Sister Maria Teresa of Our Lady of Sorrows: Rosalia Binello
To meet another of the first eight Pious Disciples, we go to a small hill in the Roero, where Priocca rises. In this fertile land, in the family of Giuseppe Binello and Teresa Tarabra, Rosalia was born on April 18th, 1905. Her parents raised a family and were blessed with children. They lived a good Christian life and offered to the Lord 5 daughters who were consecrated to God in the religious life: Sr. Verina and Sr. Efigenia (Sisters of Cottolengo), Sr. Margherita and Sr. Andreina (Daughters of St. Paul) and Sr. M. Teresa, a Pious Disciple of the Divine Master.
Sr. M. Teresa, with calm simplicity, drawing from the depths of her excellent memory, responded to the invitation to write about the early days. She wrote abundantly: it was patterned with anecdotes and embellishments about the beginnings, about the Founder’s presence, about Providence …
Her father’s mediation:
“For my acceptance at St. Paul’s, I had no personal meetings with Primo Maestro. My father knew him, and he was the mediator. He would go to Alba on Saturdays where he eagerly spoke to him. When he came home, he told us about the meeting, and we were very attentive. We desired to know more and more about what was happening in St. Paul’s, especially if it concerned the Theologian. He was the subject of many of our questions.
In July 1920, my older sister Eufrosina (who had been in the silk factory and later became a friend of Orsola Rivata), entered Saint Paul’s. With her profession she became Sr. Margherita. Meanwhile I thought of becoming a nun with the Cottolengo sisters. However, when I visited my sister in Alba, from the kitchen I saw the door of the Chapel open. It was at that moment that a sudden inspiration arose in my heart, and I said to myself: – I can come here and pray as long as I want to!
When I got home, I told my mother, and she replied that it was necessary to inform the father. This caused me both awe and fear. I waited for a Sunday. When my father had returned from Vespers and changed from his Sunday best clothes, he stayed in the room kneeling to pray. I timidly entered to tidy up as he wished. That’s when I said to him, “Dad, let me go to Alba.” He replied, “If your brother doesn’t leave for military service, you’ll go, otherwise you’ll wait for him to return.” My brother did not leave and so my father went to the Theologian to present my application. The answer was: “Come on the 21st.” And I entered on July 21, 1922.”
“I was seventeen years of age. As soon as I entered the house, the Mistress made me wear my working clothes. It was laundry day and straight away she led me to a porch which was also used as the laundry. My father, who had accompanied me, before leaving, came to greet me and I was already busy at work. He was accustomed to the Pauline methods of the time and was not surprised. The first nights, since there were no beds available, a kind of makeshift bed was set up for me on the ground. One night they woke me up and sheltered me because it was raining on me! But in Saint Paul’s, I found everything so beautiful.”
An irresistible attraction
“I was part of the initial group of young women called the Daughters of St. Paul. Knowing that some of these would be dedicated to perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, I immediately asked to be part of it too. The Primo Maestro, seeing me so young, told me that I would not be able to endure it, and he repeated this to me. Feeling more and more attracted to Adoration, however, I persisted with Mistress Thecla. In agreement with the Theologian and Ursula, who had already been set aside with Metilde, they consented to my request.”
February 10, 1924: “On the morning of February 10th 1924, the memorial of St. Scholastica, in a lecture to our group, the Theologian indicated to us that Orsola Riva would be our guide. He said: “From now on do not call her Orsola anymore but call her Sister Scholastica.”
Vestition: On March 25th, 1924, for the first time, Fr Alberione gave the young women the religious habit. It was made with his precise indications. The most important point of the rite was the taking of vows, with the formula prepared by the. Theologian himself and with the assignment of the new name. Rosalie was called Sr. Teresa of Our Lady of Sorrows. This recalled St Therese of Lisieux, for her love and offering for priests and missionaries. The title of “Our Lady of Sorrows”, to remember Mary at the foot of the cross of Jesus. It was from the cross that she received the apostle John as her son, “and in him all men and especially all the apostles”.
Mother’s surprise. “For the ceremony of the Vestition – continues Sr. M. Teresa – the relatives were not informed. This was the express desire of the Founder. After a short time, my mother came to see me; I appeared to her dressed as a nun and it was a real surprise for her. She was very happy and happy to see me dressed in the religious habit, but of course very surprised and excited.”
Interior joy for Eucharistic Adoration
“It is not so easy to express the inner joy I enjoyed at the beginning of Eucharistic Adoration, especially at night. Those two hours passed so quickly. When on winter nights and sleep tried to take us by surprise, we soaked a handkerchief in freezing water and kept it over our eyes, and the sleep also departed. Once the Primo Maestro had told us something in these words: “Come before Jesus, draw as close as you can to the Tabernacle to experience more deeply the ‘Sitio’ of Jesus and to be more and more inflamed with his love. It is up to you to quench Jesus’ thirst. You must not come before Him to receive consolation, but to console Him. It is up to you to console Jesus. He expects love and reparation from you.”
Sr. M. Teresa recalls many points of the Founder’s teaching, for example: on the examination of conscience, on devotion to Our Lady, on the good use of one’s voice in community prayer, on poverty, etc.
It was not always understood but …
“One could not always clearly understand the words of the Founder, but we believed with simple faith, placing great and sure trust in him. His word was considered by us as the communication of God’s will that had to be welcomed and followed even without everything being understood. I remember him telling us, “If you believe, you’ll see! “We did believe, and we saw the wonders of God.”
Coming to serve in the footsteps of the Master Jesus
Sr. M. Teresa Binello: 63 years of religious life, almost totally dedicated to “service to the priesthood”. It was an apostolate that she loved immensely, which she exercised with prudence and in that charity that made her a Sister and a Mother for so many.
In 1947 she was appointed General Councilor in the governance of the Institute. She offered a contribution of wisdom and experience, humbly but tenaciously expounding what she considered appropriate. She continued her service in the Pauline houses to the extent permitted. She was assisted by young sisters who learned from her not only the culinary art, but were nourished with examples of humility, silence, prayer, and a spirit of poverty which was understood well. When for reasons of age and health she left this form of direct service, the flame for the priesthood was kindled more intensely in her soul. She shows this love by continuing in her generous offering, especially with prayer, with Eucharistic adoration day and night, with her interest, not only with a universal gaze on the whole Church, but also on the joys and sufferings of the Pauline priests and disciples, and in the apostolate of the Pauline Family.
The perfume of her following in the footsteps of Jesus Master
At her death a sister wrote: “Mother Teresa: A hidden violet. Now the violet blooms, with a beautiful fragrance. A violet wrapped in the shadow of almost total blindness, even her hearing was weak. Her heart, however, was sensitive and attentive to capture many things … How much strength, how much light emanated from her unspoken and prolonged suffering s…”.
To taste this fragrance, we open some pages of her personal notes. It is not easy to choose and to leave something out!
=It was the time when the Pious Disciples are in danger of being made nonexistent. “Turin September 1946. Now more than ever I want to be a Pious Disciple and be particularly so: 1) In the Adoration well done, with humility, with piety, with great love. 2) In the effort of a serene and edifying silence, a humble silence, trusting and modest. 3) In giving to the priesthood all the contribution of works, sacrifice and prayer that duty requires of me, that Jesus asks of me in docility that does not permit doubts and grumbling”.
=“Every day: I will accept what the Lord will allow, offering it according to the intentions of the Primo Maestro. I will be attentive to interior silence by offering it for all Pauline priests. In the Holy Mass I will recite the Agnus Dei to obtain graces for priests and religious”.
=“I thank you, O Jesus Master, for having chosen me to be among the first of the Pious Disciples. I am happy to be a Pious Disciple, I love my Congregation, its works, Mothers, sisters. Only in heaven will I fully understand the value and the beauty of my vocation as a pious disciple.”
=“As a little victim, I want to offer myself every day, at every moment, according to the intentions for which Jesus sacrifices himself on the altar. I offer them for the sister who I know is suffering, the sacrifices, prayers, and all that I will encounter that is painful during the day; in my examination of conscience, I will pause particularly on what I see is lacking in the other person, so I will learn to dislike and correct first in myself, what I see is lacking in my sister …”
=“O Jesus, I accept this personal sorrow of mine to obtain the grace so that sin will never, ever enter this little house”.
=“Every day I will ask through the intercession of St. Joseph this grace: that every encounter I have with a Pauline priest be a communication of good and an uplifting and pure encounter. I will approach priests and brothers with great delicacy, with a kind gaze and a maternal heart, and I will be happy to offer them my service.”
=“I see very little of it, I offer you, O Jesus, this renunciation for all priests, so that they may have light and be faithful to their call and their promises; for the General Council, so that the Holy Spirit may enlighten their every decision and that our Congregation may always be guided by the will of God and according to the spirit of the Primo Maestro”.
=“O Jesus, I do not ask you to free me from suffering, but I ask you for the grace to accept it with grace and as a gift of your love, all that you send to me every day, to purify me”.
=“Lord, not only my eyes, but also my hearing and legs are of little use to me. I offer you my deafness for priests, so that they do not deprive souls of the Word of God, and all may hear the Word of God. I offer you the troubles of my legs, for Missionaries, especially for those of the Pauline Family. That Jesus the Master may be known and loved by all people, and that the Pious Society of St. Paul may return to Poland. For vocations and the stability of all. For the journeys of our Mothers and members of the Pauline Family. Lord, you know my weakness, give me the grace to give you everything with faith, love and serenity.”
Always with Him!
A few days before her death, to a sister who asked her why she was wearing a blindfold on her eye, she replied with a smile: “Eh, you know … my usual ailments… we must be prepared to die” and to her reply: “You are right! So that we can cease to suffer!” Sr Teresa immediately restates, worried that she has been misunderstood: “No! not for this, but because this is how we will always be with Him!”
And so, the Bridegroom, loved and longed for, arrived in the night, on 20th February 1985 at 1.30 am. It was Ash Wednesday, the day of the beginning of the Lenten journey towards the light of Easter.