This day is so special for me; even though I encountered so many sufferings, my soul is overflowing with great joy. In a private room next to mine, there was a Jewish woman who was seriously ill. I went to see her three days ago and was deeply pained at the thought that she would soon die without having her soul cleansed by the grace of Baptism. I had an understanding with her nurse, a [religious] Sister, that when her last moment would be approaching, she would baptize her. There was this difficulty however, that there were always some Jewish people with her. However, I felt inspired to pray before the image which Jesus had instructed me to have painted. I have a leaflet with the Image of the Divine Lord, “Jesus, Mercy on the cover. And I said to the You yourself told me that You would grant many graces through this image. I ask You, then, forthe grace of HolyBaptismfor this Jewish lady.It makesno differencewhowill baptize her, as long as she is baptized. After these words, I felt strangely at peace, and I was quite sure that, despite the difficulties, the waters of Holy Baptismwould be poured upon her soul. That night, when she was very low, I got out of bed three times to see her, watchingfor the right moment to give her this grace. The next morning,she seemed to feel a little better. In the afternoonher last moment began to approach.The Sister who was her nurse said that Baptism would be difficult because they were with her. The moment came when the sick woman began to lose consciousness,and as a result, in order to save her, they began to run about; some [went] to fetch the doctor, while others went off in other directions to find help. And so the patient was left alone, and Sister baptized her, and before they had all rushed back, her soul was beautiful, adorned with God’s grace. Her final agony began immediately, but it did not last long. It was as if she fell asleep. All of a sudden, I saw her soul ascending to heaven in wondrous beauty. Oh, how beautiful is a soul with sanctifying grace! Joy flooded my heart that before this image I had received so great a grace for this soul. Diary 916, 1286 St. Josephine Bakhita Optional Memorial February 8th Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita, originally from the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan, was born around the year 1869 - she herself could not remember the exact date, for by 1877, at the age of 9, she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders. They forced her to walk over 600 miles to the slave market, where she was sold to a wealthy Arab who gave her to his daughters as a maid. The assignment was fairly light until she was falsely accused of a crime and beaten so severely that she was incapacitated for a month. Bakhita was not actually her original name. After years in slavery, she could not even remember her given name. Could not even remember her name. In the course of being sold from master to master, she was given the name "Bakhita," which means "fortunate," in Arabic. She was once sold to a Turkish general who gave her to his wife and mother-in-law; the two women beat her daily. She was scourged with a whip and cut with a blade. Salt was rubbed into her wounds to make the scars permanent. As soon as one wound would heal, they would inflict another. She received a total of 144 scars throughout her life. Pope Benedict XVI wrote of Bakhita in his encyclical on Christian hope entitled Spe Salvi: "Now she had 'hope' - no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but the great hope." Bakhita said, "I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me - I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good." Pope Benedict continued, "Through the knowledge of this hope she was 'redeemed', no longer a slave, but a free child of God" (3). As a model of mercy, Josephine Bakhita gives us an example of hope amidst suffering. In this time of Lent, let us ask her intercession so that we might have hope in Jesus during our trials, and share that hope with others. Excerpt taken from Models of Mercy: St. Josephine Bakhita. Find full article at: www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/models-mercy-saint-josephine-bakhita Fr om th e D ia ry of St. Fa us tin a
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