‘Our works are of no VALUE if they be not United to the MERITS of Jesus Christ.’
~ St. Teresa of Ávila ~
FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN
V11 – 8.14.12 – Now, one day I was working and I thought to myself: ‘How is it possible that Jesus works in me while I work? Does He really want to do this work?’ And Jesus: “Yes I do. My fingers are in yours and they work. My daughter, when I was on earth, didn’t My Hands lower themselves to work the wood, hammer the nails, and help My foster Father Joseph in the smithing work? While I was doing that, with those very hands and with those fingers, I created souls and called other souls to the other life; I Divinized all human actions; I sanctified them, giving a Divine MERIT to each one of them. In the movements of My Fingers I called in sequence all the movements of your fingers and those of others; and if I saw that they were doing them for Me, or because I wanted to act within them, I continued My life of Nazareth in them, and I felt cheered by them for the sacrifices and the humiliations of My hidden Life, giving them the MERIT of My Own Life.
Daughter, the hidden Life that I conducted in Nazareth is not taken into account by men, when in fact, after the Passion, nothing could benefit them more. By lowering Myself to all those little actions and those acts which men exercise during their daily life, such as eating, sleeping, drinking, working, starting the fire, sweeping, etc. – all acts which no one can do without – I made flow inside their souls a tiny Divine Coin of Incalculable Price. Therefore, if My Passion Redeemed them, My hidden Life provided each human action, even the most insignificant one, with Divine MERIT and with Infinite VALUE.
Do you see? As you work – working because I Want to work – My Fingers flow within yours, and as I work in you with My creative hands, in this very instant, how many am I giving to the light of this world? How many others am I calling? How many others do I sanctify, correct, chastise, etc.? Now, you are with Me creating, calling, correcting and so forth; therefore, just as you are not alone, neither am I alone in My work. Could I ever give you greater honor?”
V13 – 1.20.22 – “Wanting to have one’s own MERITS is of servants, of slaves – not of children. What belongs to the father, belongs to his children. Besides, what are all the MERITS that you could acquire compared to one single act of My Will? All MERITS have their own little VALUE, weight and measure; but who could ever measure one single act of My Will? No one – no one. And then, what are your MERITS compared to Mine? In My Will you will find them all, and I make of you the owner. Aren’t you happy?”
V16 – 5.19.24 – “My daughter, My Will is Eternal, and only for one who Lives in It, Embracing Eternity – all her acts, from the tiniest to the greatest, being Animated by an Eternal Will, Acquire the VALUE, the MERIT, the Shape of Divine and Eternal Acts. The Divine Will empties those acts of all that is human, and filling them with Its Will, Makes them Its Own and places on them the seal, Making of them as many Eternal and Divine Acts.”
V31 – 11.6.32 – “Now, one who works even good with her human will, as she finds herself passing her way in time, one can say that everything she does are temporary works, subject to a thousand miseries. They will always be human works of minimum VALUE, because she lacks the Gold Thread of the Light of My Will. On the other hand, one who works in It, will have the Gold Thread in her power, and not only this, but she will have her Creator Operating in her act; she will not have time, but Eternity in her power. Therefore there is only difference between the Divine Will and the human, there is no comparison that holds up between the One and the other. To Live in My Will is exactly this: It has the Prime and Operating Act in the creature. My Will acts as a teacher who wants to develop the theme that he has given to his student. He gives her the paper, he places the pen in her hand, he puts his hand over the same hand of the disciple and he develops the theme, the hand of the teacher and that of the student writing together.
“Now, couldn’t one say that the teacher has been working, and has put in that theme his science, his beautiful writing in a way that no one can find a shadow of defect? And yet the student has not gone out of place, she has undergone the work of the teacher, she has let her hand be conducted without any resistance. On the contrary, she is happy in seeing the beautiful ideas, the precious concepts in which she feels enraptured. Now, couldn’t one say that the fortunate disciple possesses the VALUE and the MERIT of the work of her teacher? The same happens to one who Lives in My Will. The creature must undergo the Act that My Volition wants to make, It must not be put aside, and It must place the necessities befitting Its Divine Act. And Our Goodness is so much, that We make her Possessor of Our same Acts.”
V32 – 9.24.33 – “Look at Me, how I keep everything enclosed in Me, and this brings Me to Love him doubly in every act that he does. By Incarnating Myself in the Womb of the Immaculate Queen, I formed this Humanity of Mine, and I constituted Myself the Head of the human family in order to unite all creatures with Me, and make them My Members. Therefore everything that they do is Mine. In the Sanctuary of My Holy Humanity I enclosed everyone. I watch over the little good as well as the great, but do you know why? Passing through Me I give them the VALUE as if they were My Works, Prayers and Sacrifices. The Virtue of the Head descends into the members, makes a mixture of everything, and I give to them the VALUE of My MERITS, such that the creature finds himself in Me, and I as Head find Myself in them.”
V33 – 11.19.33 – “Daughter, so great is the act of disposing oneself to doing My Will, that My Life itself, My MERITS, form the paper, the characters, and your Jesus makes the signature in order to make it known and to give her free entrance. One can say that the whole of Heaven runs to the help of one who wants to do My Will. And I feel so much Love, that I take a place in the fortunate creature and I feel Loved by her with My own Will.
“…These acts done in My Will are centuries that enclose Incalculable MERITS and Goods, because there is the Divine Motor that moves them, which has so much speed that in the minutes it encloses the centuries. And it renders the creature so rich, Beautiful, and Holy, as to let Us boast before the whole Celestial Court, pointing her out as the Greatest Prodigy of Its Creative Art.”
V33 – 3.4.34 – “…The instants, the littlest Acts done in It, embrace centuries; and since they are Divine, they are invested with such Power that what one wants to do with them—everything he can do and everything he can obtain. The Divine Being remains bound in these Acts, because they are His Acts, and He must give them the VALUE that they MERIT. Besides this, you must know that the Acts done in My Will form the ways that must serve souls in order to let them enter into It, and they are so very necessary that if heroic souls do not first come forth to Live in It in order to form the principal ways of Its Kingdom, the generations, not finding the ways, will not know what to do in order to enter into My Divine Will.”
V34 – 7.12.37 – “Now, I want to tell you another consoling surprise. So much is Our Pleasure when the creature decides with immovable firmness to Live in Our Volition, that what We must do at the point of death, of Confirming her in the Good in which she finds herself, because you must know that everything that she has done in life—prayers, virtue, sufferings suffered, good works—these serve to form Our little Divine Life in her soul, not one Blessed enters into Heaven if she does not possess this Divine Life, according to the good that they have done, and if they have Loved Me and fulfilled My Will more, so they will have It, some lesser, some greater, because the True Happiness, the True Joys, must be possessed within. In fact, each one will have inside and outside of them their God, who will always give them New Joys, so much so that if souls, dying, are not filled up even to the brim with Love and with My Will, I Confirm them, yes, but they do not enter into Heaven. I send them to Purgatory to fill these voids of love and of My Divine Will by way of sufferings, of anxieties, and of longings. And when they are filled with everything, in a way that one sees in them that they are already completely Transformed into My Love and into My Will, then they take flight toward Heaven.
“Now, for one who does not want to do her will anymore but only Mine, We do not wait for that point. With an Irresistible Strength Our Love brings Us to anticipate the Confirmation of the Good, and to convert into nature Our Love and Our Will, so that she will feel that My Love, My Volition, is hers. She will feel My Life more than her own, but with the difference that of those who are Confirmed at the point of death, they will not grow anymore in good, their MERITS are finished. On the other hand, in these My Life will always grow, the MERITS will never end, rather, they will have the Divine MERITS. As they continue to admire and to Live of My Will, so they will know Me more, and I Love them more and increase their Glory. I can say that I run in her every act in order to give her My kiss, My Love, in order to Recognize her, that she is Mine, and give her the VALUE, the MERIT as if I were to have done it. Ah! you cannot understand what We feel for one who Lives in Our Volition, how We Love her. We want to make her content in everything, because in her We find the Purpose of Creation Realized and all the Glory that all things must give Us Centralized. And then, Our Completed Will is everything for Us.”
V36 – 11.26.38 – “…the pilgrim soul has not yet completed her day. If she wants to Live in Our Will she can make Prodigies of Grace and Light for the whole world, and Prodigies of Love for her Creator. Therefore, all Our Attention is on the traveling soul, because her work is still in process and is not yet finished. If she is disposed, We can do works never done before, so Beautiful as to Astonish Heaven and earth. Our Pain is Great when We find the traveling soul not disposed to letting Us perform Our Most Beautiful Works. How many of Our Works have been started and not finished, with others shattered at their peak moment. Only in Our Will and for those who Live in It, can We accomplish Our Works with Their Unreachable Beauty, since Our Will provides the adaptable materials to do anything We want. Outside of It, We cannot find sufficient Light, nor a rising Love, nor Divine Materials; We are forced to fold Our arms, because We just can’t move forward with any of those who don’t Live in Our Will!
“Furthermore, for the soul on her journey, We Circulate the Coin of MERIT. Our Divine Image is Coined on each of her acts Animated by Our Will. These Coins have Infinite VALUE, so whenever she wants, she has the Money to pay Me for anything she wants. Therefore, Our Concern and Interest is for the souls on their journey, because this is the time for Conquest, while there are no Conquests in Heaven, but only Joy and Happiness.”
FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
- Paragraph 2007 – III. Merit
2007 With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part
of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable …
- Paragraph 2008 – III. Merit
2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that
God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. …
- Paragraph 2009 – III. Merit
… us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as … of
obtaining “the promised inheritance of eternal life.” 60 The merits of our …
- Paragraph 2011 – III. Merit
… of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. The saints
have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure …
- Paragraph 2025 – IV. Christian Holiness
2025 We can have merit in God’s sight only because of God’s free plan to
associate man with the work of his grace. … Man’s merit is due to God.
- Paragraph 2026 – IV. Christian Holiness
2026 The grace of the Holy Spirit can confer true merit on us, by virtue of our
adoptive filiation, and in accordance with God’s gratuitous justice. …
FROM THE DOUAY-RHEIMS BIBLE
Ecclesiasticus 16:15
All mercy shall make a place for every man according to the merit of his works, and according to the wisdom of his sojournment.
Ecclesiasticus 38:18
And make mourning for him according to his merit for a day, or two, for fear of detraction.