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20 St. Catherine of Siena Things that Caught My Eye Today (April 29, 2015)

Last updated on: April 29, 2015 at 10:54 am
April 29, 2015 by
20 St. Catherine of Siena Things that Caught My Eye Today (April 29, 2015) April 29, 2015

1. From her dialogue on Divine Providence in the Liturgy of the Hours today:

Eternal God, eternal Trinity, you have made the blood of Christ so precious through his sharing in your divine nature. You are a mystery as deep as the sea; the more I search, the more I find, and the more I find the more I search for you. But I can never be satisfied; what I receive will ever leave me desiring more. When you fill my soul I have an even greater hunger, and I grow more famished for your light. I desire above all to see you, the true light, as you really are.

I have tasted and seen the depth of your mystery and the beauty of your creation with the light of my understanding. I have clothed myself with your likeness and have seen what I shall be. Eternal Father, you have given me a share in your power and the wisdom that Christ claims as his own, and your Holy Spirit has given me the desire to love you. You are my Creator, eternal Trinity, and I am your creature. You have made of me a new creation in the blood of your Son, and I know that you are moved with love at the beauty of your creation, for you have enlightened me.

Eternal Trinity, Godhead, mystery deep as the sea, you could give me no greater gift than the gift of yourself. For you are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being. Yes, you are a fire that takes away the coldness, illuminates the mind with its light and causes me to know your truth. By this light, reflected as it were in a mirror, I recognize that you are the highest good, one we can neither comprehend nor fathom. And I know that you are beauty and wisdom itself. The food of angels, you gave yourself to man in the fire of your love.

You are the garment which covers our nakedness, and in our hunger you are a satisfying food, for you are sweetness and in you there is no taste of bitterness, O triune God!

2. I prayed with the Dominicans at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. this morning for Catherine of Siena’s feast day. What a glorious Mass it was!

3. I also crossed the street to pray by her statue at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (where Pope Francis will canonize Junipero Serra in September) and snapped this:

4. Check out this preview of Word on Fire’s upcoming Pivotal Players series with Fr. Robert Barron on St. Catherine of Siena:

From it:

At the very heart of the spiritual life is charity, or love. For love is what God is. When the human will is rightly ordered to God, it marvelously expands. Catherine says “You make the heart so big. So big that it has room in its loving charity for everyone.” With well-ordered charity it seeks everyone’s salvation.

5. Pope Benedict on Catherine.

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8. From Fr. Steve Grunow’s homily today:

Finally, a word about Saint Catherine’s relationship to the Church- Saint Catherine’s outspoken advocacy of the independence of the Church from the political machinations of her time has at times been used as means of justifying causes that oppose the Church in our times. This is, to use Pope Francis’ words “solemn nonsense”. At no time did Saint Catherine position herself as an opponent of the Church, particularly of the papacy, but always as an advocate. Her advocacy was not that the Church change to meet the world on its own terms. In fact, it was precisely this attitude that had led to the Church’s captivity to worldly powers. Saint Catherine’s advocacy was not about changing the Church, but about the Church being freed from worldliness so the faithful could accomplish their divinely ordained mission.
The Church does not change by conforming itself to this or that age or cause or political party or ideological construct. Nor is it the purpose of the Church to balance these elements of worldliness within herself, and in doing so, give divine sanction to our self centered worldliness.
The accommodation of the Church to our worldliness can bring worldly comforts to Christians, but as the life of Saint Catherine of Siena attests, Christians are not created by Christ to be comfortable. Christians are created by Christ so that the worldly can be liberated from their worldliness by saints.
The Church is meant to be a missionary endeavor, a society of people who, like Saint Catherine of Siena, have allowed Jesus Christ to be the priority of their lives. Only when we allow Christ to be our priority is the Church truly free to accomplish her mission. Saint Catherine of Siena’s life witnesses to this truth, but what about our lives?

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11. Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix wrote about her recently here.

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13. More Catherine:

Engraft yourself onto the tree of the cross. Bind yourself by love, by measureless, infinite charity, to the slain lamb who pours out his blood from every part of his body. Let these hearts of ours be broken open! No more harness, no more carelessness – for time does not sleep but runs its course relentlessly! Let us make our dwelling place with Him in love and holy desire, and we need never be afraid again.

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(That icon is here.)

20. I quite like this find of the day:

St-Catherine-WP-1080x675

PLUS: If you can bear one more, my Catholic Pulse column up today: Listening Like St. Catherine: Holy Model of Christian Life

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