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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, august twenty fifth, nineteen oh five, 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, draw me close to you today. Free me from the desire merely to appear good, and form within me a heart that truly belongs to you. Let my faithfulness come from communion with you, my love from your love, and my strength from your grace. When circumstances change and emotions fade, keep me near you. May your life become the hidden source of everything I think, say and do. Amen. A reading from the letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians, chapter two verses six and seven. So as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him, and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in Paragraph twenty fifteen Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good. The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of morally good acts. They dispose all the powers of the human being for communion with divine love. There's a great difference between admiring the life of Christ and allowing him to form his life within us. And today's reading invites us to enter that difference. Louisa writes This morning on coming, blessed Jesus told me My daughter, the soul must reside in my heart, and her very virtues she must make it in such a way that they have their roots in my heart and be developed in her heart. Otherwise, there might be the natural virtues, or those of sympathy, which are called virtues at times and circumstances and are mutable, while the virtues whose roots are fixed in my heart and are developed in the soul are stable and adapt themselves to all times and to all circumstances, and are the same for all, but the others are not, and it happens that they feel an unlimited charity for someone, that is, at one time they are all fire. They make true sacrifices. They would want to lay down their lives. But then someone else comes, perhaps more in need than the first one, and in one moment the scene changes. They become icy. They don't even want to make the sacrifice of listening or saying a word. They are listless and send him back embittered and irritated. Is this perhaps the charity whose heart is fixed in my heart? Certainly not. On the contrary, it is a vicious charity, all human and of sympathy, which seems to flourish at one moment, and it withers and disappears at another. Someone else is obedient to someone, submitted humble. He makes himself a rag in such a way that the other can do with him what he wants. But with another he is disobedient, recalcitrant, proud. Is this the obedience that comes from my heart? As I obeyed everyone, even my very executioners. Certainly not. Someone else is patient on certain occasions, be they even serious sufferings. He looks like a lamb that does not even open its mouth to lament. But with another suffering, maybe smaller. He loses his temper, he gets irritated, he swears. Is this perhaps the patience whose root is fixed in my heart? Certainly not. Someone else one day is all fervent. He prays always, to the point of transgressing the duties of his state. But another day he has had an encounter a little disappointing. He feels cold, and he abandons prayer completely to the point of transgressing the duties of a Christian, the prayers of obligation. Is this perhaps my spirit of prayer as I reached the point of sweating blood, of feeling the agony of death? And yet I never neglected prayer for one single moment. Certainly not. And so with all the other virtues. Only the virtues which are rooted in my heart and grafted in the soul are stable and lasting, and shine as full of light. The others, while they appear to be virtues are vices. They appear to be light, but they are darkness. Having said this, he disappeared. And as I continued to desire him, he came back and added The Soul who desires me always impregnates herself with me continuously, and I, feeling myself impregnated by the soul, impregnate myself with the soul in such a way that wherever I turn, I find her with her desires, and I touch her continuously. There is a quiet test of the spiritual life that usually comes when nobody's watching. Who am I when the circumstances change? It's possible to be generous when generosity feels rewarding. It's possible to be patient with the person we naturally love. We may pray easily when consolation comes, forgive when the wound is small, or serve when our efforts are appreciated. But Jesus wants something deeper than goodness sustained by favorable conditions. He wants to give us Himself. Saint Paul tells the Colossians to continue their lives in Christ, firmly established in him. That is more than moral improvement. Christianity is not primarily an attempt to manufacture better behavior. It's a life received from Christ and lived in communion with him. This is why the saints sometimes possess a steadiness that seems almost mysterious. Their secret is not that they have stronger personalities or fewer emotions, their lives have gradually acquired another center of gravity. Christ. Think of Saint Therese of Les. Her holiness was not confined to extraordinary moments. It appeared in the hidden places where love was inconvenient community life interruptions misunderstandings illness ordinary duties. The circumstances changed. Christ remained. And that is where our own spiritual life becomes wonderfully concrete. Perhaps someone irritates you tomorrow. Perhaps prayer feels dry. Perhaps a kindness goes unnoticed. Perhaps you're awakened tired and discover that yesterday's enthusiasm has vanished. That moment is not necessarily an interruption of your spiritual life. It may be precisely where Jesus is waiting for you. Instead of asking do I feel loving? We can turn toward him and say Jesus, love this person in me. Instead of measuring our patience, we can remain with the patient Christ. Instead of trying to produce devotion, we can simply place ourselves before Him and stay. This opens something beautiful about living in the divine will. We begin to rely less upon the changing weather of our interior life and more upon the unchanging faithfulness of Jesus. Our acts become less about proving what we can do for God and more about consenting to what His grace desires to accomplish in us. Holiness then becomes less theatrical and more real. The soul becomes quiet. There is less need to measure itself, defend itself, or admire its own progress. It simply keeps returning to Jesus. And perhaps that is the invitation for today. Not to ask whether you have become strong enough, patient enough, prayerful enough, or loving enough. Ask instead where is my life drawing its strength? Then remain close to Christ. Let him become the answer. Let us pray. Jesus, I don't want merely to imitate you from a distance. I want to live from you. When my feelings change, remain my constancy. When my generosity grows tired, become my love. When prayer feels empty, teach me simply to stay with you. When another person tests me, help me recognize an invitation to love with something greater than my own strength. Take the ordinary moments of this day, the interruptions, conversations, disappointments, duties, joys and hidden sacrifices, and receive them in your divine will. I give you permission to work within me. Make my heart increasingly yours until goodness is no longer something I struggle to display, but the quiet fruit of belonging to you. Jesus, be the source of my life, and whatever this day brings, keep me near you. Amen. Thank you for joining your faith anew today. Until tomorrow, stay in his will, and your faith will be made anew.