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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 thirtieth, nineteen oh four, volume six. Let us begin in the will and name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Jesus, as we meditate today on the priceless gift of your passion, open our minds to your truth and our hearts to your love. Teach us to trust in the merits you have won for us, and to use them for the salvation of souls. May your divine will reign in every thought, word, and action. Amen. Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, chapter three, verse twenty seven. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. The Passion of Jesus is not merely an event of the past. Through grace we are invited to be clothed in Christ Himself. His merits become our treasure, His obedience our strength, and His love our refuge. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph five Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us. Jesus desires not only that we remember his passion, but that we enter into it and allow its fruits to transform our lives. His sufferings become a source of grace for every soul who turns to him with trust. Louisa writes Finding myself in my usual state, I was thinking about and offering the passion of our Lord, especially the crown of thorns, and I was praying that He would give light to so many blinded minds, and that He would make Himself known because it is impossible to know you and not to love you. While I was saying this, my adorable Jesus came out from within my interior and told me My daughter, how much ruin pride causes in souls? It is enough to tell you that it forms a wall of division between the creature and God, and from images of me it transforms them into demons. And then, if the fact that creatures are so blinded that they themselves do not understand nor see the abyss they are in, grieves you and saddens you so much, and you take so much to heart that I help them. My passion serves as garment for man, which covers his greatest miseries, embellishes him, and gives back to him all the good of which he had deprived himself and had lost because of sin. So I give it to you as gift, that you may use it for yourself and for whomever you want. On hearing this, a great fear came to me in seeing the greatness of the gift, fearing that I might not be capable of using this gift, and therefore I might displease the giver. So I said, Lord, I do not feel the strength to accept such a gift. I am too unworthy of such a favor. It is better if you keep it, for you are everything and know everything, and you know to whom it is necessary and appropriate to apply this garment so precious and of immense value. But I, poor one, what can I know? And if it is necessary to apply it to someone, and I do not do it, what strict account would you not ask of me? And Jesus do not fear, for the giver himself will give you the grace not to keep the gift he has given you as useless. Can you believe that I would give you a gift to do you harm? Never. I did not know what to answer, but I remained frightened and suspended, intending to hear what Lady Obedience thought about it. It is understood, however, that this garment wants to signify nothing other than all that our Lord operated, earned, and suffered, in which the creature finds the garment to cover her nakedness stripped of virtues, and riches with which to enrich herself, beauties to render herself beautiful and to embellish herself, and the remedy for all her evils. Then, as I told this to obedience, he told me that I should accept. Here Louisa is referring to her confessor. What a remarkable gift Jesus places before Louisa today. He reveals that his passion is not merely a memory to be recalled, but a living treasury to be applied. The conversation begins with Louisa praying for blinded minds. Jesus immediately identifies the source of that blindness. Pride. Pride builds a wall between the creature and God. It convinces the soul that it can stand on its own. Instead of reflecting Christ, the soul becomes distorted by self love and loses sight of its true condition. Yet Jesus does not stop with the diagnosis. He presents the remedy. A garment covers nakedness. It protects weakness. It restores dignity. Jesus is telling Louisa that everything he suffered has become a spiritual treasure available to souls. His obedience repairs our disobedience. His humility repairs our pride. His suffering repairs the damage caused by sin. Notice that Jesus gives this treasure as a gift. Louisa immediately feels unworthy and afraid. She worries that she may fail to use such a precious gift properly. How often do we react the same way when God entrusts us with a mission, a vocation, or a grace? We focus on our inadequacy rather than on his generosity. Jesus reassures her The Giver Himself will give you the grace. This is the heart of today's lesson. God never gives a gift without also giving the grace needed to use it. When he invites us to participate in his work, he supplies what is lacking. For those striving to live in the divine will, this passage is especially powerful. We are invited to clothe ourselves continually in the merits of Christ. We can offer his passion for our families, for souls far from God, for the church, and for the whole world. We can enter into his acts and allow his sufferings to become channels of grace through us. The passion is not exhausted. Its merits are eternal because they belong to Jesus. Every day we can draw from this treasury and distribute its riches through prayer, reparation, sacrifice, and acts done in the divine will. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the priceless gift of your passion. You have clothed us in mercy when we were poor, covered us in grace when we were wounded, and offered us your riches when we had nothing of our own. Protect us from pride which blinds the soul and separates it from you. Give us humble hearts that recognize our need for your mercy each day. Teach us to treasure your passion and to draw continually from its merits. May every wound you suffered bring healing to souls. May every drop of your precious blood become a source of grace for those most in need. Help us to trust that whenever you give a mission, you also provide the grace necessary to fulfill it. Clothe us today in your passion, your love, your humility, and your divine will. For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Amen. Thank you for joining your faith anew today. May we never forget that the passion of Jesus is a living treasury of grace. Until tomorrow, stay in his will, and your faith will be made anew.