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.  

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

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.

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.

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.  

All Perceptions are Misperceptions

My friend and I were sitting next to each other, on the bus.  We were catching up on each other’s “doings.”  She mentioned that she had been to a funeral Mass, at my parish.  (My friend is a fallen away Catholic)  She proceeded to tell me how bleak, boring, and particularly tedious the Mass celebrant was.  She said the priest obviously never even made an effort to learn anything about the deceased.  ….yada…yada…yada

Instinctively, I rushed to his defense.  Of course he knew of the deceased.  Maybe not personally, but I’m sure he was told. 

I couldn’t convince my friend.  I just flamed her tirade.  Once, she was hurt by the church…not really, but that’s how she perceived it.  You see, she was in a situation where she turned to the church for help.  And what she was told, was not what she wanted to hear.  Ever since then, the church can’t do anything right.

So I sat beside her and listened to her berate my priest, my confessor, my spiritual father, my spiritual director, my pastor, the one whom I constantly pray for—and prays for me.

I felt like punching her in the mouth.

Instead, I prayed for her.

Early in my Lay Dominican formation, I was impressed by St. Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue.  The Dialogue is the perfect book to read and reflect upon.  It’s applicable to our times, as well as it were to St. Catherine’s.  St. Catherine was adamant in defense of priests.  Then, as today, priests didn’t always behave as they should.  Scandals have been around since Abel and Cain.  

...it is my will that the sins of the clergy should not lessen your reverence for them,...Because the reverence you pay to them is not actually paid to them but to me, in virtue of the blood I have entrusted to their ministry...

   ...And just as the reverence is done to me, so also is the irreverence...

   For this reason no one has excuse to say, 'I am doing no harm, nor am I rebelling against holy Church.  I am simply acting against the sins of evil pastors.'  Such persons are deluded, blinded as they are by their own selfishness.  They see well enough, but they pretend not to see so as to blunt the prickling of conscience. ...  For I have said and I say it again: No one is to touch my christs.  It is my right to punish them, and no one else's.

And I prayed for my parish priests, and all priests.  They are alter Christi; in their indelible "likeness" to Christ, they are a sign of the constant love God has for us.