Title: Like a Grain of Wheat
Sub Title: Biography of Mother Clelia Merloni
Author: Nicola Gori
Publisher: ‎Effatà Editrice
Date of publication: 2017

“Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12:24).

 This was the life of Mother Clelia Merloni (1861-1930), Foundress of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: a Strong woman, who was brave, kind and compassionate towards anyone in need, including children, orphans, poor and abandoned women, the young, the elderly and families. She knew how to be creative in love, creating many opportunities and possibilities to help people in a concrete manner. She exercised extreme charity towards her daughters in religion, forgiving them and driving far from her mind, heart and lips, any thoughts or words of revenge or condemnation. The motto of the Institute, “The love of Christ impels us”, took form and visibility through her life, which she lived freely and generously, in detachment from herself.

Nicola Gori, the author of this book, using documentation from the “Positio”, described Mother Clelia’s life in these pages with clarity and competence. The title of the book succinctly sums up the life of a woman who offered herself entirely for the triumph of the Institute she had founded in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Despite the many persecutions and slanders of which she was victim, the figure of Mother Clelia has emerged

purified and sanctified, and marks our path as Apostles with evangelical light.

Her prayer of complete submission to the will of God and her suffering have made fertile the “rocky and thorny ground” of the Institute, transforming it into “fertile ground” to receive the “seed” which, in dying, gave new life to the Institute of the Apostles. Her limitless trust in the Heart of Jesus and in Divine Providence has resulted in the blossoming of the Institute in many parts of the world. The “grain of wheat” has produced and continues to bear much fruit through the presence of each Apostle who dedicates her life to Christ in prayer and in unselfish and free service to others, in the integral formation of the human person, in the recovery of the dignity lost by so many people who are victims of violence and slavery and in

untiring service to evangelization.

In the pages that follow, the reader will note that our Mother lived heroically and in the fullness of the eighth beatitude: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. REJOICE AND BE GLAD, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you” (Mt 5:11-12).

Mother Clelia was molded by suffering from the time of her childhood. Her life was marked by significant losses which fashioned her maternal heart. She suffered much slander and many misunderstandings within her Institute, and from priests and even bishops who did not know her. She knew, however, how to treat everyone with respect and dignity, even while knowing she was an innocent victim of substantial persecutions which tried both her faith and her health.

Mother Clelia said the following to one of her daughters: “From the moment that, under the Divine impulse of the Holy Spirit, I consecrated myself to His Divine heart, it is right that I should not yearn for any further glory than that of being humiliated, despised, slandered, forgotten by everyone, not consoled by anyone … and that I hold in faith that Divine Providence wisely orders everything for the benefit of my soul as well as for the good of the Institute itself. No, my daughter, let us not accuse creatures for what God does through them. They are none other than instruments in God’s hands” (Large Manuscript, vol. 1).

Mother Clelia offered everything to the Heart of Jesus and she accepted everything as permitted by God so that the Institute could strengthen and expand. Her life was a continual

offering for the greater glory of the Heart of Jesus and for the salvation of humanity wounded by sin and in need of mercy. She was certain that none of her tears, nor those of her daughters,

would be wasted because the Sacred Heart would reward each sacrifice and suffering. In heaven, we will have clarity of that which reason today is unable to understand. As Mother

Clelia said, “Oh! One day, in God’s tribunal, the mysteries which human reason attempts to interpret as best it can, will be explained quite differently” (Large Manuscript vol. II).

Mother Miriam Cunha Sobrinha

Superior General