The end arrives

Another important moment in Dina’s life approaches. The time comes in religious life when the vows that were made five years previously are renewed forever. In her heart she had already made them forever on the 15^th August 1923, but now it will be done publically. The years have passed and Dina is aware of being totally absorbed by Jesus and she only seeks to let him have his way; grace fills her life and she makes great efforts always to respond faithfully.

Dina enjoyed and enjoys the experience of God and the desire to communicate it to others burns within her. If her apostolic activity was reduced because of her illness, her missionary spirit was not. Her apostolic impulse to work for the salvation of all mankind takes on the dimension of the whole world. She wants to travel through the universe and she discovers that her mission for all eternity, from now until the end of time, is and will be to irradiate the love of Jesus to everyone, through the Virgin Mary. Jesus said “Ask and you will receive…” Certain of this, Dina says: ”In heaven I shall be a little mendicant of love; this is my mission and I begin it immediately”. She understood that people are united with one another as much in the spiritual as in social life, and she feels at one with the whole world, loving and letting Jesus and Mary have their way. Dina desires that all may be saved, that no one be lost; that is why she affirms, “I would like to close hell forever”.

To be one with others is not always easy. It is enjoyable when solidarity entails sharing success and happy moments,  it  is hard when it must be suffered in silence, alone without visible results. This is what Dina lives in her simple room in the infirmary. Her life is ebbing away and her apostolate remains in the joyful silence of anonymity, accepting in faith whatever Jesus offers her in each moment and which she desires to give him because she continues to let him have his way.

Her illness follows its course but the suffering does not in any way reduce her concern for others. At times the suffering is so intense that she has to cry out, “Jesus come quickly and give me strength”. From July 1929 Dina writes no more, she is too weak to do so. She continues, however, to faithfully tell her superior what she is experiencing in her inner life. Those who visit her suspect nothing but admire her serenity, her joy and the kindness she shows to all who approach her. She does not lose the smile for which she once fought at the beginning of her religious life. Her parents visit her and she suffers to see their suffering.

Having lived an ordinary life filled with an extraordinary love, the 4^th of September 1929 arrives. At about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a few very calm, imperceptible breaths mark for Dina the final encounter with Jesus.