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If you want your dream to be, build it slow and surely. Small beginning, greater and heartfelt work grows purely.

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Welcome. This is David Russell and your faith anew, daily reflections guiding you to live in the divine will. Today's reflection is from the Book of Heaven by the servant of God Louisa Picaretta, may twenty sixth, eighteen ninety nine, volume two. Let us begin in the will and name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Jesus, in moments when we see our weakness and misery, keep us from discouragement. Teach us to enter deeply into humility while remaining anchored in confidence in your mercy and love. Help us never to remain trapped in ourselves, but always to rise toward the immense sea of your divine will where grace, peace, and strength abound. May our nothingness become the place where your greatness shines most clearly. We ask this through Christ our Lord, amen. Saint Paul writes in the second letter to the Corinthians, chapter twelve verse nine. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in Paragraph twenty ninety. When God reveals himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love him in return, and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God. It is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment. As we prepare to hear today's passage from the Book of Heaven, we are reminded that true humility never leads the soul into despair. The more we recognize our weakness, the more we are invited to place our confidence in the mercy and strength of God. Louisa writes This morning I was in such a state of annihilation of myself, to the point of feeling obnoxious and annoyed. It seemed to me I was the most abominable being that could be found. I saw myself like a little worm that tossed and turned, but remained always there in the mud, unable to take one step. Oh God, what human misery. Yet after I have been given so many graces I am still so bad. My good Jesus, always benign with this miserable sinner, came and told me Contempt of yourself is praiseworthy when it is well invested with the spirit of faith. But when it is not invested with the spirit of faith, instead of doing you good, it can harm you. In fact, in seeing yourself as you are, unable to do anything good, you will be discouraged, disheartened, without daring to take one step on the path of good. But by leaning on me, that is, by investing yourself with the spirit of faith, you will come to know and despise yourself and at the same time to know me, confident of being able to do anything with my help. And here is how by acting in this way, you will walk according to the truth. How much good these words of Jesus have done to my soul? I understood that I must enter into my nothingness and know who I am, but I must not stop there. Rather, immediately after I have known myself, I must fly into the immense sea of God and stop there to draw all the graces that my soul needs. Otherwise, nature becomes weary and the devil will look for means in order to cast it into discouragement. May the Lord be always blessed, and may everything be for his glory. Today's passage touches on one of the most important lessons in the spiritual life the difference between true humility and discouragement. Louisa sees her weakness so clearly that she feels like a worm unable to move from the mud of her own misery. Many souls experience moments like this. We become painfully aware of our faults, our repeated failures, our imperfections, and our inability to become holy through our own strength. But Jesus immediately intervenes with wisdom and tenderness. He explains that self contempt can be spiritually healthy only when it is united with faith. Without faith, self knowledge becomes dangerous because it leads to discouragement, sadness, paralysis, and despair. The enemy of the soul often uses our weaknesses to convince us that holiness is impossible. But Jesus teaches another path. He says that after recognizing our nothingness, we must immediately turn toward Him with confidence. We are not meant to remain staring at ourselves. We are meant to plunge ourselves into the immense sea of God. This is a beautiful image of the divine will. The soul first learns humility by recognizing that without God it can do nothing. But then, instead of becoming hopeless, it discovers that with God all things become possible. Grace enters where self reliance ends. True holiness is not built upon confidence in ourselves. It is built upon confidence in Jesus. The saints understood this deeply. The more they recognized their weakness, the more completely they abandon themselves to divine mercy. Their poverty became the doorway through which God poured his strength. In the divine will, we do not deny our misery, we acknowledge it honestly. But we also refuse to allow discouragement to reign in our hearts because our confidence rests not in ourselves, but in the infinite goodness of God. Jesus is teaching us today to move quickly from self-knowledge to trust. The soul who remains trapped in self-reflection becomes exhausted. But the soul who flies into the sea of God discovers peace, courage, and renewal. Whenever you become aware of your weakness, do not stop there. Lift your eyes immediately to Jesus. There, in his divine will, discouragement loses its power. Let us pray. Jesus, how often I become discouraged when I see my weaknesses and failures. I look at myself and feel incapable of becoming the soul you desire me to be. Yet today you remind me not to remain trapped within my misery, but to fly into the immense sea of your mercy and divine love. Lord, give me true humility, a humility filled with faith and confidence in you. When I fall, help me rise again quickly. When I feel weak, remind me that your grace is sufficient. When discouragement approaches, let me hear your gentle voice calling me back to trust. Teach me to know myself honestly without losing peace. Teach me to depend completely upon your strength rather than my own. Jesus, I surrender my weakness into your divine will. Transform my poverty into a place where your power may shine. Blessed Mother, refuge of sinners and mother of confidence. Lead me always toward Jesus and never allow discouragement to take root in my heart. Amen. Thank you for joining your faith anew today. The Lord does not ask us to be perfect through our own efforts alone. He asks us to remain humble, honest, and confident in his mercy. Until tomorrow, stay in his will, and your faith will be made anew.