By Marc Massery
Turn to any page of St. Faustina's Diary, and you'll find spiritual gems. Like this one:
Today, I begin a new assignment. I go from the garden to the desert of the gate. I went in to talk to the Lord for a while. I asked Him for a blessing and for graces to faithfully carry out the duties entrusted to me. I heard these words: My daughter, I am always with you. I have given you the opportunity to practice deeds of mercy which you will perform according to obedience. You will give Me much pleasure if, each evening, you will speak to Me especially about this task. I felt that Jesus had given me a new grace in relation to my new duties; but, despite this, I have locked myself deeper in His Heart (1267).
Are you easy-going? Or do you often get frustrated by little things that are out of your control?
In her Diary, Faustina wrote about even the littlest disappointments and frustrations. Her Congregation, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, was divided into two choirs, the so-called "director sisters" and "coadjutor sisters." The Congregation's governing body determined membership to one or the other based on the candidate’s intellectual level, age, and abilities. The director sisters served managerial roles while the coadjutor sisters did the manual work, which included cooking, cleaning, gardening, and gatekeeping, among other tasks, and served as helpers to the director sisters. Saint Faustina was a coadjutor sister.
As someone who worked menial jobs in the convent, always subject to others, St. Faustina had little control over what she did from day to day. While some sisters let this lack of freedom frustrate them, St. Faustina grew from her circumstances by treating her assignments as part of God’s loving plans for her. In the quote above, St. Faustina writes of being assigned to the task of gatekeeper, which she refered to as a "desert" because it was an isolating task. Clearly, St. Faustina wasn't pleased with her assignment. Still, the rewards proved to be immense since she was driven to seek Christ, from whom she received consolation.
Amidst life's many aggravations, sometimes even little trials we encounter during the day can overwhelm us. Maybe it's happend to you recently. Perhaps like St. Faustina you were assigned a menail task at work, someone canceled a meeting on you, or someone cut you off during your daily commute. Whatever has caused you a lot of frustration lately, try to remember to treat even these circumstances as part of God’s loving plan for you.
If you find yourself feeling inferior or humiliated when these things happen to you, bring your thoughts and feelings to the Lord. The more you bring your thoughts and feelings to prayer throughout the day, the more you’ll learn about yourself and about Him. The more you learn about the Lord, the more you’ll come to see just how great His mercy really is.
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Photo by Catt Liu on Unsplash