“I handed my life over to Jesus, it does not belong to me any longer”

-Silvia Bertozzi

Life-threatening complications from a badly injured knee set Silvia Bertozzi on a path toward her vocation as a consecrated virgin living the Dehonian charism.

She was 33 and in an intensive physical therapy program near Bologna, Italy, when “I realized that I needed to mend more than my body, I needed to mend my heart and my faith,” she said.

As Silvia struggled to regain her physical health (it took three months of grueling therapy before she could walk without crutches), her faith began to heal with the help of an SCJ priest who became her spiritual director. Through him, she recovered a devotion to the Sacred Heart that first took root when she was a child in the small town of Forlì (near Bologna). She attended a school run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and at home, family prayers included a devotion to the Sacred Heart, a devotion important to her grandparents.

“My devotion to the Sacred Heart was rediscovered and grew during my convalescence, shaped more and more by the Dehonian charism,” she said. “I made a private promise to God that if I could walk again I would serve in the Dehonian mission in Mozambique.”

The inspiration for the missions came both from her physical therapist, who volunteered in Africa, and her SCJ spiritual director, who had been a missionary in Mozambique.

Once Silvia was able to walk again she contacted her employer, Noika, where she has been a telecommunications engineer since 1994 (living primarily in Finland since in 1995). In 2004 Noika agreed to give her a year’s sabbatical. She spent much of it in Guruè, Mozambique, teaching electronics, English and computer science at a vocational school operated by the SCJs.

“Most of the day I was at the school, from early morning until late afternoon,” said Silvia. “I shared a small bungalow with the director, an Italian woman who dedicated her life to missionary work. We woke every morning at 5:00 and joined the SCJ priests for the Divine Office and Mass prior to the start of the school day. In the evening we joined for Vespers and Adoration.”

On Sundays, she accompanied SCJs on their visits to remote mission stations. “During this time I learned to give without expecting thanks in return, to respect without imposing my culture and my views on others. Those days helped me to mature as a person as well as confirm me in the decision to offer my entire life to God.”

When Silvia returned to Bologna, she talked to her spiritual director about the experience. “I told him of my desire to consecrate my life to God, to live the Dehonian charism,” she said. The SCJ suggested that she look into one of the secular institutes, such as the Compagnia Missionaria in Bologna. She visited with the group for a month, as well as a similar association in Portugal, “but I realized that neither was for me. I wanted to live in the full charism, without dilution. No reinterpretation. It was the Dehonian charism that swept me away and set my spiritual life afire.”

Both her spiritual director and her bishop suggested that she become a consecrated virgin.

“What attracted me was the fact that I could choose to live according to any spiritual charism approved by the Church,” she said. “Since I already embraced Dehonian spirituality, I could continue and thrive in it.”

As a consecrated virgin “I handed my life over to Jesus, it does not belong to me any longer,” she said. “I am betrothed to God in Christ, I am set aside for God alone and as such consecrated to Him. This is not just the result of an act of will, a voluntary action. It falls into the path of spiritual vocation and it is a consecration for life.”

A person can do “good works” without being a consecrated virgin. However, “we dedicate not just part of our life to ministry,” she said, “all of our life is for God, even when we are working at a desk in the office.”

Silvia said that when she explains the vocation to young people, she compares it to the choice of marriage. Two people can deeply love each other outside of marriage.

“But marriage turns that love into a sacrament,” she said.

The choice to become a consecrated virgin is the same. “It is a lifelong commitment, it is as in a sacrament in which it is no longer just me and my good will but ‘us,’ God and me.”

Silvia’s consecration ceremony was on Feast of the Sacred Heart, May 30, 2008. She lives in Finland once again, and continues to work at Noika. As a consecrated virgin, her days are busy. Outside of her full-time job, she has a hectic ministry schedule that includes sacramental preparations for children and teens, adult catechesis, lay Dehonian formation and a variety of other pastoral activities. She is also studying for her bachelor’s degree in divinity through a distance learning program at the University of Birmingham (England).

On top of that is her commitment to spiritual exercises, including the Divine Office and daily Mass. In Finland there is another consecrated virgin and they regularly meet for prayer. She is also in contact with the association of Italian consecrated virgins; there are approximately 450 in Italy. Every year they meet for a week-long conference.

But when it comes to formation, it is the SCJ community that gives her the greatest spiritual nourishment.

“I read whatever is available on the spiritual works of Fr. Dehon,” she said. “But most of what I learn about the Dehonian charism comes from sharing my life with the Dehonians.”

In Mozambique and in Bologna she joined SCJs in prayer and the Eucharist, but also in lighter moments at meals and recreation. She does the same now in Finland, sharing in prayer and adoration, as well as taking part in the community’s annual three-day retreat.

By sharing her life with the SCJs, “I can grasp a lot about the Ecce Venio, Ecce Ancilla, Adveniat Regnum Tuum and Ad gentes,” she said. “They are the living tradition of the Dehonian charism, weakness and all, and that is what makes it concrete and actual.”

Reflecting on her life since those first days at the Bologna rehabilitation center in Forlì and soul strengthening in Bologna, Silvia says that “the past ten years have been amazing! The love of God has shaped me and Jesus’ heart propels me to dare to be more and more of what he calls me to be. Each day I reply with ‘Ecce Venio’ and ‘Ecce Ancilla.’

“My vocation as a consecrated virgin is fuelled by that love. Tender and compassionate, it encompasses me. Truly, Fr Dehon has left us the most precious of treasures.”

END NOTE: At the international Dehonian Family meeting held in Rome last May, Silvia was chosen to serve on the five-person Dehonian Family organizing committee.