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|  |  |  | | |  | St. Catherine’s spiritual lifeWhen Catherine was growing up her family lived just down the hill from the church and cloister of San Domenico, a center of Dominican learning and preaching, and Catherine spent much time there. St. Catherine was a great mystic. She is one of only three female “doctors” of the Roman Catholic Church. (St. Teresa of Avila and St. Terese of Lisieux are the others).
Even though Catherine had no formal schooling, her writings have multiple influences from early Church fathers: Augustine, Cassian, Gregory the Great, Bernard, Francis, Thomas, Ubertino, Cavalca, Colombini. Catherine’s theological writings are completely immersed in the main current of Catholic teaching. Catherine addressed every class of people with her writing: popes and cardinals; monarchs, princes and governors; priests, nuns, and pious laity; mercenaries and prisoners. She developed her arguments clearly and soundly, with the effect of transforming the hearts of all of these different sorts of people through her knowledge and teaching of the Truth of Jesus Christ.
She maintained a balance between contemplation and action, being compelled into action by what she experienced in her contemplative prayer. For St. Catherine, God is la prima dolce Verita (the gentle first Truth) and God is pazzo d’amore (mad with love) and essa carita (charity itself). The way to God is the constantly lived dynamic of knowledge and love. The stage is set in the first paragraph of her Dialogue for this dynamic, which is at the heart of her whole teaching as it was of her life:
“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 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.”
St. Catherine always sought to instruct and to encourage those around her in their faith. It is for this character trait that she is most remembered as God’s faithful instrument.
Source: Catherine of Siena: the Dialogue (introduction), by Suzanne Noffke, O.P., Paulist Press, NY, 1980. |
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St. Catherine of Siena Academy • 28700 Beck Road • Wixom, Michigan 48393
Telephone: 248-587-0130
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