BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

decided to plead her cause with her father. Mgr. Volpi, who was Gemma's ordinary confessor until her death,
and who was in 1897 consecrated Auxiliary Bishop to the Archbishop of Lucca, and later became Bishop of
Arezzo, died in Rome, June 19, 1931, as titular Archbishop of Antioch in Pisidia. He was a man of
outstanding piety and integrity, a father to the orphans and the poor. Leo XIII used to call him' the saint of
Lucca.' Everywhere he went he left the imprint of his charity and indefatigable zeal. Before his death he gave
a considerable sum of money as the first subscription towards the enlargement and beautifying of the Chapel
of the Passionist Nuns, where Gemma's body now lies, and where he himself desired to be one day buried.
The argument used by Mgr. Volpi to overcome Enrico's reluctance was the most likely one to touch a father's
heart. He pointed out to Enrico that he was in this dilemma, either he must give his permission or see his
child die of sorrow. The permission was immediately granted.
Gemma's joy was unbounded, but in her Autobiography all she says is: 'I had only one desire, to make my
first Communion soon, and it was known to be so strong that my request was very soon granted.'
PREPARING FOR HER FIRST HOLY COMMUNION
Gemma, however, was not yet fully satisfied and began to think of the best way of preparing herself for this
first meeting with Jesus in the sacrament of His love. Nothing seemed more appropriate than to spend the
ten days usually devoted to spiritual exercises with the Sisters at the Convent. But how was she to obtain
permission from her father, who did not like to be separated from her for even a few days? But there was one
sure means of getting her own way with him, and she knew it-tears. So Enrico capitulated and even
promised not to visit her or disturb her recollection in any way.
This settled, Gemma turned all her attention to preparing her soul for the coming of Jesus.
‘In the evening I received permission to go,' she wrote, ' and in the morning I went to the Convent. During this
time I saw none of the family. But how happy I was; it was Heaven! '
Of those days it is better to let her speak for herself:
'I had scarcely reached the Convent and settled down before I ran to the Chapel to thank Jesus and ask Him
to prepare me well to receive Him in Holy Communion. But I also had another desire. When I was very small
Mom used to show me the Crucifix and tell me that Jesus had died on the Cross for mankind, and afterwards
I heard the same from my teachers, but I never understood properly, and I would have liked to know perfectly
the Life and Passion of Jesus.'
What a sublime aspiration for a young child, to know Jesus and Him crucified, to know Him in His Passion in
order to know Him better in the Eucharist. Jesus in the Eucharist and Jesus on the Cross would be
throughout her life the inseparable objects of her love. '0 Jesus,' she was later on heard to say in an ecstasy,
' You hear what the confessor asks me: What do you do when you are before Jesus ? If I am with Jesus
Crucified, I suffer; if I am with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I love.' For Gemma, to suffer and to love
were the same thing. , Oh, yes, Jesus,' she said in ecstasy, ' whoever loves Thee truly, suffers willingly. . . . 0
Jesus, to love Thee and to suffer for Thee!' This was her heart's cry and her life's sole objective.
At this point in her Autobiography, Gemma describes the effects which the story of the Passion, as related by
Sister Catherine Vagliensi, had upon her and the fever it brought on, and her father's displeasure when he
knew she was sick.
Referring to these facts, Sister Gesualda in her Life of Gemma asks whether so deep an impression could be
made upon a child by the mere description of the Passion, however vivid, and suggests that it was rather the
result of the direct action of Jesus Who desired to prepare her for the gift He was later on to bestow upon
her, that of participating in His Passion. 'Jesus filled her with a. love for His Passion,' she says, 'because the
lively sorrow she would experience in meditating upon it would awaken in her an ardent desire to be
associated with Him in His sufferings and to share in them, to give love for love.'
Gemma listened very attentively to the priest who gave the spiritual exercises to the children. One thing he
said struck her particularly. It was a paraphrase of the words of the Gospel: 'Whoever eats the Flesh of Jesus
shall live by His life.' 'These words,' she wrote, ' filled me with consolation, and I said to myself that when
Jesus is with me I shall . live no longer, but Jesus will live in me. I was burning with desire for the moment to
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