Telling the Pope Where to Go

 Louis de Wohl's Lay Siege to Heaven is historical saint fiction about St. Catherine of Siena.  It's a fictional account of her life.  All the stories, the bits and pieces that I've picked up, here and there, are pulled together quite nicely.

Catherine lived in a time of toxic political scheming and discord. Italy did not exist, at that time.  The cities were like separate countries and always warring against each other.  It wasn't even safe for the pope to live in Rome.  During Catherine's time, the pope lived in Avignon, France.

Catherine felt called to live the life of a consecrated virgin.  She did not enter the convent and it was a good thing she didn't.  She would never have been free enough to do what she did.

She roamed here and there, to help people.  She helped out in hospitals and visited prisons to bring the love and mercy to prisoners.  She wrote letters to the various princes who wanted to war against other cities.  Her letters to the pope helped convince him to return to Rome.

Somewhere she learned to read.  The book says God taught her.  But she wasn't schooled, yet she dictated letters.  She wrote The Dialogue; God's conversations with her. 

She received the stigmata, but requested that the visible signs of this gift, not be shown.  She didn't want the publicity.  

Many people read Louis de Wohl's books on different saints.  Now, I can see why.  The story is easy to read and very understandable.  

Saint Mix-Up

 A friend gave me this book today. It is a book of Novenas by Barbara Calamari & Sandra DiPasqua.

I was looking at the Dominican Saints and decided to read Saint Catherine of Siena.  The biography is the life story I know and love, but the picture is wrong.  Instead of Catherine of Siena, it is Catherine of Alexandria.  Both Catherines are patronesses of the Order of Preachers but they are different saints.

Catherine of Alexandria was martyred.  At first, she was going to be tortured and then put to death by the wheel. 

It is a horrible death but when she touched the wheel, it broke apart.  BTW, because of this story, the wheel is called the Catherine Wheel.  Since she couldn't be killed on the wheel, she was beheaded.  Also, an interesting side-note is that St. Catherine of Alexandria was one of the saints that communicated with St. Joan of Arc.  

Neighbors

 In St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue, God tells her that we people owe God love.  We sure do.  He made us, didn't He?  Why He bothers with us is a mystery!  Anyway, we don't love God gratuitously, but rather out of duty.  Whereas, He loves us gratuitously.  How could we love Him that way?  

IMHO, we can't love God gratuitously, that's why He gave us neighbors.  We have to treat them like we would treat God.  IOW, love them without any concern for thanks.  Whatever you do for the least of them, you do for ME.  John 3: 1-36.

This also brings to mind Father Aniello's prayer:

Help me to love You as You love me.  And love my neighbor as Yourself.

Father Aniello Salicone, sx

The Way to Mass is Thru Your Heart II

 

St. Catherine of Siena is another "go to" model to emulate when it comes to learning to love the Mass.  Since she was a child she talked to God.  Talking = Praying.  Her mystical conversations are in a book called the Dialogue.  She talked to God constantly.  The central image in the Dialogue is Jesus as a bridge between God and us.  The bridge is over a river (think "sin").  Sin keeps us from God.  We need to cross the bridge. Follow Jesus over--talk to Him--take His hand.  Picture this before Mass.  Take Jesus' hand and let Him lead you over the bridge.  The two of you can stand arm in arm, contemplating and talking about receiving the Eucharist.  What was it like at the Last Supper?  Are you there?  Where are you sitting?  Whom are you talking to? What are you eating?  What does the food smell like?  What is the noise level?  What do you hear?  Is there music?  Is singing part of this celebration? 

Do you see Judas?

What going thru your mind?  

What is Jesus eating?

Is He smiling?  (at you?)

You are still in the preparation stage of going to Mass.  Constantly talk to God.  Walking or driving to Mass can be a constant dialogue.  Kneeling in the pew--"I'm b-a-c-k." Don't lose touch.  Stay in contact.  Celebrating Mass with Jesus, what can be better than that?

Prayers for Europe

Credit to www.fraternitiesop

The Master of the Dominican Order has asked his order to pray for peace and order in Europe.  I thought it would hurt to have everyone in the world to pray likewise.  We are asking for the intercession of St. Catherine of Siena because she is co-patroness of Europe.  Please pray with us:

http://archive.fraternitiesop.com/Europa2019/02_EN%20Prayer%20INSIDE%20PAGESFinal.jpg

and

http://archive.fraternitiesop.com/Europa2019/02_EN%20Prayer%20OUTSIDE%20PAGESFinal.jpg

Niccolo di Toldo of Perugia

Panel of Francesco Messina‘s 1962 monument to St. Catherine of Siena outside Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo.

Who is Niccolo di Toldo of Perugia?  He is the prisoner whom St. Catherine of Siena befriended.  He wasn't particularly religious.  He was also a bit of a drunk, who happened to talk against the ruling government in Siena.  They had no freedom of speech.  And for that, he was sentenced to be executed!  Yes, his head chopped off for mouthing off when he was drunk!

And we think our justice system is unfair!

Brutal, cruel, and very unfair, but this was the reality of the times.  Niccolo was furious at the injustice of it all.  He was going to his death hating God, the Church, and man.  He would have nothing to do with the priests who came to prepare him for death.  But he did agree to see Catherine.  Maybe he was just curious to see this celebrity, because she was one, in her time iand place.  Maybe because of her reputed miracles.  Maybe because he had heard how she got the pope to move back to Rome.  But see her he did.

We know the story of his conversion from Catherine's letters.  She describes God's grace.  They bonded.  They became close.  Catherine promised never to leave him.  She was there to catch his head when he was executed.  She didn't move.  His blood drenched her. She remained in that very spot in calm prayer, content to know that Niccolo was with Jesus.

Prayer of St. Catherine of Siena to the Precious Blood of Jesus

Precious Blood, Ocean of Divine Mercy: Flow upon us!

Precious Blood, most pure Offering: Procure for us every Grace!

Precious Blood, Hope and Refuge of sinners: Atone for us!

Precious Blood, Delight of holy souls: Draw us!  Amen.

She Who Was Nothing

Today is the Memorial of one of my heroes, St. Catherine of Siena.  She is a favorite because she was a nobody.  In her prayer conversations with God, she would often ask Him "why," and His response would be "...because I am God, and you are not."  She didn't know how to read nor write.  She wasn't schooled because females in her time in history, were not, neither were most men.  However, she may have learned how to read later in life, because she wrote many letters and her dialogues with God.  Although, her friends, Catherati, so to speak, may have helped her.  Many people followed her.

I love the fact that she was a lay woman, not a religious sister or nun.  She was in the exact state of life she needed to be to do the work God gave her.  If she were a nun or sister she would have been under obedience to a superior and that would have been the end of her mission, for sure.

As I mentioned, she was unschooled.  Hence, the fact that she conversed with political figures and princes, in the warring Italian cities, is proof that God was with her.  Why else did anybody pay her any mind, were He not?

She is famous for telling the pope where to go.  Pope Urban VI moved the papacy to Avignon, France.  Catherine convinced him for the good of the church to move back to Rome.  The papacy never left Rome again.

How could an unschooled girl have this power over political and religious leaders, were she not from God?  And she did it by identifying her will with God's.  This shows that strength comes from accepting God will and one's nothingness.

Catherine worked among the sick and in her era pestilence thrived.  She had an affinity for society's poor souls.  She labored in prisons and befriended the condemned, including catching the head of a condemned guillotined man.

She performed miracles and even received the stigmata.  Upon requesting that the overt display of the wounds be taken away, but not the pain, her request was granted.  She didn't want to "show off" in any way, not that the gift of stigmata wasn't wanted.

She changed her world.  "If you are what you are meant to be, you will change the world."

Because of her humility, charity, prayer and sacrifice, she was made a Doctor of the Church.  

Confession for Christmas

Give yourself a gift, and go to Confession.

St. Catherine of Siena in Letter 36 says, "First of all, arrange for holy confession, and unburden your consciences."

Letter 35, "Go to confession often, and seek the company of people who will help you possess God in grace."

Dialogue, "You have to be set free.  Leave deadly sin behind by a holy confession with heartfelt contrition, satisfaction, and resolution to sin no more."

Take the hint.  St. Catherine of Siena is telling you how important it is to have a clean soul.  Go to Confession.  Don't you want to be as clean as possible for Christ's Mass?

Fairweather Catholics

My Lay Dominican Study Group is reading Catherine of Siena--the Dialogue, translation by Suzanne Noffke, O.P.  We're at the part where Catherine is talking about the steps to holiness.  We're on the first step, but this step is where quite a few quit.  They don't ascend any further.

This image brought to mind, a friend of mind.  She thought that she would whip her body and soul into shape, by attending daily Mass, and walking to work.  She had her husband drop her off at the church.  She started attending daily Mass.  Afterwards, she walked to work.

She never persevered.  She quit.

When I asked her why, she blamed the priests.  She said the priests were too weird; they got to her.  I asked her what that had to do with the Eucharist. She just gave me a quizzical look, but no verbal reply.   

St. Catherine says the following about people like my friend, But there are many who begin their climb so sluggishly and pay what they owe me (God) in such bits and pieces, so indifferently and ignorantly, that they quickly fall by the way.  The smallest wind makes them hoist their sails and turn back.  They had climbed only imperfectly to the first stair of Christ crucified, and so they never reach the second, which is that of his (Jesus') heart.

Swimming in God

St. Catherine of Siena teaches so many things.  For example, she helps children understand how God is everywhere.  Catherine, meditating upon her Communion, one day, thought how unworthy she was that He should come to her.  "Yes Catherine but I am worthy to come to thee."  And she pictured a fish in the sea and the sea is in the fish, so she was in God and God is with her.  It is as though we are swimming in God, isn't it?

A child then asks, "If God is everywhere, is He in hell?"

Yikes!  Well I guess so; He is everywhere.

St Catherine explains "It is as though we are swimming in God--that is how He is everywhere."  

Why did Jesus Do It?

Reading The Way of the Cross with St. Catherine of Siena, I come to Jesus dying on the cross.  Catherine asks me, "Do you think nails could have held Him, if He didn't want it to be so?"  And I meditate on her question.

As a child, I envisioned God as deus ex machina, and wanted the Father to come thundering out of the clouds and strike dead all the Roman soldiers, and people who had done this to Jesus.

But as an adult, I see that I am one of the people who did this to Jesus.

We were that soil in which the most holy banner was set.  We became a sort of vessel to receive  the blood of the Lamb, which ran down from the cross.  Why were we that soil?  Because the soil was not sufficient to support the cross erect, rather would it have rejected such injustice.  Neither would a nail have been enough to hold Him, fastened and nailed, if it not for the indescribable love He had for  our salvation had not held Him bound.  So then it was the intense love for the Father's honor and our salvation which kept Him there.  (Letter 102) quoted in The Way of the Cross with St. Catherine of Siena.

Because of God's mercy and love for us, He did this.  I must do likewise.  I must imitate Him.  Lord, help me to be more like You.

Washing in Humility

At that time, Peter was the only disciple who questioned Jesus washing their feet.  Usually a servant would do this.  But they didn't have any servants.  So Jesus did it.  Was He being a good host?  More than that, much more.  He was teaching, preaching and setting a precedent.

Do you know what I have done to you?  You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.  If, therefore, I the Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash the feet of one another.  For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you also should do.
John 13: 12-16

courtesy StainedGlassInc.com

IOW, if Jesus, humbly and loving served His followers.  Then they should do likewise. No Christian should put himself above others.  God blesses those who honor Him by serving others.

The Lord in dialogue with Saint Catherine of Siena, teaches about saints:

"My goodness permits this to strengthen them and make them great in my own sight and the world's, since they have made themselves small in true humility.  You can see this clearly in my saints.  They made themselves small for me, and I have made them great in myself, everlasting Life, and in the mystic body of holy Church.  There they are forever remembered because their names are written in me, the book of life.  Thus the world hold them in reverence because they have despised the world.
     These souls hide their virtue only through humility, never through fear.  If their neighbors have need of their service, they do not hide their virtue for fear of suffering of for fear of losing their own selfish comfort.  No, they serve them courageously, with no concern for themselves.  In whatever way they use their lifetime for my honor, they are happy and find spiritual peace and quiet.
      Why?  Because they choose to serve me not in their own way but in mine."  Dialogue, p. 142.

Serving others is the best way.  Serving yourself doesn't work out.  Selfish, self-centered, self-serving people are left with themselves.  God's way is best.

How to serve others:

• Pray to imitate the lesson of the spirit of foot washing.
• Read John 13.  Be alert to Abraham, Noah, Ruth, Daniel, etc. serving others, when you read the Bible.
• Think how you can help whomever you talk to.  What do they need?

h/t  www.StainedGlassInc.com

Crossing the Bridge

To Catherine Siena, Jesus is the bridge on which we cross over the turbulent river of life.  In one of their dialogs, God spoke to Catherine:

"But first I want you to look at the bridge of my only begotten Son, and notice its greatness.  Look!  It stretches from heaven to earth, joining the earth of your humanity with the greatness of the God-head.  This is what I mean when I say it stretches from heaven to earth--through my union with humanity.

This was necessary if I wanted to remake the road that had been broken up, so that you might pass over the bitterness of the world and reach life.  From earth alone I could not have made it great enough to cross the river and bring you to eternal life.  The earth of human nature by itself, as I have told you, was incapable of atoning for sin and draining off the pus from Adam's sin, for that stinking pus had infected the whole human race.  Your nature had to be joined with the height of mine, the eternal Godhead, before it could make atonement for all of humanity.  Then human nature could endure the suffering, and the divine nature, joined with that humanity, would accept my son's sacrifice on your behalf to release you from death and give you life.

So the height stooped to the earth of your humanity, bridging the chasm between us and rebuilding the road.  And why should he have made of himself a roadway?  So that you might in truth come to the same joy as the angels.  But my Son's having made of himself a bridge for you could not bring you to life unless you make your way along that bridge."  (The Dialogue, p. 59)

Catherine called the bridge Jesus and sometimes she called it the cross.  She sought to imitate Jesus, who suffered and died, bridging the gap between humanity and divinity.  Suffering is part of life.  It definitely is a part of love.  Offering our suffering to God, is offering our love, just as Jesus loved us.
                         Come Gesu, anch'io ti amo fino a morire.

Cooking with the Blessed Mother

Today in my Holy Week Walk with St. Catherine of Siena, we are joined with Mary.  I was eating a breakfast of hot cross buns and was reminded of a Caterinati story of Mary helping Catherine cook.

It was a time of famine in Siena. Catherine was with her friend Alexia.  Alexia was making bread.  However, some of the grain was moldy, and Alexia was going to toss that portion out.  "Oh, no." Catherine cried.  The poor would be happy to have bread, any bread.

And Catherine took the grain with water, and made a paste of it.  As she kneaded the dough, so much had it grown, that Alexia joined in to help.  The two of them, made several trips, back and forth, from the kitchen to the oven to bake .

The smell of the baking bread was so savory that everyone drooled.  Usually bread made from corn meal, like these loaves, don't have much of a savory odor.  But these smelled heavenly.

But when they 
were baked and set on the table to eat, they that ate of them 
could find no manner of evil taste in them, but rather said that 
they had not in their life eaten better or more savoury bread.

Word of this miracle spread, and Catherine's spiritual director and confessor, Fra Raymund asked her if the story were true.  Catherine told her confessor that she so desired to help the poor that she asked our Blessed Mother for help.  Not only did Mary come, but she brought with her some angels, who helped Catherine kneed the dough.  

No wonder the bread smelled and tasted so good.  The Mother of our Eucharist, would make excellent bread.

Photo above shared under a creative commons license, original on flickr by user wikimedia.org

 ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. From the Engraving by Francesco 

Pregnant with Jesus

Ave Marie
Used with permission
Stained Glass Inc 

On March 25, I always start my Nine Month Novena in Honor ofthe Virgin of the Incarnation.  March 25-December 25 is nine months.  So for nine months I am pregnant with Jesus. 

However, this year, 2013, the celebration has been moved.  We will celebrate the observance, after the conclusion of the Octave of Easter, April 8.  This definitely throws praying nine months off kilter. 

I don’t want to confuse the pregnancy calculations.  Hence, I’m starting my novena today, March 25.

Also, since I’m walking with Catherine of Siena during Holy Week, I am recollecting her closeness with Mary.  Catherine, quite a few times, had visions of being espoused to Jesus. (See Denis Vincent Wiseman, op, Mary in the Life andThought of Catherine of Siena.)   In all of these mystical experiences, Mary gives Jesus to Catherine.  I however, never envision that.  For some reason, I identify with being pregnant with Jesus.  I like to think that He is dependent upon me, for food, love, comfort, and physical sustenance; whereupon I know it’s the other way around. 

O Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand, a thousand times we praise thee, a thousand times we greet thee, for the joy thou did know when the Son of God became flesh in thy womb.

Here is the Novena

 This novena is offered for three intentions.


Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen)


O Virgin of the Incarnation, a thousand, a thousand times we praise thee, a thousand times we greet thee, for the joy thou did know when the Son of God became flesh in thy womb.  Because thou are most powerful, O Virgin Mother of God, grant what we beseech thee for the love of God: (here name the three intentions).


The Memorare


Hail Mary


May the heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored and loved with grateful affection at every moment in all the tabernacles of the world and in the hearts of all, even until the end of time.  Amen.

h/t   www.stainedglassinc.com

        www.drawnbylove.com

Looking Through the Mirror

We were at a meeting.  I was having a good time.  It was after the meeting, that my friend confronted me about my negative behavior.  She said I made sarcastic, snarky remarks that were really uncalled for.  More than one person asked her what was up with my backbiting stabs.

Really?  Here I thought I was the bon vivant!

Now is the time, during Lent, to examine our behavior.  Do we really know ourselves?

St. Catherine of Siena was good at this.  She had a gift of looking inside, not only herself, but others, as well.  In her Dialogue, Catherine tells us:

A soul rises up, restless with tremendous desire for God's honor and the salvation of souls.  She has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has become accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know better God's goodness toward her, since upon knowledge follows love.  And loving, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it.
      But there is no way she can savor and enlightened by this truth as in continual humble prayer, grounded in the knowledge of herself and of God.

Catherine tells us to get in touch with ourselves and discover God's goodness.  But how?

There's always Spiritual Direction.  For most of us, that's not an option.  Of course, the best spiritual director is the Holy Spirit.  He will lead you in prayer, to helpful friends, books, and others.  If you're married, your spouse could be honest with you.  Your spouse will tell you your failings and what you're good at.  A friend, like my friend, who told me to stop the negative sarcasm.  It's not funny, nor clever.

Blogging helps.  Blogging is like a journal, and I know when I look back a year or two, I can visualize where I was in my faith journey.  And why!  I can see where I've grown, and slipped back.

Private journaling would do the same.  One can really bare their souls, in their own personal diary.

Some concrete way to keep tabs on our attitudes and actions, must be found.  Some assessment to realistically see how we're getting closer to God.  Pray for this.

Lord,
Purify my soul,
help me listen,
give me eyes to see,
and understanding
to discern what's
hindering my
way to holiness.
I only want to
get close to You.
Amen.

Crossing Over the Bridge

In her Dialogue, St. Catherine says that each of us chooses to live our lives by walking either on the Bridge, which is Christ, or on the river, which is the way without God, and in which one drowns. Both ways are full of fatigue, she says, but in choosing the Bridge, one experiences delight, and “every bitterness becomes sweet, and every burden light.”

She writes, speaking for God the Father,

For those who cross by the Bridge, being still in the darkness of the body, find light, and, being mortal, find immortal life, tasting, through love, the light of Eternal Truth which promises refreshment to him who wearies himself for Me…. He, therefore, is a fool indeed, who despises so great a good, and chooses rather to receive in this life, the earnest money of Hell, walking by the lower road with great toil, and without any refreshment or advantage.

In discussing this with my "cloistered brothers," a humorous but true image was conveyed.  We haven't crossed the bridge.  We sinners have to pay a toll to get over the bridge.

St. Catherine isn't the only one to use metaphors.  The toll is penance.  Another thought could be that the toll is grace.  And if you combine the two, then the toll is the grace to pay the penance.

St. Catherine and the Tree of Virtue

Do you know how these three virtues exist?
         Imagine a circle traced on the ground, and in its center a tree sprouting with a shoot grafted into its side.  The tree finds its nourishment in the soil within the expanse of the circle, but uprooted from the soil it would die fruitless.  So think of the soul as a tree made for love and living only by love. Indeed, without this divine love, which is true and perfect charity, death would be her fruit instead of life.  The circle in which this tree's root, the soul's love, must grow is true knowledge of herself, knowledge that is joined to me, who like the circle have neither beginning nor end.  You can go round and round within this circle, finding neither end nor beginning, yet never leaving the circle.  This knowledge of yourself, and of me within yourself, is grounded in the soil of true humility, which is as great as the expanse of the circle (which is the knowledge of yourself united with me, as I have siad).  But if your knowledge of yourself were isolated from me there would be no full circle at all.  Instead, there would be a beginning in self-knowledge, but apart from me it would end in confusion.
        So the tree of charity is nurtured in humility and branches out in true discernment.  The marrow of the tree (that is, loving charity within the soul) is patience, a sure sign that I am in her and that she is united with me.
         This tree, so delightfully planted, bears many fragranced blossoms of virtue.  Its fruit is grace for the soul herself and blessing for her neighbors in proportion to the conscientiousness of those who would share my servants' fruits.  To me this tree yields the fragrance of glory and praise to my name, and so it does what I created it for and comes at last to its goal, to me, everlasting Life, life that cannot be taken from you against your will.
         And every fruit produced by this tree is seasoned with discernment, and this unites them all, as I have told you.

How's this quote for vivid pictorial expression of ideas?  This is from Suzanne Noffke, O.P., Catherine of Siena the Dialogue.  This is God talking to Catherine.  He is teaching her the value of virtues and using the tree as an example of how the virtues are nurtured and rely on each other.  

I am a Lay Dominican

The poem below is obviously inspired by Langston Hughes', Negro.  It is in no way an imitation except in style.  I yield to Langston Hughes.  But I am grateful for the impetus to meditate upon whom I am.

I am Catherine of Siena:
     I served all in bondage:
     sick, poor, prisoners, the unloved.  

I am Margaret of Castello:

     hunchbacked, dwarfed, blind, lame.
     They wish to abort me still.

I am Rose of Lima:
     I am virginal and holy.
     I am the Americas first saint.

I am Zdislava:
     blessed to give rather than receive.
     I pray for healing.

I am Pier Georgio Frassati:
     I am handsome, young, and joyous.
     I am a man of the beatitudes.

I am a Lay Dominican:
     I radiate the presence of Christ
     in the midst of the world.