Blessed Dina Bélanger: loving God and letting Jesus and Mary do their job

Dina Bélanger's motto, which she discovered at the age of twenty-six, sums up her entire life: "Love and let Jesus and Mary dotheir work". She spells it out in her Autobiography: "To love means to love to the point of madness, to the point of martyrdom... To let Jesus be is to let the God of love act freely; to let Mary be: to entrust to her blindly the task of realising her Jesus wrapped in the cloak of my outer being." Dina was enamoured of Jesus from childhood: "Jesus put me on this earth to be concerned only with him ". Her life is one of absolute openness to God, in the trusting abandonment of all that she is. Saint Paul's words are verified in her: "I live, but it is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me "(Gal 2:20).

Dina Bélanger on the day of her religious profession, 15 August 1923 / © CC0/wikimedia

Reasons to believe:

Dina Bélanger's autobiography, her "song of love" which she wrote out of obedience, has touched the hearts of thousands of people around the world since it was first published in 1934. This diary of her soul has become a staple of twentieth-century spiritual literature.

After brilliant studies at the New York Conservatory, she gave up a career in music to respond to Christ's call to join the Sisters of Jesus-Mary, in order to live at the heart of the love of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

Like the great Christian mystics, Dina experienced an intimacy with the Trinity, sharing in their thirst for love of souls. On January 22, 1927, she received the invisible stigmata of Christ's wounds and took part in his Passion every week.

On September 4, 1939, a nine-month-old child suffering from hydrocephalitis was miraculously cured by Dina. This miracle was recognized after an enquiry for her beatification by John Paul II in 1993. Before her death at the age of thirty-two, she had said: "I will give joy."

Dina Bélanger shows that every baptized person has a vocation and a mission in the Church and the world. To discover these, she suggests two major inner attitudes: listening lovingly to the word of Jesus and trusting in his merciful love.

Summary:

Dina was born in Quebec City on April 30, 1897. The only child of Séraphia Matte and Olivier Bélanger, she had a happy childhood. She attended primary school at Saint-Roch, then boarded at Bellevue College. At a very young age, the Holy Spirit directed her freedom towards the desire to be a saint, that is, to be consumed with love for God and neighbour.

From 1908 on, young Dina began to hear the voice of Jesus within her, and to see images of the Eucharistic mystery that Jesus presented to her but which she had never seen before. She explains in her Autobiography: "I will explain once and for all the expressions I will use such as: 'I saw...','Jesus told me...' and the like. It means: I saw in my imagination; Jesus tells me by the interior voice that every soul hears in the depths of its heart at the moment of divine consolations."

At the age of fourteen, she consecrated herself to God by making a private vow of virginity. It was at this time that she read the Story of a Soul, the autobiography of Thérèse of Lisieux, who was not yet a saint, but who was to become her patron saint along with Saint Cecilia. She wrote in 1923: "Through her intercession, Thérèse of the Child Jesus opened to me the garden of trust. Then I tasted the true fruit of abandonment. And all her actions, needless to say, bear the stamp of love."

In 1914, Dina asked her parents and two priests to enter a convent, but one of the priests told her to wait. At the beginning of WWI, she offered herself as a victim of reparation in order to console Jesus and save souls. She lived with her parents until 1916, when she went to the New York Conservatory to study piano for two years and earned a superior class certificate and a laureate before she attained a teaching diploma. She underwent an inner trial of spiritual aridity that lasted six years. At the age of twenty-four, she wasa noted musician and an accomplished concert pianist.

Breaking away from a possible artistic career, Dina chose the hidden path of prayer by entering the Sisters of Jesus-Marie, in Sillery. On February 15, 1922, she received the name Marie de Sainte-Cécile de Rome. This congregation suited her well because it focused entirely on the Eucharist. Jesus called Dina "My little one". She understood that, just as the Son is united to the Father through love, just as Mary's Heart is also united to the Heart of Jesus, Christ is united to each one of us in the Eucharist, where he offers us with himself to the Father.

After professing her vows on August 15, 1923, she was sent to teach music at Saint-Michel de Bellechasse. She immediately contracted scarlet fever, which degenerated into pulmonary tuberculosis. In March 1924, her superior asked her to write her autobiography. She completed seven notebooks in pencil. She began: "O Jesus, write yourself these pages to sing my hymn of thanksgiving; to reveal your divine goodness and power in a being as abject as mine, to prove, once again, that paradise, the perfect happiness of the soul here below, consists in loving you and letting you act."

Dina abandoned herself to the inner voice of Jesus, who confided in her in a loving dialogue. The first part of her Autobiography recounts her spiritual ascent, while the second speaks of her transforming union with this Christ whose immense love wants to set all souls ablaze. This act of obedience of writing her "love song" cost her a great deal, because she had to look at herself to analyze her past, even though she wanted to anchor herself in the present moment to experience union with God now.

Jesus was increasingly taking Dina's place. On October 3, 1924, she obtained permission to take the "most perfect vow", the path of total abandonment, of giving her will to Jesus at every moment. One day, Jesus said to her: "You will not possess me any more in Heaven, for I have absorbed you entirely". Around the same time, Thérèse of Lisieux, who had also experienced an intimate union with Christ on earth, was canonized in 1925. Like her, Dina wanted to "live and die as an apostle of love".

It is a paradox of Christianity to unite joy and suffering, since love absorbs everything. Dina tasted the chalice of Christ's passion. On January 22, 1927, she received the invisible stigmata of Christ. She wrote: "Our Lord granted me a great favour: the stigmata of love from his sacred wounds". She wrote some very beautiful pages on "the essence of the Essence of the Most Holy Trinity", this "Heart of the Three, his eternal home".

Dina died on September 4, 1929, at the age of thirty-two. She was buried in the convent cemetery of the Jésus-Marie-de-Sillery nuns. Five years later, her Autobiography was published and translated into several languages. She continued her love song: "In Heaven, I will give joy".

On March 20, 1993, Pope John Paul II beatified Dina Bélanger at the same time as he canonized Claudine Thévenet, the founder of her congregation. Today, Dina is a shining beacon for those seeking God and a universal messenger of love. The first reading of her Mass, celebrated on September 4, reads: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; For Love is strong as Death, longing is fierce as Sheol. Its arrows are arrows of fire, flames of the divine." (Sg 8:6).

Jacques Gauthier, author and theologian, has written over eighty books, including some fifty on spirituality. This article is taken in part from his blog and his book on the spiritual journey of Dina Bélanger.

Beyond reasons to believe:

Dina Bélanger gave herself to Christ at a very young age, wanting only to please him in the intimacy of prayer. Giving up a brilliant career as a concert pianist to become a nun in Quebec City, she experienced mystical union with the Trinity through the Eucharistic heart of Jesus. Beatified by John Paul II in 1993, she leaves a spiritual legacy of exceptional richness, reminiscent of that of Thérèse of the Infant Jesus. She continues to bring love and joy to those who pray to her: "In Heaven, I'll be a little beggar of love: that's my mission!"

Going further:

The Autobiography of Dina Bélanger, Religious of Jesus and Mary; 3rd Edition (January 1, 1997)

More information:

The Courage to Love : Dina Belanger: (In Religion Marie Sainte Cécile de Rome), 1897-1929 by Irène Leger, East Anglian Magazine Ltd. (January 1, 1986)
Mystic of the Church page on Blessed Dina Belanger, "The Little Flower of Canada"
The Divine Mercy website, article on Holiness from the Heart of Jesus: Blessed Dina Bélanger