Path of Holiness by Catherine of Siena

Author:Catherine of Siena [Hill, Mary Lea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion
Publisher: Pauline Books and Media
Published: 2011-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

—Excerpt from The Dialogue, Number 3 (God speaks to Catherine)

XVI

The Role of Desire and Contrition

“Dearest daughter, I have shown you that in this lifetime atonement is not made by any pain endured for its own sake, but by the pain endured with desire, love, and contrition. I repeat, not by virtue of the pain itself, but because of the soul’s desire. Desire has value and so does every virtue. They possess life through my only-begotten Son, Christ crucified.

“From him the soul draws her love and carefully follows his virtues, that is, his footprints. There is no other way in which pain has value. Also in this way pains make up for faults because of the sweet and intimate love acquired in knowing my goodness, as well as in the bitterness and sorrow acquired by knowledge of one’s self and one’s own sins. In this knowledge, a hatred and displeasure with sin and one’s own sensuality comes about, and it is through this that she considers herself worthy of suffering rather than of reward.”

The sweet Truth continued: “See how such souls, with a contrite heart, together with love of true patience, and with true humility, considering themselves worthy of pain and unworthy of reward, await those satisfactions.

“You ask me to give you sufferings so that I may receive satisfaction for the offenses done against me by my creatures. You also ask the will to know and love me, who am the supreme Truth. My answer is that in order to find in me, the eternal Truth, perfect knowledge and pleasure, never flee from self-knowledge, for it is by humbling yourself in this lowly valley that you will know me and yourself, and from that knowledge you will draw all that is necessary. No virtue, my daughter, can have life in itself, but only in charity and in humility, the foster-mother and nurse of charity. Knowing yourself, you will humble yourself. You will see that on your own you do not even exist; your life itself comes from me. Before you existed I loved you and all others into life. In that same love I wanted to recreate you by grace, so I washed you and bathed you in the blood of my only-begotten Son, which was poured out in such a fire of love.

“Therefore, you and my other servants should conduct yourselves with true patience, with sorrow for your sins, and a love of virtue for the glory and praise of my name. I will then satisfy for all your sins, for the pains you will endure through love will be sufficient for both satisfaction and reward for you and for others. You will receive the fruit of life once your ignorance has been removed, and I will no longer remember that you offended me. Your love and affection for me will also satisfy for others. I will give them whatever they can receive of my gifts. I will especially be generous to those who listen to the teaching of my

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