Blessed Dina Bélanger, whose memory the Church celebrates on 4 September, loved perfection so much that she made herself one with the One who, being one with the Father, is perfect as He Himself is.
Newsroom (08/09/2023 09:00, Gaudium Press) At the beginning of the last century, an outstanding soul, Marguerite Dina Adelaide Bélanger – the first Canadian from Quebec City to be proclaimed blessed by the Church – tried to describe her inner disposition by saying: “Jesus and I are no longer two. We are one: only Jesus. He makes use of my faculties, my senses, my limbs. It is He who thinks, acts, prays, looks, speaks, walks, writes, teaches: in a word, it is He who lives…”.
Dina longed intensely for this union. To such an extent did she become one with Christ that He Himself affectionately called her “My little self”.
Jesus wants your autobiography
Dina would have gone unnoticed if her Superior hadn’t discerned God’s favour towards her. “You must write your life, my dear sister,” she told her. That’s why we have her Autobiography, “one of the most perfect jewels of 20th century spiritual literature”, according to Carmelite theologian Fr. François-Marie Léthel.
On one occasion, Our Lord confided in her: “You will do good through your writings”. And so it was. Dina spoke with Christ with familiarity, and when she wrote down His sacred words, she did not just do it for her own benefit, but also for that of the priests, religious and all of humanity.
Dina Bélanger’s childhood
Dina’s early years were spent in the peaceful atmosphere of a French-Canadian family of great faith. She was born in the Saint-Roch district of Quebec City and baptised on the day of her birth, 30 April 1897, with the name Maria Marguerite Dina Adelaide.
Her only brother died when she was three months old. From that moment on, her parents focused all their affection and care on her. Serafina, her mother, always took her to church and and with her on her visits to the poor. She loved to sing to her daughter, which led the girl, who was naturally gifted with an artistic sense, to have a passion for music.
Her father, Otávio, was an accountant. Perhaps it was from him that Dina inherited her precision in expressing herself and her methodical way of carrying out her duties.
Resolutions and life goals
Throughout her life, Dina made numerous resolutions and fulfilled them to the best of her ability. When she was a student, she proclaimed: “I prefer death to becoming corrupted”. In postulancy, her goal was: “If you begin, begin with perfection”. And in religious life she aimed to “love and suffer. Like Therese of Lisieux a few years earlier, she made a firm resolution to be “a Saint”. And to guide herself along this path, she adapted St. Augustine’s principle “ama et quod vis fac” (love and do what you want), transforming it into the motto that characterised her entire spirituality: “Love and let yourself be led by Jesus and Mary”.
In fact, it was through the hands of the Blessed Virgin that she consecrated herself to Jesus Christ as a slave of love at the age of 13, according to the method taught by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort.
Struggles of the soul and offering herself as a victim
When the time came for her studies, Dina entered Bellevue College, a religious boarding school run by the Sisters of Notre Dame, where her first prayer to Jesus was: “May I never offend you with even the smallest voluntary venial sin during my stay here“. There began the struggles that, due to her shy and reserved nature, she would have to fight throughout her life. “I tried to smile at everyone, but how much I would rather be alone!” On the occasion of a visit from her mother, she confided in her: “Mum, it is no fun living with other people!”.
Dina tells us with all simplicity that on the first Friday in October 1911, while the students were going to the chapel to visit the Blessed Sacrament, she consecrated her virginity to Our Lord. It was also at this time that she offered herself as a victim of love: “As soon as I had heard of this self-giving, known as ‘the heroic offering’, I already offered myself; I abandoned myself entirely to the will of Jesus, as His victim”. Inflamed by the desire to give up her life, she was certain that she would be given the grace of the martyrdom of love.
As soon as she learned of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, she once again offered herself to Our Lord, body and soul, in a spirit of reparation and love: “I was afflicted above all by the moral danger that threatened the world.”
Studies in New York
After finishing her studies at boarding school, at the age of 16, she returned to live at home. Her parents decided that she should continue studying music, which she had begun as a child. This art brought her closer to God and she offered Him each of her notes on the piano as an act of love, constituting for her a true prayer, because her heart belonged to God alone.
A few months later, she asked her spiritual director for permission to enter the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Villa-Maria, but was advised to postpone her decision due to her parents’ refusal. She fulfilled her social obligations with dignity, gave concerts, even though they cost her an enormous amount of effort, and became a pianist of some renown. She always had a real love for her neighbour and was very sensitive to courtesy and good manners. But deep down she was always thinking about her desire to be a nun. Then a good opportunity arose for her to perfect her piano, harmony and composition studies at a New York Conservatory. The offer was tempting: “I liked the plan, because I was passionate about art and beauty. And I’ve always aspired to perfection.”
Her parents doubted it, but on the advice of the parish priest who insisted on it, they agreed, thinking it would be a good experience for her education, and from 1916 to 1918 she studied in the United States. Being from French Canada, she found it difficult to communicate in English, but she found comfort in music, since the piano sounds the same in any country… She lived in the Our Lady of Peace residence, run by the nuns of Jesus-Mary, and studied a lot at the Conservatory, feeling a strong attraction to musical harmony, the subject she liked best. By the end of this experience in New York, her relationship with Our Lord had deepened and her conscience remained unblemished: “I had to follow fashion and its whims as far as colours and fabrics were concerned, but I vigorously avoided its extravagant and culpable demands.”
Path of perfection and religious life
When Dina returned from New York, she was 21 years old. In the four years leading up to her entry into religious life in 1921, which she spent at her parents’ home, she prayed a lot and experienced tremendous anguish of soul.
She continued a correspondence course in harmony at the New York Conservatory and continued with musical concerts. She loved music. But the contemplative life enchanted her and this contrast between the life of the world and her aspirations tested her soul. Sometimes she could hear Christ’s voice in the depths of her heart, but she was uncertain, fearing that she was falling victim to some illusion; but then she reassured herself: “I realised that Jesus only spoke to my heart when everything was absolutely calm.” On one occasion, Our Lord showed her a path full of thorns that He had passed through, expressing His desire for her to follow Him. To help her, He gave her His Blessed Mother.
When she learnt that St. Margaret Mary had taken a vow of perfection, Dina immediately made up her mind to do what was most perfect at all times, even though she was not allowed to bind herself by a formal vow. “It seemed to me that doing anything less than perfect would be a sign of lukewarm love,” she wrote.
When she was in doubt as to which religious community she should choose, Jesus Himself told her: “I want you to join the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary”. It had been founded in France in 1818 by St. Claudine Thévenet, dedicated to the education of young girls. There she was received as a novice on 15 February 1922, adopting the name of Maria Santa Cecilia of Rome. On 15 August 1923, she made her religious profession and was given the task of teaching the art of music to the Congregation’s students.
Great mystical experiences
Before entering into the full joy of union with Christ, at the dawn of her vocation, she had felt the torment of the “dark night of the soul”. However, during this period of trial, her vocation was strengthened and she received various graces, including a break so profound with her past that she felt as if she had died and been born again.
In the early days of her life as a religious, Dina received a singular grace of love twice: in a mystical experience, she “saw” Jesus take her heart and leave His in its place. Later, when she was already professed, she once again “saw” Jesus show her her own heart, which He had taken to Himself, burn it all on the altar of His love, as well as herself, and blow on the ashes, making them disappear, and leaving Himself in their place.
Jesus also warned her that she would die on 15 August 1924, exactly one year after her profession. When that day came, she didn’t die physically, but He gave her to understand that mystically she had died to this world and her eternal union with Him had begun.
On 3 October of that same year, she was allowed to take the longed-for vow of perfection. In a beautiful formulation, she promised Jesus to do everything in the most perfect way, in thoughts, desires, words and actions. She gave herself to God with trust and in full awareness of her own frailty.
It is Christ who lives and speaks in Dina
After that date, when Dina “disappeared”, it is only the voice of Christ that dominates her autobiography. He speaks to her with a touching tenderness and finds her as receptive as possible.
Through Dina’s pen, Jesus manifested Himself to humanity, which had forgotten His love: “My Heart is so overflowing with love for souls that it can no longer hold the torrents of graces that I would like to pour out on them: but the majority of souls want nothing to do with My love…”.
“Souls are sad to the extent that they distance themselves from God. My Father’s great desire, and Mine, is to see all souls happy, even on this earth.”
A song of love
Dina died on 4 September 1929, just seven months before reaching the “perfect age” at which Christ gave His life for us on the Cross: 33 years old. In the suffering of the illness that led to her death – tuberculosis – Jesus accepted her offering as a victim, taking her at such a young age.
In her last writings, from July 1929, in a “canticle of love”, Our Lord embraces the whole of humanity through her:
“No invocation responds better than this to the immense desire of My Eucharistic Heart to reign in souls: ‘Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary’. And to My infinite desire to communicate My graces to souls, no invocation responds better than this: ‘Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, aflame with love for us, enflame our hearts with love for You’.”
Text extracted, with adaptations, from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel no. 93, September 2009. By Sr Elizabeth Veronica, EP.
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
