BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

‘A few minutes ago I received Jesus. I know that I deserve to have to live with the devils, but instead I am
surrounded every morning by the Saints and Angels, and continuously and intimately united with Jesus! How
good and merciful is not Jesus! What is there worth loving on earth, now that I possess Jesus? . . . I live
upon the earth, but it seems to me, like one who has lost his way, for never is the thought of Jesus absent
from my mind.'
Nevertheless Gemma feared that in spite of the candor of her desires, she did not receive Holy Communion
with the requisite dispositions, and that she did not obtain from its reception all the fruit she ought. 'Tell me,
Mother,' she wrote to a religious, 'why notwithstanding the frequency of my Communions, I do not obtain the
benefit from them which others do?' And to her spiritual director she wrote: 'Day and night Jesus remains
shut up, out of love for us, in that poor ciborium, and all around Him there is silence and squalor ; and then if
in addition to this we also were to grieve Him, what a heart-rending thought.' And in her humility she said: 'I
am so undeserving, that it will be necessary for me to make restitution for all the particles I have stolen and
all that Blood! '
‘How happy Jesus makes me! But I am full of confusion at the thought. What was it that induced Jesus to
communicate Himself to us in such a beautiful and wonderful manner? Let us reflect:
Jesus, our food! Jesus, my food! At this moment there are many things I should like to say, but I cannot. I can
only weep, saying again and again: " Jesus, my food ! "’
‘Holy Sacrament, welcome me, receive me, grant me a tiny place in the ciborium, for You art my peace, my
rest. . . . How can I hide my heart, oh Jesus, within Thy fire? Come, 0 Jesus, I open my heart to Thee;
enkindle therein the fire of Thy divine love. You art a flame of fire, 0 Jesus, and You desire to change my
heart into a fire also. Open Thy heart to me, 0 Jesus, for I have opened mine to Thee; set my heart on fire, 0
Jesus, and consume it with Thy burning love. . . . And You, the Lily of purity, the Fountain of all beauty, how is
it that You dwell in the midst of such misery ? You nourish me and sustain me, but how do I repay Thee? You
do feed among the lilies, but there are no such flowers within my heart. . . . Thy bed is of ebony, and Thy
columns are of gold, and Thy stairways are carpeted with purple. But there are no such colors within my
heart ! '
‘I WISH THAT MY HEART COULD BEAT ONLY FOR JESUS'
There were flowers indeed, and those colors, within Gemma's heart-a heart burnt up with love of God. For
this is what first strikes the reader of her writings and ecstasies, her extraordinary love for Jesus. To use the
words of Father Germanus, in his introduction to the first edition of her letters and ecstasies in 1909,
Gemma's love was' tender and animated, constant and generous, fruitful of holy desires and the most ardent
affections.' The Holy Name enriches every phrase, but so natural is its use that the reader, far from being
wearied, is, on the contrary, pleased. In the Epistles of that great lover of the Divine Master, St. Paul the
Apostle, one notices with admiration that the most Holy Name is used no fewer than four hundred and fifty
times. In her letters Gemma mentions it one thousand and eighty-two times in her ecstasies.
We shall now quote some passages taken here and there from these sublime outpourings of her heart:
‘How sweet and good Jesus is to me, in spite of my being so wicked! How shall I ever correspond with the
mercy Jesus shows me? What shall I give to Jesus in exchange for all the benefits He showers upon me?'
‘It is true, is it not, Jesus, that love is the best exchange for Thy gifts? And even I can love Thee. But I do not
love Thee because of Thy gifts to me. I love Thee because You art my Jesus, I love Thee because You alone
art worthy of being loved. I love Thee because You art good, because You have promised, have sworn never
to abandon me .... '
‘I love Thee because You art my benefactor, my preserver, because You do consume my soul, do make my
soul divine. Because You art my Spouse, I seek Thee always, I seek Thy affection, Thy friendship, Thy glory.'
‘You ask me how I should like to love Thee? With that purity with which the virgins loved Thee; with that
fortitude with which the martyrs loved Thee. Yes,... You know, 0 Jesus (but do I say it too often ?), I want to
love Thee as Thy holy Mother loved Thee.'
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