Sr M. Tiziana Rita Dal Masetto
I was born at Fratte, Santa Giustina in Colle, Padova, on 18 of October 1937, the eldest of seven children. My parents Antonio Dal Masetto e Basso Ester raised and educated us in the faith with the help of our grandmother, Maddalena. Our pastor Don Vittorio Fabris impressed upon me the attraction to prayer, to the Holy Eucharist and to a vocation to the Religious Life.
Very often missionaries and priests would visit our parish. They communicated great enthusiasm among the youth in Catholic Action. We are three blood sisters among the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master.
I received my first Communion at the age of seven and a thought always remained in my young heart: From my First Communion, received at age of seven, a constant desire was in my heart: I want to help Jesus!
My aunt, Sr M. Gemma Dal Masetto was in our Congregation. She often visited the family with the hope of obtaining financial and practical assistance for the growing needs of the Congregation.
It was during the second world war. Our grandparents were generous in sharing the crops and farm produce. These visits of Sr. M. Gemma and her co-sisters ignited my heart with their joyful presence and with the numerous books of the Saints they left behind … I read avidly and my imagination was led to live a life totally for God and become a missionary!
On 11th October 1951 I left my home to go to Alba, the central House of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master. Upon arriving with the other young women, the chapel’s door was widely open before us! The Blessed Sacrament exposed was shining before and there was an immense mosaic of the Divine Master. I felt him gazing into my eyes and say to me: I am the Way, the Truth the Life, come follow me! At once I felt immersed in Him. He became my all! A divine fascination took possession of my heart and has never left me.
This profound spiritual joy was costly. I silently wept because I felt that I had abandoned my family.
Father Alberione was very present in my formative years, and he guided us on the way to holiness. It is urgent to announce the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Where is humanity going? Will these souls be saved?
The missionary calling took possession of my being. At that time the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master were opening towards the world. There were foundations in Asia, the two Americas, Oceania, and Africa as well as Europe. Many of our sisters had this missionary desire.
On March 25th 1955 I made my First Profession in the hands of our beloved Founder. He said to us: We need to prepare sisters who are living and active member sin the Church.
I was blessed to go on to do further studies. And the joy was when Mother M. Lucia Ricci called me to be a missionary in Brazil. Before leaving, Fr Alberione gave me his blessing. He outlined the plan of the Divine Master, the Via Humanitatis and I understood this more deeply as I grew in my vocation.
When I arrived in Brazil, I quickly descended the steps to kneel and kiss the land of my first love.
A vibrant group of 60 young women were waiting for me. We went to school together and experienced the thirst for knowledge. I was ready to give my life to its last drop and follow the inspiring example of Sr M. Paolina De Luca, one of the first eight Pious Disciples who passed away in San Paolo.
I loved Brazil, but the Divine Master had prepared another call for me … this time to the Philippines. On November 2nd 1969 I boarded the plane to this the Pearl of the Orient, and I spent 12 years among this extraordinarily hospitable people. I dedicated myself to the formation of the young Pious Disciples and to the expansion of our charism.
From 1981-1987 I placed my gifts at the service of the Superior General, Sr M. Tecla Molino. I served in the Vatican communities, in Spain, in the newly opened community in Albano, then India, Taiwan and back to the Philippines. Special attention was given to South America, and the guidance in the Spiritual Exercises and Lectio Divina.
In 1987 I arrived in Staten Island New York, a strategic point of the earth. During his visit to Los Angeles in 1987, Pope John Paul 11 proclaimed: Give me a lever and from here I will raise the world.
I recognized in each of our sisters an immense thirst for souls. Da mihi animas!
I realized that the art of leading souls from within required professional preparation and I was blessed to obtain a Master of Arts at the Jesuit School of Theology. This preparation equipped me for that specific spiritual ministry which could give to our community the opening and availability “to tend the thirst of souls”. I became acutely aware that in America it is an urgency to tend to this thirst.
In my mission as a Spiritual Director in Fresno Community I focused on women and young women who were often confused and lost, living without purpose.
And now in 2023 I am ministering here in Los Angeles, dedicated to the formation of Laity and Christian couples called to a life of Consecration in the Pauline Institute of the Holy Family.
Divine Beauty, Eucharistic Adoration, Sanctity of life, these are the levers that the Divine Master uses to save the world.
Sr. M. Tiziana Dal Masetto, Los Angeles, 2023