Enkindle in Us with Deacon Dan Wagnitz
By Deacon Dan Wagnitz | For On Mission
In October 2025, I was blessed to participate in a pilgrimage to Poland and Lithuania. That journey inspired the following reflections, drawn from selections from the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. I offer them as stepping stones for your own Lenten pilgrimage.
“Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My Mercy. Oh, how much I am hurt by a soul’s distrust! Such a soul professes that I am Holy and Just, but does not believe that I am Mercy and does not trust in My Goodness. My Heart rejoices in this title of Mercy. Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy” (paragraph 300).
When a soul is burdened with sin, it feels the weight of that burden. A soul struggling under the weight of sin is not at peace within itself; such a soul is anxious.
Lent is a season of inner peace. It is a gift from God, offered through his Church to all open hearts. Lent takes time because each soul needs to reflect honestly on the obstacles it faces in achieving holiness. It takes some time to become fully aware of sinful habits and inclinations and, with God’s help, to muster the resolve needed to form and implement a plan to overcome them.
Lent is a gift that invites each soul to contemplate the love and mercy of God. It is a season of repentance and penance. If you are concerned that what you have done is unforgivable, or that you are undeserving of forgiveness, be assured: the only unforgivable sin is the one for which you refuse to ask forgiveness. Still, God will not force his love or mercy upon us. Yet he is ready to act swiftly whenever he is asked.
When a soul holds back in fear of God, it is really a failure to trust and love him. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love” (1 Jn 4:18). Scripture assigns many titles to Jesus. While they all fit, Jesus himself rejoices in the title of Mercy. There is no need to fear God. Jesus revealed to St. Faustina that he rejoices in the title of Mercy expressly to cast fear of him, and punishment by him, out of our hearts.
Fear of the Lord is not the same as being afraid of God; it is quite the opposite. Fear of the Lord is an awareness of the awesome presence, power, and glory of God, coupled with confidence in his love for us. Gaze upon a crucifix and see the love God has for you. He poured out his blood and his life for you, for the simple yet marvelous reality that he loves you. He loves you. Decide to trust God. Receive his peace. Live in his peace.
“I desire that you know more profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls and that you will understand this when you meditate upon My Passion. Call upon My mercy on behalf of sinners; I desire their salvation. When you say this prayer with contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give him the grace of conversion. This is the prayer: ‘O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You’” (paragraph 186).
True love is always outwardly focused. Love seeks and embraces the beloved. This is true of the Holy Trinity. The love of the Father for the Son, and the love of the Son for the Father, is so real, so intense, so perfect, and so pure that this love is actually another person; we know him as the Holy Spirit. In the Nicene Creed, we profess our belief in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who has spoken through the prophets.
The Holy Spirit is the giver of life. It is completely natural, then, that a perfect and living love would spill out in continual creation, bringing us not only the gift of earthly life but eternal life.
The Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets so that we would recognize Christ. John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest of the prophets, proclaimed thatJesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus was then sacrificed as the greatest offering of love of all time.
Love is an action word. Yes, Lent is a time to draw closer to God. Yes, we come to this moment seekingforgiveness and mercy for ourselves. That is right and most pleasing to God. But love must also turn outward if it is to have the fullest, most life-giving impact. Jesus asks us to pray for the salvation of others; he burns with love for all souls. This is the ultimate love of neighbor.
So think of someone you love who does not currently have a close relationship with God. Not with judgment or frustration, but with sincere love that profoundly desires the absolute best for that person, pray: “O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You.”
“I perform works of mercy in every soul. The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy. My mercy is confirmed in every work of My hands. He who trusts in My mercy will not perish, for all his affairs are Mine, and his enemies will be shattered at the base of My footstool” (paragraph 723).
We can be reluctant to ask God for forgiveness, especially when we have to confess the same sin over and over. Like any bad habit, it takes sustained effort to break free from sins that have been part of our lives for a long time. It can be difficult to share with Jesus that we have failed yet again. He already knows; he loves us anyway.
It can be difficult to confess our sins when we have not participated in the Sacrament of Confession for years. We realize that we are afraid to reveal our hearts to Jesus. He already knows; he loves us anyway.
It can be difficult to face the sins we have buried deep within our hearts. Perhaps they are from a time before we were close to God. They are painful, so we push them down into our past, hoping to forget them. But those sins cloud our minds again. Maybe an old temptation reappears. Or maybe we are troubled by something more recent. He already knows; he loves us anyway.
We cannot simply walk away from our sins. There may be a wound in our hearts, or a wound we caused in someone else’s heart. Those wounds must be healed. Jesus desires to heal hearts.
“When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said, ‘Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.’ He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I will do it. Be made clean.’ His leprosy was cleansed immediately” (Mt 8:1-3). Jesus did not deny the leper. He will not deny us. Take courage that Jesus can and will forgive us. Jesus assures us, “I will do it.”
“Say unceasingly the chaplet That I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from My infinite mercy. I desire that the whole world know My infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy” (paragraph 687).
We often talk about the power of prayer. Maybe we have prayed for a petition, and it came to pass. Maybe we know someone who had a serious medical condition, was lifted in prayer, and was healed. In many ways, the Divine Mercy Chaplet is a prayer of faith, because its greatest impact is most often unseen, known for now only to God and to that soul. Jesus, we trust in you.
The Mass, in which we re-present the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb upon the Cross to our Heavenly Father, is the most powerful prayer. In the Mass, we offer the Body and Blood of Jesus in his memory, as he asked us to do. Jesus the Christ reconciled us to the Father, and, as St. Catherine of Sienna said, laid his Cross down like a bridge — the only bridge that makes it possible for us to leave behind our mortal lives and enter into heaven’s eternal life.
It is almost inconceivable that Jesus would do even more for us. Still, he gifted the world with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. The power of the Chaplet is explained in this paragraph of the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. Praying the Chaplet can lead a soul to repentance. Repentance leads to seeking forgiveness. Seeking forgiveness leads to receiving God’s mercy. Receiving mercy opens our capacity to love. The love of God and the love of others lead to the desire to dwell with God, who is love itself.
Jesus’ own promises about the power of praying the Chaplet sound beyond possibility. And yet, in paragraph 699, Jesus invites us into its wonder: “Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.”
It is my sincere hope that these reflections will lead you even deeper into trusting in God’s love and mercy for you and for all your loved ones.