CHILDHOOD
As the tenth of thirteen children born to Maria and Albert Beretta (five of whom died at an early age), Gianna was blessed to have a mother who accompanied her and her brothers and sisters to daily Mass and Communion. She would return to church for Vespers in the afternoon and participate in the evening rosary with her family at home.
From her youth Gianna was a member of "Catholic Action", a group of lay persons whose apostolate consisted of making Jesus known and loved, and to spread Christian values throughout society. Their ideals consisted of eucharistic piety, apostolic action and heroic purity. The three key concepts held by members of Catholic Action were: "Prayer, Action, and Sacrifice" (PAS).
In the Spring of 1938 Gianna at age 15 attended a retreat organized around the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Gianna wrote notes entitled "Recollections and Prayers of Gianna Beretta, March 16, 17, 18, 1938".
She wrote down one prayer to Our Lord 'begging to know His Holy Will and the grace of an enlightened trust'. The prayer begins thus: "I promise You, Jesus, to submit myself to all that You permit to happen to me. Let me know Your Will." Gianna also made a series of resolutions as follows:
I make note of doing all for Jesus. I offer Him all my work, all my disappointments and sufferings. I make note that in order to serve God, I no longer wish to go to the cinema unless I know beforehand that it is worth seeing -that it is modest, moral and not scandalous. I wish to die rather than commit mortal sin. I wish to fear mortal sin as if it were a serpent and I repeat I would die a thousand times rather than offend the Lord. I wish to ask the Lord for help not to go to hell and therefore to avoid all that would harm my soul.I will say one "Ave" daily so that the Lord will grant me a holy death. I beg the Lord to help me understand his great mercy. I propose to obey M.M. (Mother Malatto) and to study even though I don't feel like it, for the love of Jesus. From this day on, I wish to pray on my knees in the morning in church just as I do in my room in the evening at the foot of my bed.
SINGLE ADULT
During her college years in Milan and in Pavia, Gianna attends daily morning Mass, studies and prays the rosary after dinner. When she has had enough of her studies she spends time meditating in church.
In one of her letters, Gianna notes a book she read entitled "Sanctifying the Present Moment" which comforts and helps her. "As to the past, let us entrust it to God's Mercy, the future to Divine Providence. Our task is to live holy the present moment."
The person who always has need of seeing, touching, and feeling is not easily conquered with words. It is not enough to speak well, we must show by examples. We must be living witnesses of the grandeur and beauty of Christianity. To make truth visible in one's own person, to render truth pleasing, offering oneself as a significant and, if possible, heroic example.
Do not be afraid to defend God, the church, the Pope and priests. It is just the moment for action. Against this anti-religious and immoral campaign one cannot be indifferent. We, in Catholic Action, must be the first to defend the healthy foundation and the holiness of the Christian tradition in our country.
We must act, we must enter into all the fields of social, familiar and political action. And to work, because all the dark and threatening forces of evil are united. It is necessary that the forces of good be all united and form a kind of dam, a barrier as if to say: "There is no passing over here."
Blessed Gianna composed this prayer of consecration to Mary:
"0 Mary, into your maternal hands I place myself and I abandon myself completely, sure of obtaining whatever I ask of you. I trust in you because you are the sweet Mother, I confide in you because you are the Mother of Jesus. In this trust I place myself, sure of being heard in everything; with this trust in my heart I greet you "my Mother, my trust", I devote myself entirely to you, begging you to remember that I am yours, that I belong to you; keep me and defend me, 0 sweet Mary, and in every instant of my life, present me to your Son, Jesus."
Blessed Gianna composed these prayers directed to Jesus:
"0 Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to happen to me, make me only know Your Will."
"My most good Jesus, God of infinite mercy, most sweet Father of our souls and especially of the most weak, of the most miserable, of the most sick, of those souls that You carry with a special tenderness in Your divine arms, I come to ask You, thanks to the love and to the merits of Your Sacred Heart, the grace to understand and to always do Your Holy Will, the grace to trust in You, and the grace to rest securely in time and eternity in Your divine arms filled with love."
In her professional life, Gianna would at times be confronted with a girl who would want to consider an abortion. Dr. Gianna would clearly tell the girl that she was absolutely opposed to abortion and that it is an offense against God.
Also, in her life as a physician, Gianna wrote down various affirmations on the significance and value of a doctor's mission on five pages of a prescription pad and entitled it "The beauty of our Mission":
"We all work in some way in the world at the service of humanity. We work directly with people. Man is the object of our work and science, and Man says to us 'Help me!' and he expects from us the fullness of his existence.
Jesus tells us that Man is not only a body.. .There is in the body a spirit, and as such, it is immortal. There is an abyss between body and soul; they are two entities very diverse yet are as one...What does Jesus tell us? You must take great care of this body. God has bound the divine and the human together so intimately that all that we do assumes the utmost value.
Today, unfortunately, there is much superficiality even in our work. We cure the body and this, many times, inadequately." Gianna indicates four norms for doctors:
1. To do our part well. Study our science well. Today there is a seeking after money.
2. Be honest. Be doctors of faith.
3. Have a loving care, thinking of each one as a brother. Have a certain delicacy.
4. Never forget the patient's soul. We who have a right to a certain confidence must be attentive never to profane the
soul. This would be a betrayal. Take care not to use superficial language. Instead, always do good.
Gianna proposes some reflections:
"We have many opportunities which priests do not have. Our mission does not end when medicines fail us; there is the soul which we must bring to God and the doctor's word holds authority. Every doctor must consign the sick person to the priest. How necessary these Catholic doctors are!
Gianna insists:
"Jesus says: whoever visits the sick is helping me - a priestly mission! As the priest can touch Jesus so we doctors touch Jesus in the body of our sick: poor, young1 old, or children. Jesus makes Himself seen in our midst. Many doctors offer themselves for Him. When you have finished your earthly profession, if you have done this well, you will enjoy divine life, 'because I was sick and you healed me"'.
WIFE AND MOTHER
In the notes of Blessed Gianna one reads about "vocation". "All things have a particular end. Everything obeys a law. Everything develops for a pre-determined end. Also for each of us God has pointed out the way, the vocation and, beyond the physical life, the life of grace. Our earthly and eternal happiness depends on our following well our vocation. What is vocation? It's God's gift: it comes from God! Our preoccupation thus must be that of knowing God's Will.
Gianna had been acquainted with Pietro Molla because she had cared for his late sister Teresina. She asked guidance of Our Lady
of Good Counsel as to her future vocation on a train ride to Lourdes, France where she accompanied a group of sick patients.
SACRIFICE
In September 1961 Gianna underwent surgery to remove a large uterine tumor which was causing her pain and pressing on the baby in her womb. She stated: "Yes, I have prayed so much in these days. With faith and hope I have entrusted myself to the Lord... I trust in God, yes; but now it is up to me to fulfill my duty as a mother. I renew to the Lord the offer of my life. I am ready for everything, to save my baby."
On Good Friday, April 20, 1962, Gianna went to the Monza Maternity Hospital to deliver her fourth child. Only a few days prior to the delivery she told Pietro: "If you must decide between me and the baby, have no hesitation: choose -- and I demand it --the baby, save him."
In the last week of her pregnancy she repeats: "Whatever God wants."
BEATIFICATION
In 1977 a young protestant woman was in the hospital in Grajau, in Brazil, dying shortly after giving birth to a still-born baby. An unforeseeable yet very serious complication had caused a vaginal abscess which was inoperable in that hospital requiring that the patient be transported to a specialized hospital in San Luis located more that 600 kilometers away. The young woman would never have survived the trip.
A nurse, Sister Bernardina di Manaus, a capuchin sister, very concerned due to the painful situation of the patient, turned in prayer to Gianna Beretta Molla in order that, through her intercession, the dying mother be freed from her pain and the dramatic voyage to San Luis be avoided. Looking at a small photo of the Servant of God, she prayed "you who are the sister of Father Alberto (who founded the hospital), make this abscess heal and the trip to San Luis be averted.
Sister Bernardina invited two other nurses to unite themselves in this petition. Immediately, according to the testimony of the patient, her troubles did not only diminish, but they completely disappeared.
On April 11, 1978, Cardinal Giovanni Colombo and sixteen bishops of the Lombardy Episcopal Conference requested of Pope John Paul II the introduction of the cause of beatification of the Servant of God Gianna Beretta Molla. In their postulatory letter the bishops implored the glorification of this spouse and mother, describing her as "a model of a complete reality to this world prone to misconstrue and refute the right of life".
HER QUOTES
"If you must choose between me and the baby, no hesitation: choose - and I demand it - the baby, save him!"
"Whatever God wants".
"If one were to consider how much Jesus has suffered, one would not commit the smallest sin."
"When one does one's own duty, one must not be concerned, because God's help will not be lacking".
"Our body is a cenacle, a monstrance: through its crystal the world should see God."
"The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for all that He, in His goodness, sends to us day after day."
"God's Providence is in all things, it's always present."
"Lord, keep Your grace in my heart. Live in me so that Your grace be mine. Make it that I may bear every day some flowers and new fruit".
"One earns Paradise with one's daily task".
"Why do you not succeed in doing good? It's because you do not pray enough."
"Also in suffering, let us say: Thanks be to God."
"In order to bring true peace back to my soul, the only way that there exists on the Earth is Confession, because Jesus awaits me with his immense heart."
"One cannot love without suffering or suffer without loving".
"Look at the mothers who truly love their children: how many sacrifices they make for them. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood so that their babies grow up good, healthy and strong"
http://www.gianna.org/Biography/biography.html#wife