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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, june eighth, 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. Heavenly Father, grant us hearts that desire what you desire. Give us a love for souls, a longing for their salvation, and a deep trust in your grace. Teach us to receive every gift from you with gratitude and return it to you in love. May we live this day united to your divine will. Amen. Saint John writes in his first letter chapter four verse ten. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph twenty five sixty four. Our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father. We pray to him because he has first blessed us. And in paragraph twenty seven hundred, whether our prayer is heard or not depends not on how many words we use, but on the fervor of our souls. As we continue our journey through the book of Heaven, let us remain attentive to the truths Jesus reveals through Louisa, allowing these lessons to deepen our understanding of life in the divine will. In today's reading, Louisa discovers that everything she offers to Jesus has first been given to her by him. Louisa writes My adorable Jesus still continues to make himself seen all benignity and sweetness. This morning, while I was together with him, he repeated again Tell me, what do you want? Immediately I said Jesus, my dear, what I would really want is that the whole world would convert. What a request out of proportion. But still, my loving Jesus told me I would content you if all had the good will to be saved, and yet to show you that I would gladly grant everything you have said, let us go together into the midst of the world, and all of those whom we will find with the good will to be saved, as evil as they may be, I will give it to you. So we went out in the midst of people to see who had the good will to be saved, but to our highest displeasure, we found a number so very scarce that it is sorrowful just to think about it. In this number, so very scarce, there was my confessor, the majority of priests and part of the faithful, but not everyone from Carrado. Then he showed me the various offenses he was receiving. I prayed him to let me share in his sufferings, and Jesus poured his bitternesses from his mouth into mine. After this he told me, My daughter, I feel my mouth too embittered. Oh please, I beg you to sweeten it. I said to him, I would gladly give you anything, but I have nothing. You yourself tell me, what can I give you? And he told me, Let me suckle milk from your breasts, for in this way you'll be able to sweeten me. And at that very moment he was saying this, he lay down in my arms and began to suckle. While he was doing this, a fear came to me that it might not be baby Jesus, but the devil. Therefore I placed my hand on his forehead and I signed him with the cross Persignum Crucis. Jesus looked at me all festive, and while still suckling, he smiled, and with his lively eyes he seemed to tell me I am not a demon, I am not a demon. After he seemed to be satiated, he got up on my lap and kissed me all over. Now since I too felt my mouth bitter from the bitternesses he had poured into me, I felt like I wanted to suckle from the breasts of Jesus, but I did not dare to. But Jesus invited me to do it, and so I plucked up courage and I began to suckle. Oh what sweetness of paradise came from that holy breast. But who can express it? Then I found myself inside myself all inundated with sweetnesses and contentments. Now I will explain that when it happens that Jesus suckles from my breasts, my body does not participate in this at all. Rather, it happens when I am outside of myself. It seems that this thing occurs only between the soul and Jesus. And when he wants to do this, he is always a child. It is so true that it is only the soul and not the body that when this happens, I am always either in the vault of the heavens or wandering through other points of the earth. Sometimes, then, I have said that as I returned to myself, I felt a pain at that place from which baby Jesus had suckled, because in suckling, sometimes he would do it a little strongly, so much so that it seemed that through that suckling he wanted to pull out my heart from within my breast. Therefore I felt a sensible pain, and as I returned to myself, the soul would communicate it to the body. But then, this happens also in other things, as for example, when the Lord transports me outside of myself and lets me share in his crucifixion, Jesus Himself lays me on the cross and pierces my hands and feet through with the nails. I feel such pain that I feel I'm dying. Then when I find myself inside myself, I feel it well in my body, so much so as to be unable to move my fingers or my arm, and so forth with the other sufferings that the Lord shares with me. To say everything, I would be too long. I also remember that when Jesus would suckle from my breasts, he would place his mouth there, but it is from my heart that I would feel him draw whatever he suckled. So much so that while he would do this, at times I have felt my heart being torn from my breast, and sometimes feeling a most vivid pain. I said to him, My pretty little one, indeed you are too impertinent. Do it more mildly, for it hurts very much. And he would laugh to himself. In the same way, when it is I that suckle from Jesus, it is from his heart that I draw that milk or blood, so much so that for me, suckling from the breast of Jesus is the same as drinking from his side. I will add also another thing. Since the Lord every now and then is pleased with pouring a most sweet milk from his mouth or letting me drink from his precious blood from his side, then he wants to suckle from me. He suckles nothing else but what he himself has given me, because I have nothing with which to sweeten him, but much with which to embitter him. This is so true that sometimes, in the very act in which he would suckle from me, I would suckle from Jesus, and I would realize clearly that what he was drawing from me was nothing other than what he himself was giving me. It seems I have explained myself enough as much as I could. This reading contains mystical imagery that may seem unusual at first, but the spiritual lesson is profound and beautifully simple. Louisa begins with a desire that the whole world would be converted. This is not a selfish request. It is a desire flowing from the heart of Jesus Himself. Souls who draw close to God gradually begin to desire what He desires. Jesus then reveals how few people truly possess the good will to be saved. This should move us to prayer, sacrifice, and reparation for souls. Rather than judging others, we are called to intercede for them. The heart of the reading comes near the end. Jesus asks Louisa to sweeten his bitterness. She wants to give him something worthy of his love, but realizes she has nothing of her own to offer. Everything she can give him has first been given to her by him. This is a great lesson for those seeking to live in the divine will. We often think we are bringing our own gifts to God. Yet every act of prayer, every sacrifice, every act of charity, every movement toward holiness begins with grace. God gives first. We respond second. Living in the divine will means recognizing this continual exchange. Jesus fills us with his life, and we return that life to him through our acts of love. The more we receive from him, the more we can return to him. In this way, our spiritual life becomes a beautiful circulation of divine love. Today, let us remember that holiness is not something we manufacture, it is something we receive. The Lord asks only that we remain open, faithful, and willing. He supplies everything else. Let us pray. Jesus, we thank you for every grace you've placed within our souls. You are the source of every good desire, every holy thought and every act of love. Without you we can do nothing, but with you all things become possible. Give us hearts that long for the salvation of souls. Help us to pray, suffer, and offer ourselves in union with you for those who are far from your love. Teach us to live in the divine will, receiving everything from you and returning everything to you. May our prayers, our work, our joys, and our sufferings become acts of love that console your sacred heart. Jesus, we place our lives in your hands. May your will reign in us completely, today and always. Amen. Thank you for joining your faith anew today. As we go forward, let us remember that every grace comes from God and every act of love returns to him. Until tomorrow, stay in his will, and your faith will be made anew.