On January 22, 1927, Dina was given the gift of the Stigmata of Jesus, the Five Wounds in her hands, feet, and side. She described it in breathtaking description:
"On the 22nd of January, a Saturday and the Feast of Our Lady of Fourvire, we had the closing ceremony of the Forty Hours Adoration. During my mediation before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, I suddenly felt myself enveloped in profound peace. I was already conscious of the presence of my Divine Master, but this was something more than the ordinary union of Thursdays and Fridays. In fact, Our Lord was granting me a great favor: the Stigmata of His Sacred Wounds. From His Divine Heart flames radiated on the feet, hands and heart of my annihilated being. The Blessed Virgin applied these flames to my hands and feet, and Jesus imprinted on them the Stigmata of love of His Sacred Wounds. He was granting one of my most cherished desires, but He astonished me by granting it at this moment when I was not expecting it and in this manner which I could never have imagined."
As with most genuine Stigmatists, Dina begged Our Lord Jesus not to let her Stigmata show. She didn't want anyone to know that she had been given this special gift. And the Lord answered her prayer. Padre Pio begged for his Stigmata to remain invisible, and for a time, the Lord gave him this gift. But when the Lord felt it necessary for the Stigmata to be visible for all the world to see, Padre Pio said yes to all that it entailed.
[Let us say something at this point, which is really important. We've been given a great gift here, in having the autobiography of a Mystic and Stigmatist. We get to know what is going on inside of her, what she's thinking, what she's feeling, what her focus is throughout her life. She wanted to be a nothing, hidden in a corner, just adoring her Lord. She wanted no attention, no publicity. Hopefully by now, you've read about Sts. Martin de Porres and Rose of Lima. They didn't want to be in the public eye. It was thrust upon them. They wanted to be contemplatives. Dina was the same. To have had the visible Stigmata, would have been asking for a cross which would have been very heavy for her to carry. The publicity and notoriety that comes with a gift like the Stigmata would have been completely contrary to how she wanted to adore her Lord.]
Throughout her life, Jesus told Dina that she was going to die at a given date, and she did not die. When questioned by her Superiors, rather than make an excuse, she would say, "I made a mistake." That wasn't so. Jesus would never lie to her. He can't lie and still be God. She did not understand what He meant. He was telling her she would be dying to herself, things she was hanging onto. When He would say "Next August 15, you will be with me in Heaven," she would go into ecstasy on that particular date. She may have even had an out-of-body experience. Her autobiography doesn't specify.
But a time was to come when the Lord told her He was taking her Home, and He did. In the Spring of 1926, she began to show signs of pulmonary Tuberculosis, which was a very life-threatening and debilitating disease. She suffered greatly until it became full-blown. It would lead to an early death for our little Saint. She managed to hang on until she made her final vows on August 15, 1928. But after that, she was preparing for the road Home. She had always desired Heaven. She was promised Heaven by her Lover, Our Lord Jesus. Now it was time to go Home. On April 30, 1929, her birthday, she was moved into the isolation ward for Tuberculosis patients. While it was a more pleasant and a brighter atmosphere, it was the place from which few ever come back. She was on her way.
Actually, from what we can gather from her autobiography, she was more in Heaven than on earth towards the end of her life. She was just shackled to her body, but her soul had already been lifted to the summit. She had soared to the High Places, and it would not be fair to bring her back to earth. She had sacrificed herself for the Divine Wishes of her Master, and He was now going to reward her. But "le capudile", the devil, was not about to let her go peacefully. He kept pulling her back to earth with doubts, trying to break her faith and her relationship with Jesus. Dina fought valiantly, but could only succeed through the saving efforts of her God Who was by her side to the very end.
In the early days of September, 1929, she had been given the last Sacraments of the Church. She called the Mother Superior over to her, reporting to the end all that had been told to her. Dina said to her, "Mother, I heard voices saying to me and repeating fifteen times, `Blessed, Blessed.'" On September 4, 1929, at three in the afternoon, she took her last breath. She looked at the two Superiors on either side of her bed. She smiled such an angelic smile to them that it was imprinted on their hearts for the rest of their lives. When she died, she looked very much like the Little Flower of Jesus, St. Thrse of Lisieux, sitting up with her head back on the pillow.
We want to share with you an excerpt from Dina's diary, regarding the Eucharist.
"If souls but understood the Treasure they possess in the Divine Eucharist, it would be necessary to encircle the Tabernacles with the strongest of ramparts for, in the delirium of a devouring and holy hunger, they would press forward themselves to feed on the Bread of Angels; the churches would overflow with adorers consumed with love for the Divine Prisoner, no less by night than by day."
Most Catholics don't know much about this little Saint. The Lord put her in our path recently, and we were so enthralled with her that we followed her up to Qubec, Canada, to learn as much as we could, to get to know her through the people she touched, to see the places where she lived. We can't recommend too highly that you read more about little Blessed Dina, beatified on March 20, 1993, whose greatest gift to the Lord was to surrender herself to His Love. Praise Jesus!
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Bob and Penny Lord are renowned Catholic authors and television hosts on EWTN, Global Catholic television. They are prolific writers about the Catholic faith, especially the Saints. More information about Blessed Dina Belanger can be found at: http://www.bobandpennylord.com/Bl_Dina_Belanger.htm
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