Continue to listen to Dina. The following sentences speak to us about her life.

I wish I could travel all over the world, setting it alight with the infinite flames of the Sacred Heart.

I let Jesus have his way and concern myself only with him.

I shall be a little beggar for love : that is my mission! And I am going to begin it at once.

In heaven, until the end of the world, I will plead constantly for love.

Jesus, my only pleasure is to let you have your way.

My duty now, and my task in eternity, until the end of the world, is and will be, through the Blessed Virgin, to send forth rays from the Heart of  Jesus on all souls. 

I am worth only what I am worth in God’s sight.

Continue to listen to Dina. The following sentences speak to us about her life.

Jesus does not refuse his grace to those who ask him for it.

God surely endows educators with the heart of a mother, or rather, he replaces our heart with his own.

 I want to be holy! With your grace, Jesus, this I will be.

Jesus and Mary, the rule of my love; and my love, the rule  of my life!

In order to live in God, when we get to heaven, we must allow God to live in us, here on earth.

I wish to live and die as a martyr of love, a victim of love, an apostle of love for you alone, my God.

Dina composer: Cantique d’action de grâces

Although we do not know the date or the occasion when Dina Bélanger wrote the words and music of Cantique d’action de grâces it is more probable that when she was already a religious.

The melody and the text evoke what Dina lived and the graces with which God filled her. They are also the reflection of the confident sentiments of abandonment which was the climate of her whole life. 

God of goodness, my soul is powerless to praise you for so much good received. Overjoyed it thanks and sings through the Heart of Jesus.

In the past, Lord, your tenderness has not ceased to fill us with your benefits. For all your gifts, ceaselessly multiplied, Divine Master, may you be blessed forever. Divine Master, may you be blessed forever. God of goodness…

In the future may your Providence continue to be my powerful help. Oh merciful God, be always the King of our desires, of our existence. Oh merciful God, be our King always. Oh merciful God, be our King always. God of goodness…

We can also unite ourselves to this praise and allow these notes to speak to us, as they did to her, of the infinite love of God.  Listen to it in silence and let it become a prayer.

You can do that leasing to Sr Annette Haché, rjm. following this indication:    

Dina composer: Les cloches de l’Abbaye

Les cloches de l’Abbaye is another composition of Dina Bélanger.  It arrived to our hands through a piano teacher from another religious community who found it among her things. 

She shared it with our religious, the organist who was Dina’s pupil and, knowing that the fire of 1983 had totally destroyed our house in Sillery and had demolished everything, she gave this piece to her in order that we could keep it.  We do not know the date when Dina wrote it, but probably it was before she entered religious life.  The limpid harmony and her rhythmic cadence overwhelm us with peace at the sound of bells which in a clear morning are a call to prayer. 

Let yourself be carried away by these notes interpreted by Sr Rachel Fournier, rjm. You can listen to it following this indication:

Dina composer: Rêverie sur la Saguenay

In 1920 Dina’s cousin made her religious profession in the Monastery of Chicoutimi, city in the Saguenay, a river which starts in St-Jean Lake and goes until the St-Lawrence river.

In order to attend this ceremony, several persons from Jacques Cartier’s Parish, Dina among them, decided to take a cruise.  When they returned to Quebec the Parish priest, Mr. Cloutier, asked Dina to write a musical piece as souvenir of that trip.  She finished this composition in April 1921, a few months before she entered the noviciate of the religious of Jesus and Mary in August 1921 and the title is Rêverie sur la Saguenay.    

You can admire this beautiful and smooth melody which evokes the beauties of nature to which Dina was very sensitive. Sr Rachel Fournier, rjm. interprets this piece. Listen to it following this indication:

Dina Composer: Ricordanza

Dina Bélanger improved  her piano and harmony studies in New York from October 1916 until June 1921. When she went back to Quebec she started giving concerts with great success, which opened for her a brilliant future.

She also composed some piano pieces. We have four. You will be able to listen to them in this Blog where they will start appearing every ten days. Do not miss them.

The first:  Ricordanza written in June 1919, a year after she returned from New York.  The piece shows Dina’s gratitude when she remembers the events that fill her life.  It is her master piece, perhaps the best known and according to pianists a work full of harmony and musical talent.  It is necessary to be an expert to play it well. Here is Sr Rachel Fournier, rjm. who plays. If you love music, you can listen to it following these indications.  Enjoy it!

BIBLIOGRAPHY DINA BÉLANGER

 In English. Order to : Centre Dina Bélanger. Religieuses de Jésus-Marie. 2049, Chemin St-Louis. Québec (Qc) - GIT IP2. Canada.

The Religious of Jesus and Mary, Bandes Dessinées: Dina Bélanger (Comics).

                                                                

Autobiography of Dina Bélanger,(Marie St.Cécile de Rome,Religious of Jesus and Mary, 3^rd edition.

Irène Léger, RJM., Courage to Love. The Life of Dina Bélanger.

Teresa Resusta, RJM y Concepciòn Tindon, RJM,  Dina, a good friend of Jesu.

Ghislaine Boucher, RJM., In Dina’s Footsteps.

R.J.M., Praying with Dina Bélanger.