CATHERINE AND HER INCOMPARABLE DIALOGUE
In the words of St. Paul VI, Saint Catherine of Siena was "a unique phenomenon… among the sweetest, most original and greatest [saints] history has ever recorded." I wish to present briefly the 14th Century Dominican saint and focus on her The Dialogue.
Catherine Benincasa is born on March 25, 1347 in Siena, Italy. Jacobo and Lapa, her parents, had twenty-five children. Catherine, their twenty third, was a pious girl devoted to Jesus and to Mary. Early in her life, Catherine offered her life to Christ, her Spouse, and made for him an interior cell in her heart. When she was about seventeen years old, Catherine joined in Siena the “Mantellata,” a group of lay women of the Order of Penance of Saint Dominic, and began a three-year period of prayer and penance while leaving in seclusion at her home. At about twenty, Catherine leaves her home – but never leaving her interior cell - and dedicates herself to serve, with her many disciples, the neighbor, especially the needy neighbor, and the Church, and to promote peace
Catherine died on April 29, 1380, after much suffering. She was canonized by Pius II in 1461, proclaimed a co-patron of Europe by Pope Pius XII in 1939, and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970. St. Catherine is also copatron of Italy and one of the patrons of the Diocese of Macau (China).
Catherine wrote a major work of spiritual and mystical life: the Dialogue, or the Book of Divine Providence, which is a conversation between God the Father and Catherine. As it has been said, more than a book it is Catherine’s fascinating life. She also wrote hundreds of moving letters and about forty-eight soliloquies and prayers uttered by her during periods of ecstasy or while praying aloud. In her works, extension of her attractive life, Catherine links marvelously contemplation and action, prayer and compassion.
The Dialogue is not easy reading and often repetitive, but it is certainly worth reading – and must be read. It is a “classic” of Christian spirituality and therefore always timely and timeless. It is amazing to realize that an unlettered young woman, who learned to read late in life and did not know how to write well, was able to dictate the incredible conversations (her method of inspired teaching) between God the Father and herself.
An inevitable question: Where did she learn that marvelous doctrine of Christian and mystical spirituality? Catherine’s answer, according to her confessor Blessed Raymond of Capua: “From Jesus, my Lord and Teacher, who talked to me as I am talking to you now.” Catherine thanks God for it: “The doctrine of the truth that you have communicated to me is a special grace, besides the common that you give to the other creatures.” Evidently, Blessed Raymond of Capua, her other confessors, and Dominican preachers taught her sound doctrine. She loved very much the “glorious Thomas [Aquinas].”
The Dialogue is generally divided into 167 chapters, generally short. It starts with an introduction (Chas. 1-2), continues with her doctrine on perfection (3-12), on the dialogue (13-25), on the doctrine on the Bridge (26 - 87), tears (88 - 97), truth (98 – 109), the Mystical Body of the Church (110 – 134), divine providence (135 – 153), and finally, on obedience (154 – 165). She concludes her Dialogue with a summary and a song of grateful praise to God (166-167). (We have read and translated from the excellent Spanish edition and translation by Jose Salvador y Conde. Obras de Santa Catalina de Siena, El Diálogo - Madrid: BAC, 2018, 434 Pages).
God, Eternal Trinity, created us to have eternal life, through the blood of Christ Crucified. No one can go to the Father without the aid of Jesus, who is the Bridge. God the Father tells her: “The soul united to him by his divine love is ‘another I’.” She repeats: “You [God the Father] are the one who is and I am the one who is not.” The sweet union of the soul with God in holy communion: “the soul is in God and God in the soul like the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.”
Catherine’s doctrine on the Bridge is considered one of her most innovative teachings. The Bridge is the Only-Begotten Son of God, the sweet Jesus, God and man, Christ crucified and risen, mediator between God and humanity. Redemption and grace come from the Blood of Jesus. The Bridge has three states or steps represented by the feet, the side, and the mouth of Jesus crucified. In the first, the soul leaves vices; in the second, the soul lives of the love of virtues; and in the third – the mouth -, the soul finds great peace and stillness.
The Bridge is built up with the stones of true virtues. Charity is the queen of virtues and the one that gives life to all other virtues, and the only virtue that enters heaven. Humility, a very important virtue for the saint of Siena, is the wet nurse of Charity, and patience, its marrow. Most holy faith is rooted in obedience, another virtue highlighted by the saint of Siena.
Christian life, guided by the Holy Spirit, is permeated constantly by “humble and holy prayer” – of gratitude, of praise, and especially of petition: “Ask, then, because I [God the Father] do mercy” and invites all to knock at the door of Truth, his Son. Catherine sighs: “Oh Love! I have overcome you with your very love.”
In the Bridge there is a shop: the Garden of the Church, where the pilgrim receives the Bread of Life and the Blood of Christ. The Church is the vineyard of the mystical body, and Jesus is the grapevine in which we are grafted. Catharine laments: Those who are not thus grafted will soon become rebels who will be like members separated from the body and will soon rot.
The Saint of Siena speaks of another bridge: the bridge over the river where those with grave sins may sink and drown. For them also – for all -, the door of God’s mercy is always open. Catherine cautions us kindly: selfish love is the source of all evil. Selfish love is a rotten tree planted in the mountain of pride. God the Father tells St. Catherine – and us: “To obtain eternal life, it is not enough that my Son is the bridge, but that you utilize it.”
Christ, our Bridge of salvation, invites us to live compassionate, fraternal, joyful and prayerful lives. Thus, we contribute to building bridges in our divided world: bridges of justice, solidarity and fraternity among nations, families, political parties, religions and cultures; bridges that replace existing walls of pride, hatred, violence and racism. FG