St Faustina

The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.”

St FAustina

In Fr. Mike Gaitley’s book, “Consoling the Heart of Jesus,” he asks the question, “Do you want to be a saint?”

I know when I first read that line, I definitely hesitated for a second. I mean, have you ever asked yourself that question?  It’s kind of a big question. It’s like asking ourselves, do we want to live a life of suffering and sacrifice, or do we want to have it a wee bit easier?

I don’t know about you, but ‘a wee bit easier’ sounds pretty good to me.

Honestly, though… I’ve actually thought a lot about this question, which is why I chose this quote from Jesus to St. Faustina in her diary: “The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.” 

I love receiving, so that sounds pretty great, right? We’ll receive more. Receive more of what though? 

Well, we are talking about St. Faustina here, she’s a saint who received messages from Jesus about His vast ocean of Divine Mercy… so when He shared this with Faustina, he clarified that it’s His mercy we’ll be receiving. The more we trust, the more we will receive His mercy.

Jesus tells Faustina that He loves it when we ask for much because He wants to give us much. What pains Him the most is when we have obstacles in our heart to His mercy. He says that when we have boundless trust in His mercy, He will give us everything we need to attain sanctity.

I know that might sound a lot like suffering and pain, but He does say He’ll give us everything we need to make it through. He also tells St. Faustina that conversion, as well as perseverance, are graces of His mercy.

So the more we trust in His mercy, the more grace we will receive, and the outcome of that is conversion and perseverance. Sounds like the perfect formula for sainthood to me. 

So, when we answer that question, “Do you want to be a saint?” with a resounding “Yes!”–slacker and all, we know that in spite of our imperfections and sinfulness, as long as we cling to trust and take a deep dive into the Ocean of Jesus’ mercy, we’ll have all the grace we need to persevere and to actually become– the saints He’s calling us to be.