Pillars of Fire In My Soul

St. Faustina shows us that we work in partnership with God on the road to holiness. When we acknowledge our limitations, we admit our need for God. Humility teaches us that we can do nothing apart from God. Yet we cannot just expect God to take care of our problems; we must also be willing to do our part by discerning God’s will for us and following it to the best of our ability. The words that Jesus instructed Faustina to have placed on the Image of The Divine Mercy are “Jesus, I trust in you!” Perhaps the most important part of practicing humility is learn- ing to trust that God is always present to us, always there to listen to us, and always ready to help us. We are fragile human persons who make mistakes and do mean-spirited things — and yet Jesus is always there for us, waiting to forgive us, waiting to heal us, waiting to welcome us home. Jesus is there ready to ease our burdens of pain, grief, anxiety, fear, illness, loneliness, and abandonment. Jesus is there reaching out to us in mercy from a heart burning with love for each and every one of us. To act upon this understanding is to practice humility. Knowing that we, in light of God’s perfection, are so imperfect, and believing that God loves us nonetheless — this is the height of humility. St. Faustina, on the road to can- onization, leads us to this height with her own example of going to Jesus in times of need, however mundane or trivial those needs may have seemed, trusting that He is reaching out in mercy to heal and to help. Purity The second quality that our Blessed Mother encouraged St. Faustina to cultivate was purity, further explained by our Lord as purity of intention. Although the process of purification is linked to God’s grace and our response to God’s grace, still there are endless opportunities for us to make the choice to practice purity and purity of intention on the road to holiness. Once again, St. Faustina provides us with a living model. The Road to Canonization 149