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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, september third, nineteen oh two, volume four. Let us begin in the will and name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Jesus, quiet our hearts before you. Free us from the illusion that we must make ourselves worthy before we can come close to you. Teach us to receive what you have already won for us through your life, passion, death, and resurrection. Place within us a deeper confidence in your mercy, so that whether our days are peaceful or uncertain, we may belong entirely to you. Amen. A reading from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter ten, verses nineteen through twenty three. Therefore, brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living way He opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in Paragraph fourteen seventy six. We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church's treasury, which is not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary, the treasury of the church is the infinite value which can never be exhausted which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer Himself, the sanctifications and merits of His redemption exists and find their efficacy. Before we listen today, let us enter quietly into the mystery of how completely Jesus desires to give himself to a soul that trusts him. Louisa writes This morning as I was in my usual state, I felt a natural malady come to me, but so strong that I felt I was dying. I feared I might be about to pass from time to eternity, much more so since blessed Jesus was hardly coming, or at the most like a shadow. In fact, if he were coming as usual, I would not be fearing at all. Therefore, so that I might be in a good position, I prayed the Lord to give me the exercise of his holy mind to satisfy for the evils I might have committed with my thoughts his eyes, his mouth, his hands, feet, heart, and all of his most sacred body, to satisfy for all the evils I might have committed, and for all the good I was supposed to do, but did not. While I was doing this, blessed Jesus came, all in festal clothing, in the act of receiving me into his arms, and he told me, My daughter, everything I deserved I gave to all creatures, and in a special and superabundant way to one who is victim for love of me. Behold, anything you want I give you, and not only you, but to whomever you want. And I, remembering the confessor, said to him, Lord, if you take me, I pray you to content Father. And he indeed he has received some recompense for the charity he has done for you, and since he has cooperated, as you come to me into the sphere of eternity, I will give him yet more recompense. My malady was getting more and more vigorous, but I felt happy since I was at the harbor of eternity. In the meantime, the confessor came and called me to obedience. I would have wanted to keep everything quiet, but he forced me to say everything, and came out with the usual refrain that out of obedience I was not supposed to die. But in spite of this, my malady would not cease. There are moments when everything unnecessary falls away. Perhaps it happens beside a hospital bed, perhaps during a sleepless night. Perhaps when we receive news that suddenly makes tomorrow seem uncertain. At such moments, the soul begins asking different questions, not what have I accomplished? But am I ready to meet Jesus? And that question can uncover something very important about our faith. Our hope before God does not rest upon our ability to present him with a flawless life. It rests upon Jesus Christ. The letter to the Hebrews speaks of approaching God with confidence because Christ has opened the way for us. That confidence is not presumption, it is faith in what Jesus has accomplished. This is why the church speaks of the infinite value of Christ's merits. Everything necessary for our salvation comes from Him. Grace is His gift. Forgiveness is His gift. Even our ability to respond to grace is already grace at work within us. That changes the way we prepare for eternity. Certainly we examine our conscience, we repent of sin, we receive the sacraments, we make restitution where necessary and seek reconciliation where there is still time. But beneath all of this is something deeper surrender. Jesus, I trust in what you have done for me. And perhaps there's another beautiful step. Once we realize that everything is gift, we become less concerned with keeping spiritual treasures for ourselves. Love begins to think of others. We bring before Jesus our spouse, our children, our family, our friends, the person who has asked for prayer, the person who has forgotten God, even the person who has wounded us. The Christian heart begins to resemble Christ's heart precisely because it becomes generous. This offers us a beautiful way to understand life in the divine will. We stop approaching God as though everything depended upon what we could produce for him. Instead, we surrender ourselves to his action and ask Jesus to accomplish in us what we could never accomplish alone. Our poverty meets His abundance. Our weakness meets His strength. Our small love enters the love of Christ. Then even the thought of eternity begins to change. The final moment of our earthly life need not be the moment when we desperately gather our achievements. It can be the moment when we finally open our hands completely and discover that Jesus has been holding us all along. Let us pray. Jesus, my Savior, I place my confidence in you to take everything I am, my thoughts, my desires, my work, my prayer, my past, my future, and draw it into your holy will. And Jesus, I do not come before you alone. I bring those I love. I bring those who need mercy, those who are afraid, those approaching death, and those who no longer know how to pray. Let the riches of your grace reach every soul according to your loving providence. Teach me to live with open hands, to receive everything from you, and to offer everything back to the Father through you. Jesus, whether my earthly journey is long or short, let its destination always be you. Amen. Thank you for joining your faith anew today. Until tomorrow, stay in his will, and your faith will be made anew.