I just finished my spiritual reading, which for some time has been the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena.
St. Catherine was born in Siena in 1347, the 25th child of her mother and a twin (her twin sister and about half of her other siblings did not survive childhood). From an early age she wanted to devoted herself to God. To that end, she eventually joined the Dominicans. At 21, she experienced a “mystical marriage to Christ” and she had many visions in ecstasy. Some of these were eventually dictated and written down as the Dialogue, which was finished in 1378. She died just two years later.
Since she is a
Doctor of the Church, this, her most famous work, has been on my list to read
for awhile. I also have been trying to
make a concerted effort to read more female saints, to try and help that part
of my ministry. It is a dialogue between
God and a soul, though God does most of the talking (as He should). I will admit that it took me a long time to
get into it. Another priest concurred,
saying that getting one idea out of a few pages was on the right track. I persisted, slowly, until the section on
obedience which really spoke to me. I’ve
known it before: God expects much more from priests, but it hit me in a special
way this time. I was happy that I could
take away some very meaningful insights.
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