# 12 - A SERIOUS REPORT ON BLESSED CASTELLO, O.P.

 # 12 - A SERIOUS REPORT ON BLESSED CASTELLO, O.P.

JUSTICE IS TRUTH IN ACTION - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPORT.COM - FRI. JAN. 22, 2021

 

THE LIFE OF BLESSED MARGARET CASTELLO, O.P.

Father William R. Bonneville o.p. Tan Books, Corolina 2016, Chapter 4, p. 19-20

Margaret's Suffering

 

    "In describing the blind girl's mind as "luminous,"the chaplain had used the right word. Margaret understanding of life and its problems was truly extraordinary. This was partly due to the instruction given her by the patient chaplain. But there can be no question that it was, in a far greater degree, due to divine grace. We are irresistibly of a like early development of intelligence in St. Catherine of Siena, St. Catherine de Ricci, and St. Rose of Lima, when they were of the same age. The course of instruction she received was so thorough, and so completely absorbed by Margaret, that years later she astonished the Dominican friars at Citta di Castello with the extent and depth of her theological knowledge.

    With Margaret, to know was to act. She possessed so generous a nature that she felt she had given nothing to God so long as anything remained to be given. With her, therefore, there could never be any question of compromise or of half measures. Since she had chosen to serve God, she would do so with her whole heart, her whole soul and her whole mind.

 

    "It isn't the body that is important, Margaret," cried the chaplain. "It makes little difference what sort of a body you have, because in a few short years it will crumble to the dust. The thing that counts is your soul; that lives forever. God created it to His own image and likeness. Just think, Margaret! God is your real Father. He tenderly loves you and He asks you to love Him in return.

 

    The teaching of the chaplain filled the child with joy and hope. It safeguarded her disposition against the cruel jibes of her parents concerning her physical appearance. It fired her with determination to do everything she could in order to make herself worthy of such divine love.

    The example of the Savior in undergoing voluntarily the greatest suffering for the salvation of the human race made a profound impression on Margaret. She often reflected on the subject, and she began to comprehend what the Savior was trying to teach pleasure-loving mankind. She understood more and more the immensity of God's love which impelled Him to go to such extremes in order to save His children from their folly. 

 

    There was nothing morbid in Margaret's character. She had a sunny, cheerful disposition, and she naturally shrank from pain and suffering. But she knew that to grow in virtue and thus approach closer and closer to God, the road she must travel along was the road pointed out by her Savior.  As she wanted God more than anything in the whole universe, she was resolved to accept the divine invitation and follow her Savior even to Calvary. Hence, although the action of her parents was an agonizing blow to her, Margaret realized that God had permitted this to happen for her own good, and she forced her reluctant human nature to accept the blow as a special gift from God.

   More than ever, she neglected nothing whatever which could help her gain her objective. She not only accepted the sufferings inflicted upon her, but she even sought suffering. Thus, she bound herself at the age of seven to a strict monastic fast - a fast extending from the middle of September (The feast of the Holy Cross) to the following Easter. But this was not penance enough for the young, ardent lover of God. She devised a fast to her own to cover the rest of the year, that is , from Easter until the middle of September; during this period she fasted four days a week. On all Fridays of the year, the only nourishment she would accept was a little bread and water.

     Still, she was not satisfied that she was doing enough. She somehow secretly obtained a hairshirt and began to wear the penitential garment before she was seven years old. Her medieval biographer mentions Margaret's fears that her mother, on her infrequent visits, might notice the bulkiness of the child's dress and grow suspicious. But Lady Emilia was too deeply preoccupied with her misfortune as the mother of a creature like Margaret to pay close attention to the child. So Margaret's secret remained undiscovered. Meanwhile, the years were slowly passing by, but the prisoner kept no track of them. What she did take notice of was the succession of the seasons... George H. Kubeck