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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 Luisa Picaretta, august thirtieth, 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, draw us close to your sacred heart, purify our love for you, deepen our fidelity, and free us from everything that makes our faith merely outward. Give us the grace to love your church as you love her, to pray for her with humility, to offer ourselves for her holiness. May your divine will find in us a willing home, where faith becomes life and love becomes surrender. Amen. A reading from the book of the Prophet Hosea chapter four verses one through three. Hear the word of the Lord, Israelites, for the Lord has a dispute with the inhabitants of the land. There is no fidelity, no loyalty, no knowledge of God in the land. Swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery break out. Bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore, the land dries up, and everything that dwells in it languishes. The catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph eight to seven Christ holy, innocent and undefiled, knew nothing of sin, but came only to expiate the sins of the people. The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. All members of the church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good weed of the gospel until the end of time. Hence the church gathers sinners already caught up in Christ's salvation, but still on the way to holiness. As we listen to today's entry, let us ask Jesus for the grace to hear with the heart of one who loves his church. Louisa writes This morning my beloved Jesus transported me outside of myself and made me see the decadence of religion in men and a preparation for war. I said to him, O Lord, in what a heart rending state the world finds itself in these times in the things of religion. It seems that she who ennobles man and makes him aspire to an eternal purpose is no longer recognized by the world. But that which makes one cry the most is that religion is ignored by some of the very ones who call themselves religious, who should lay down their lives to defend her and revive her. And Jesus, assuming a most afflicted look, told me My daughter, this is why man lives like a beast. He has lost religion. But even sadder times will come for man, because of the blindness in which he has immersed himself, so much so that my heart aches in seeing him. But the blood which I will cause to be shed by every kind of people, secular and religious will revive this holy religion, and will water the rest of the people grown wild that will be left, and by civilizing them once again, it will restore their nobility. Here is the necessity for blood to be shed, and for churches themselves to be almost destroyed, so that they may be restored anew and exist with their original prestige and splendor. But who can say the cruel torment they will make for them in the times to come? I let it pass in silence because I don't remember very well, and I don't see it very clearly. If the Lord wants me to talk about it, he will give me more clarity, and then I will take the pen again on this topic. So for now I stop here. There is a way of looking at the weaknesses of the church that slowly makes us bitter, and there is another way, the way of Christ, which makes us pray. Jesus knows every wound in his church. Nothing is hidden from him. He sees every failure of her members, every compromise, every scandal, every moment when Christians have failed to resemble the one whose name they bear. Yet Christ does not abandon his bride. He gives himself for her. That changes the way we should respond when we encounter weakness within the church. Saint Peter gives us a beautiful image. Christ is the living stone, and we are being built upon him into a spiritual house. Notice where everything begins not with us, but with Jesus. Whenever renewal is needed, the deepest question is not simply what's gone wrong? It is are we building upon Christ? That question can become very personal. It's easy to recognize what needs purification somewhere else. It's harder to stand before Jesus and say Lord, begin with me. Renew my prayer, purify my motives, strengthen my obedience, heal what has become divided within me. Make my Catholic faith something I live rather than something I merely claim. This is where genuine reform always begins with holiness. The saints renewed the church because they allowed Christ to renew them. Francis of Assisi did not begin with a program for everyone else. Catherine of Siena did not love the church by pretending that her problems did not exist. Teresa of Avila did not answer spiritual weakness with despair. Each allowed the fire of Christ to burn more intensely within his or her own soul. And this is where living in the divine will becomes especially beautiful. We can give Jesus our ordinary lives as places where His holiness may become visible again. Our work, conversations, sacrifices, hidden acts of charity, forgiveness, prayer, and fidelity can all become an offering Jesus, live your life in me. Perhaps you can't repair everything that troubles you in the church or in the world, but today you can give Christ one more living stone yourself. And when a soul belongs completely to Jesus, something in the church has already been renewed. Let us pray. Jesus, I love your church because she is yours. When I see weakness, teach me to pray rather than condemn. When I see wounds, make me willing to offer myself with you for their healing. When I become discouraged, turn my eyes again toward your faithfulness. Purify your church, Lord, and begin in my own heart. Remove whatever keeps me from belonging completely to you. Take my thoughts, my desires, my work, my suffering, my prayer and my human will. Receive everything into your divine will. Make my life a quiet offering for your church, for her shepherds, her priests and religious, her families, her children, those whose faith is strong, and those who have wandered far away. Jesus, remain the foundation beneath everything. Build in me what pleases you, and may your church become ever more radiant with the holiness that comes from you alone. Amen. Thank you for joining your faith anew today. Until tomorrow, stay in his will, and your faith will be made anew.