After losing her mother at the age of 8, Gemma Galgani was sent to a school run by the Oblates of the Holy Ghost, commonly called Zitine Sisters. Gemma wrote in her autobiography: “I began to go to the Nuns’ school and I was in Heaven.”

One day a teacher in school asked the students which of them desired to be a saint. They answered with one voice that they all wanted to be saints. But who would be a saint first? The teacher decided to solve the question by casting lots. She prepared as many straws of unequal length as there were students and holding them in her hand declared that whoever drew the longest straw should be a saint first. Gemma drew the longest straw. She danced with joy and cried out: “Yes! I will strive to be a saint.”

Under the direction of religious sisters, Gemma grew in her love for prayer. She wrote, “I began to have a greater desire for prayer. Every evening after school, I went home and shut myself in a room where I recited the whole Rosary on my knees. Often at night, I got up for a quarter of an hour to recommend my poor soul to Jesus.”

Gemma often prayed: “Holy Mary, make me a saint.” She also had great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Gemma prayed fervently for success in her examinations so that her father might be pleased. Once she was seen dipping her finger in the oil of the lamp that was burning before the Blessed Sacrament, then touch her tongue with it in order that she might be able to answer the examiners well. She loved to read books about Our Lady and sometimes she read them aloud to her brothers and sisters and even to her aunts.

Gemma had great charity toward the poor and sinners. Her brother recalled that if Gemma met a beggar on her way to or from school, she would be sure to part with whatever money she had. One day during a rehearsal for a concert, the Mother Superior entered the hall and asked for prayers for a dying man who had refused to receive the last sacraments. The students stopped the rehearsal and said some prayers. Gemma then came up to a religious sister and whispered: “Our prayers are answered.” That man had a sincere conversion and received the sacraments before he died.

Gemma ardently desired to receive Jesus in holy Communion. She said to her teachers at the College of the Zitine Sisters: “Give me Jesus, and you will see how good I shall be. I shall be different; I shall not commit any more sins. Give Him to me; I long for Him so much that it is becoming unbearable.”

After much longing and pleading, Gemma finally received First Holy Communion on June 17, 1887, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Before that special day, she made a 10-day retreat. The evening before her first Communion, Gemma wrote down the resolutions she had made during the retreat: (1) I will go to confession and Communion each time as if they were to be my last. (2) I will often visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, especially when I am in trouble. (3) I will prepare for every Feast of the Blessed Virgin by some mortification, and every evening I will ask the blessing of my heavenly Mother. (4) I desire to remain always in the presence of God. (5) Every time the clock strikes, I will repeat three times, “My Jesus Mercy.”

 

                                            吉瑪進入「修女學校」

 

聖吉瑪.金錦妮在母親死後,進入聖神女修會辦的學校;修女們普遍被稱為「思蒂姊妹」。吉瑪在自傳形容「我進入修女的學校,有如進入了天堂。」

一天,學生們都異口同聲回答老師說要成聖;但說到誰人會首先能成聖,老師則笑言要抽簽決定。結果吉瑪中簽;她歡喜雀躍,嚷著:「對!我要努力成聖!」

在修女們循循善誘下,吉瑪越加喜愛祈禱。她寫道:「我祈禱的渴求開始增強。每天黃昏下課後,回到家裡,把自己獨自關在房間,跪下誦唸整個玫瑰經。經常在晚上,我起來常用十五分鐘的時間,向耶穌交託我可憐的靈魂。」

吉瑪常禱告說:「聖瑪利亞,使我成聖人。」她又特敬耶穌聖心。她懇切祈求考試能有好的成績,好叫父親高興。有次,她把指頭點進聖體燈燭的油,輕醮到自己的舌頭,祈求能予主考老師滿意的答案。她喜愛閱讀有關聖母的書籍,有時更高聲閱讀給姨母和弟妹們聽。

吉瑪內心蘊藏著對貧苦和罪人無限的愛德。她弟弟憶及吉瑪每當街上踫見乞丐,會毫不猶疑把身上的錢,完全施捨。

一次在音樂表演的排演時,院長修女向大家要求為一位臨終、但又不願接受病人聖事的人祈禱。眾學生都停下來,特別為那人祈求。既畢,吉瑪對一位修女說:「我們的祈求被答允了。」果然,那人在深深痛悔後,死前領受了病人聖事。

吉瑪極渴望能領受耶穌聖體。在思蒂姊妹的學校,她對老師們剖白: 「請給我耶穌,你會看到我變得多好:我會不一樣,我會不犯任何罪。請給我耶穌,我是多渴望衪 ,以致難以忍耐。」

經過無數次的申訴、請求,吉瑪終於被批准在1887年6月17日、耶穌聖心瞻禮日初領聖體。這特別的一天來臨前,吉瑪作了十天的退省神功。初領聖體前的晚上,吉瑪把退省時得出的志向寫下來:1) 每次的告解和領聖體,都像是我最後一次領的;2) 常朝拜聖體 ── 特別在困擾的時刻;3) 我要在聖母瞻禮前做些補贖來準備,每天晚上都祈求我天上之母的祝福;4) 我渴望常臨在於天主前;5) 每當時鐘敲響,我要重複「我主耶穌,請憐憫」三次。