your grace we accept with deep reverence from the Church the astonishing doctrine of Your true bodily presence under the garment of the Sacred Host: we know that You are here… (1:41)
You are here the same and in the same physical, corporeally human way as You were in the Promised Land two thousand years ago, when You were conceived of the Holy Spirit in the Immaculate Womb of the Virgin Mary, in order to live for the glory of the Father as a man, as one of us, and to die, as a man, as one of us, out of love for Him and us… You are here as we are here, spiritually and physically, assembled corporeally in the same Cenacle… You are here as God, who is human… You love us in a way that is proper to us, humanly. You love us with a human heart so we may understand and respond to Your love… You desire our love… our fully human love… You desire my love… You desire my human, full love… (1:22)
Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 1st stanza (0:30)
You are here… and You desire our love… You desire my love… Do I love You as You desire? Is my love for You the response to Your presence for me, Your loving presence?… During this prayer vigil, do I often look at the white Host… and do I know that in the whiteness of the Host is latent Someone who has a name… who has the name most dear to me Jesus… that is, “God is Salvation,” who has the name Emmanuel… that is, “God is with us”… (0:54)
Song: The Hidden Jesus – 1st stanza (0:30)
In the whiteness of this Host placed on the altar in a golden monstrance, You are hidden… You who love… You who love me… You who love us… I know that You desire to love me… and You desire my loving… (0:23)
Jesus, Almighty God, do You really care about my love? I know that You care about it and that the immensity of Your love consists in it that You want me to be able to love You with the same love! O God, You really want me to be like You in love! And I know that You do not require of me any extraordinary effort, an effort beyond my human capabilities… (0:40)
Jesus, You do not so much want me to start exerting myself in gaining love but to not exert myself in resisting the Holy Spirit when, after Holy Communion, He will descend and draw me into greater intimacy with You! He, the Holy Spirit, in prayer after Holy Communion, will enable me to have the kind of love that You desire from me. He will gradually lead me to the kind of love that You, the Beloved, desire to be loved by me. (0:48)
The Holy Father John Paul II, in his encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, No. 55, showed how important it is “to know and feel vividly the strength of the tension and struggle going on in man between openness to the action of the Holy Spirit and resistance and opposition to him, to his saving gift. The terms or poles of contrast are, on man’s part, his limitation and sinfulness, which are essential elements of his psychological and ethical reality; and on God’s part, the mystery of the gift, that unceasing self-giving of divine life in the Holy Spirit. – Who will win? The one who welcomes the gift.” (1:08)
Song: Come Holy Spirit – 1st stanza (0:32)
To accept the Gift… – here is the task clearly set! So, Jesus, do I already know what is worth doing when You, God, come to transform bread into Body, wine into Blood, and ordinary time into extraordinary time? Do I already know what Gift awaits me? (0:25)
I believe, Jesus, that Your presence under the covering of the Most Holy Host, Your sacramental presence, is unique. What does unique presence mean to me? (0:16)
I believe that although You give Your graces to us constantly and especially during every prayer, You give them exceedingly abundantly through the sacraments and primarily through the Blessed Sacrament. I believe that during the Holy Mass, You give graces most abundantly – You give here the greatest graces. (0:30)
Moreover: I believe that the union of love that I receive in Holy Communion is Your greatest gift… I believe, and I thank You with emotion for this greatest gift – union in Holy Communion. (0:23)
I look into the wonderful depths of Your love, O Jesus, granting me Your "I love You!" in many different ways. I also look into my heart and ask: can I respond to this greatest of Your Gifts, the gift of supernatural, incomprehensible union with You in Love? Am I able to respond to this climactic act of bestowal also in the most excellent way, distinguished most among all the ways of loving You? (0:46)
O Jesus! Coming to me in Holy Communion, You – God and Man in one Person – ask me with love thirsting for reciprocity: do you – Peter, Mary, ………., John, Hannah, Matthew, ………., Martha, ………., ………., ………., ………. – recognize the particular significance of the minutes that flow from the moment when you received Me under the species of the Sacred Host? That is: do you see your Lord and Spouse under the whiteness of the Host, its shape, its fragrance, its taste…? Do you see Me, your Jesus? Are you gifted with the spiritual seeing of the Invisible God who for you became the suffering Servant of Yahweh, the Man rejected by His own? (1:50)
You ask me, Jesus, coming under the cover of the sensually perceptible forms of Food: Do you perceive in Holy Communion an extraordinary time, sacramental time, time of extraordinary grace, time burning with the immensity of My love? Do you treasure this extraordinary time, hidden under the seconds, which ordinarily flow and are ordinarily measured by the clock of time?… Do you recognize that the time of Holy Communion is the time of our love…? Do you know that this extraordinary time, our time of union in love, is hidden under the ordinarily running seconds of earthly time just as I am hidden, your Jesus, coming out of love for you as a flesh-bearing man, under the ordinary-looking forms of consecrated Bread and Wine? Do you have good eyesight, and does your heart have the goodness to give Me that gift for which My heart thirsts? (1:29)
To understand more deeply what a great gift you receive during Holy Communion, listen now to the account of a woman’s life, told by St. Luke. The described situation was when Jesus finished storing about the Good Samaritan… (0:25)
As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:38–42) (1:07)
Before we reflect on this situation, let us listen to St. Luke’s short account of another event: (0:14)
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” (Luke 12:13–14) (0:24)
Mary has chosen the good part… O Jesus, why didn’t You stand up for the busy Martha, who wanted to receive You in the best possible way with a perfectly prepared meal? Why do you praise Mary, who left her sister in the kitchen and contented herself to sit at Your feet? Is it fair to do so? Moreover, is it fair that You, on the one hand, did not want to settle the brothers’ dispute over the division of the inheritance and, on the other hand, wanted to take a stance on Martha’s claims against Mary? How should we understand the difference between Your attitudes in both situations? Could it be that the defense of Mary, who was listening to Your words, was more important than the defense of the wronged heir? (1:12)
Mary has chosen the good part… Mary recognizes that the culinary arts are not worth pursuing right now. Mary is deeply convinced that You care more about listening to You than satisfying Your hunger with exquisite dishes. Mary recognized the time of Your visitation; she recognized that now, when You have come to their house, it is worth serving the simplest meal, bread and wine, and, having abandoned everything else, sit down at Your feet and listen to the words of Your teaching, look in Your loving eyes, be close to You, so close that one could respond to Your love with the love of presence. (1:02)
Mary knows that the time when You, Divine Teacher, are especially for her does not happen often enough for her to devote it to other activities now. Mary knows that we, her sisters and brothers, often take too much care of our daily affairs, and thus, we lack time for You, O Jesus – to sit at Your feet when You bodily are with us. (0:40)
Mary has chosen the good part… O Jesus, with Your response to the voice of complaint of this brother and sister, You confirm that we are often overly concerned with everyday matters… we grieve over the loss of material things… but we do not grieve over the passing of the unique time of Your visitation. Mary, who had time to sit at Your feet when You physically, in the flesh, entered her home, has chosen the good part… Following her example, will I soon notice the time of visitation, i.e., the time when You in Holy Communion will in the flesh enter the threshold of my heart?
Will not we lack the time and strength to sit at Your feet, look into Your loving eyes, lay the head on Your Heart, and love You with our presence?… Will I want to decide to arrange the earthly days of my life so that only exceptionally will I run immediately after the Holy Banquet to really urgent tasks? (1:39)
O Lord, I believe our love reaches its summit in the Eucharistic union. I believe, O Jesus, that the time beginning with the reception of Holy Communion is one of the whiles especially desired by You. I believe this time cannot be replaced by any other moment of my looking to Heaven, walking on earth, or loving You in prayer or service to our beloved sisters and brothers. I believe You have a special right to my time of love when You come to me under the veil of the Sacred Host. (0:56)
I believe that my relation with You, O Jesus, must be understood in analogy to the relation between man and wife. I notice that the spouses in the family devote their time and their entire lives with joy and great commitment to their children; simultaneously, they consider it a special privilege also to devote time to be solely with each other as husband and wife, gazing lovingly at each other in sacramental union. In the same way, I, while repeatedly giving my time to serve Your Kingdom, have the right at the same time to devote time to our exclusive mutual love and contemplation, and You, O Jesus, have the same right to expect from me this special time when You are present sacramentally, i.e., bodily with me and in me. (0:56)
I know, O Lord, that our mutual love is not only a gift for You but also me because when I go through suffering, I become like You, my Spouse. St. Sister Faustina wrote in her Diary (No. 1487): (0:23)
A dialogue between the merciful God and a suffering soul
Jesus: “Soul, I see you are suffering so much that you don’t have the strength even to talk to Me. I shall speak to you Myself, soul. Even should your suffering be the greatest of sufferings, do not lose your peace of mind, nor submit to discouragement. But tell Me, My child, who has dared to injure your heart? Tell Me everything, tell it all to Me, be sincere with Me, reveal all the injuries in your heart to Me, and I will heal them, and your suffering shall be the source of your salvation.” (1:00)
Soul: “Lord, so great and diverse is my suffering, and so long-lived that I am becoming discouraged. … But there’s one more thing, Lord, what should I do if people turn their backs on me and reject me, especially those people I had a right to count on, and particularly when I needed them most?” (0:30)
Jesus: “My child, make a resolution never to rely on people. You will accomplish a lot if you put all your trust in My will and say, ‘Not as I want, but may Your will be done, O God.’ Know that these words, if said in the depths of your heart, will take you straight up to the very heights of sanctity. I find such a soul particularly pleasing; such a soul gives Me great glory; such a soul fills Heaven with the fragrance of its virtue; but know that you must draw your strength to endure suffering from frequent Holy Communion, so come often to that fount of mercy, and with the vessel of trustfulness draw from it whatever you need.” (1:12)
Soul: “Thank You, O Lord, for Your infinite goodness, for staying with us in this our exile and abiding with us as the God of mercy, and for spreading abroad the light of Your pity and goodness, and in the light of Your rays of mercy I have learned how much You love me.” (0:30)