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St Catherine of Siena\'s Dialogue describes the entire spiritual
life through a series of conversations between God and the soul,
represented by Catherine herself. Readers of The Dialogue of Saint
Catherine of Siena, will find her revelations from God as
informative - and formative - as those who recognized her sanctity
during her life.
The universally applicable yet intimately personal messages she
received from God are as much for us as they were for Catherine. We
can read God\'s communications to his beloved daughter with
detached awe or we can receive His messages to us through her
writings.
Do you long for certainty that Divine Providence exists in the
midst of our chaotic world? Does your prayer seem too dry, or too
routine? Have you sought guidance for the challenges of your life
from unhelpful people or things? Or has pride kept you from humble
obedience to the Church? If so, The Dialogue will provide
consolation, encouragement, and hope.
This is a new release of the original 1931 edition.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1900 Edition.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1906 Edition.
THE DIALOGUE OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA A TREATISE OF DIVINE
PROVIDENCE How a soul, elevated by desire of the honor of God, and
of the salvation of her neighbors, exercising herself in humble
prayer, after she had seen the union of the soul, through love,
with God, asked of God four requests. The soul, who is lifted by a
very great and yearning desire for the honor of God and the
salvation of souls, begins by exercising herself, for a certain
space of time, in the ordinary virtues, remaining in the cell of
self-knowledge, in order to know better the goodness of God towards
her. This she does because knowledge must precede love, and only
when she has attained love, can she strive to follow and to clothe
herself with the truth. But, in no way, does the creature receive
such a taste of the truth, or so brilliant a light therefrom, as by
means of humble and continuous prayer, founded on knowledge of
herself and of God; because prayer, exercising her in the above
way, unites with God the soul that follows the footprints of Christ
Crucified, and thus, by desire and affection, and union of love,
makes her another Himself. Christ would seem to have meant this,
when He said: To him who will love Me and will observe My
commandment, will I manifest Myself; and he shall be one thing with
Me and I with him. In several places we find similar words, by
which we can see that it is, indeed, through the effect of love,
that the soul becomes another Himself. That this may be seen more
clearly, I will mention what I remember having heard from a
handmaid of God, namely, that, when she was lifted up in prayer,
with great elevation of mind, God was not wont to conceal, from the
eye of her intellect, the love which He had for His servants, but
rather to manifest it; and, that among other things, He used to
say: "Open the eye of your intellect, and gaze into Me, and you
shall see the beauty of My rational creature. And look at those
creatures who, among the beauties which I have given to the soul,
creating her in My image and similitude, are clothed with the
nuptial garment (that is, the garment of love), adorned with many
virtues, by which they are united with Me through love. And yet I
tell you, if you should ask Me, who these are, I should reply"
(said the sweet and amorous Word of God) "they are another Myself,
inasmuch as they have lost and denied their own will, and are
clothed with Mine, are united to Mine, are conformed to Mine." It
is therefore true, indeed, that the soul unites herself with God by
the affection of love. So, that soul, wishing to know and follow
the truth more manfully, and lifting her desires first for herself
-- for she considered that a soul could not be of use, whether in
doctrine, example, or prayer, to her neighbor, if she did not first
profit herself, that is, if she did not acquire virtue in herself
-- addressed four requests to the Supreme and Eternal Father. The
first was for herself; the second for the reformation of the Holy
Church; the third a general prayer for the whole world, and in
particular for the peace of Christians who rebel, with much
lewdness and persecution, against the Holy Church; in the fourth
and last, she besought the Divine Providence to provide for things
in general, and in particular, for a certain case with which she
was concerned.
A TREATISE OF DISCRETION How the affection should not place
reliance chiefly on penance, but rather on virtues; and how
discretion receives life from humility, and renders to each man his
due. "These are the holy and sweet works which I seek from My
servants; these are the proved intrinsic virtues of the soul, as I
have told you. They not only consist of those virtues which are
done by means of the body, that is, with an exterior act, or with
diverse and varied penances, which are the instruments of virtue;
works of penance performed alone without the above-mentioned
virtues would please Me little; often, indeed, if the soul perform
not her penance with discretion, that is to say, if her affection
be placed principally in the penance she has undertaken, her
perfection will be impeded; she should rather place reliance on the
affection of love, with a holy hatred of herself, accompanied by
true humility and perfect patience, together with the other
intrinsic virtues of the soul, with hunger and desire for My honor
and the salvation of souls. For these virtues demonstrate that the
will is dead, and continually slays its own sensuality through the
affection of love of virtue. With this discretion, then, should the
soul perform her penance, that is, she should place her principal
affection in virtue rather than in penance. Penance should be but
the means to increase virtue according to the needs of the
individual, and according to what the soul sees she can do in the
measure of her own possibility. Otherwise, if the soul place her
foundation on penance she will contaminate her own perfection,
because her penance will not be done in the light of knowledge of
herself and of My goodness, with discretion, and she will not seize
hold of My truth; neither loving that which I love, nor hating that
which I hate. This virtue of discretion is no other than a true
knowledge which the soul should have of herself and of Me, and in
this knowledge is virtue rooted. Discretion is the only child of
self-knowledge, and, wedding with charity, has indeed many other
descendants, as a tree which has many branches; but that which
gives life to the tree, to its branches, and its root, is the
ground of humility, in which it is planted, which humility is the
foster-mother and nurse of charity, by whose means this tree
remains in the perpetual calm of discretion. Because otherwise the
tree would not produce the virtue of discretion, or any fruit of
life, if it were not planted in the virtue of humility, because
humility proceeds from self-knowledge. And I have already said to
you, that the root of discretion is a real knowledge of self and of
My goodness, by which the soul immediately, and discreetly, renders
to each one his due. Chiefly to Me in rendering praise and glory to
My Name, and in referring to Me the graces and the gifts which she
sees and knows she has received from Me; and rendering to herself
that which she sees herself to have merited, knowing that she does
not even exist of herself, and attributing to Me, and not to
herself, her being, which she knows she has received by grace from
Me, and every other grace which she has received besides.
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