These next two Saints to be I found on the site of the monks of Silverstream in Ireland. In reading snatches of their lives, I find great similarities between them and St. Faustina. The Lord seems to give the same message to those whom He loves- a message so needed in our sad world today.
SERVANT of GOD SISTER BENIGNA CONSOLATA FERRERO was born in
Suffering entered
her life at an early age. As an infant, her afflictions grew daily. Her health
continued to decline until Signora Ferrero, perceiving this sad turn of events,
took her child to the Church
of St. Dalmazzo
From an early
age, Maria exhibited clear signs of a great love for God. She was always
willing to help her neighbor, and while she was indulgent with others, always
seeking to excuse their faults, she never let herself become attached to the
complements that she received.
Maria’s great pleasure as a child was to spend time with Our
Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. On one occasion, her family passed their summer
holiday in the country-side, far from any Catholic Church. During this time,
Maria had to content herself with frequent acts of spiritual communion, which
Our Lord would later encourage, with the words: “I am in the Sacrament of My
love for My creatures, and they make so little account of it! O do thou at
least, My Benigna, make as many spiritual communions as possible to supply for
the Sacramental Communions which are not made. One every quarter of an hour is
not enough. Make them shorter, but more numerous. My Benigna, seek to draw
souls to receive Me in Holy Communion.”
In one of her early manuscripts, Maria writes,
"One day, my soul felt sweetly attracted and I heard the voice of my God;
it was so sweet that I scarcely dared to make a movement for fear of hearing it
no longer, and while listening I wept with emotion. Jesus told me that He would
give Himself to me, that He would be to me as a mother to a child, and that He
would furnish me occasions of suffering for Him." She entered the Visitation Order in Como, Italy, in 1907.
The Lord revealed
to her his insatiable thirst for souls, and promised to grant her a great
thirst for the conversion of sinners. Maria expressed the desires of her heart
in the following words: “O Jesus, do with me all that Thou wilt; I place in
Thee all my confidence and I abandon myself to Thy loving cares; henceforth I
wish to serve Thee in peace, joy and love, as Thou Thyself hast taught me; but
let me implore Thee to grant me the grace of knowing Thee that I may love Thee
with all my heart, and of knowing myself that I may humble myself
profoundly." Our Lord responded graciously to Maria’s firm resolution to become
a saint. He said to her: "Thou hast taken the resolution to become holy:
this is well and thou must not fail; but it is not to an ordinary sanctity thou
art called; thou must aim at the most sublime perfection."
Like many Saints and victim souls, Sr.
Benigna was chosen, not because of her strength or virtue, but because of her
weakness and misery:
“I have chosen thee because thou art
wretched and miserable, in order that thou mayst attribute nothing to thyself
and know that all good comes from God.” Jesus dictated the “Decalogue of Mercy”
to Sr. Benigna, which contain perhaps some of the most tender and encouraging
words ever recorded: “The more evil the state to which the soul is reduced by
the sins of the past, by her disorders and passions, so much the more pleased
is Love to have so much to accomplish in her. Souls the most miserable, the most weak, the
most infirm, are the best clients of Love, the most desired by the divine
Mercy. These souls, thus become, as it
were, the favorite of God, will, like so many living monuments, exalt and
magnify the multitude of His mercies, sending up to God the reflections of
living light, His own light, which they have received from Him during their
mortal life- the multitude of kindnesses God has made use of to conduct them to
eternal salvation. These souls will shine like previous gems, and will form the
crown of the Divine Mercy.”
Jesus begged for the love of souls, including those who wound
Him most. Even the most shameful sinners should be inspired with confidence in
God’s mercy after reading the tender revelations given to Sr. Benigna
Consolata. Jesus continually made known to her that He yearns to save even the
most sordid sinners. He invites all sinners to bathe their souls in His
Precious Blood, which was shed for our salvation: "Provided I find good
will in a soul, I am never weary of looking upon its miseries- My love is fed
by consuming miseries; the soul that brings Me the most, if the heart is
contrite and humble, is the one that pleases Me most, because she gives Me an
opportunity of exercising more fully My office of Savior. But what I wish
particularly to say to thee, My Benigna, is that the soul ought never to be
afraid of God, because God is all-merciful; the greatest pleasure of the Sacred
Heart of thy Jesus is to lead to His Father numerous sinners; they are My glory
and My jewels… Sins may be enormous and numerous; but provided that the soul
returns to Me, I am always ready to pardon all, to forget all.”
Sr.
Benigna Consolata died in 1916. O' Jesus, True Charity
and God of Love, Goodness without limits: I, a miserable sinner, in order to
honor Thy incomparable mercy, offer, give and abandon myself forever to the
love of Thy most amiable and tender Heart.
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