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Catherine of Siena: Difference between revisions
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== Final years == | == Final years == | ||
In November 1378 she moved to Rome to devote herself to the cause of the papacy. During the last months of her life Catherine went daily to Saint Peter’s basilica where she spent hours in prayer before the mosaic of “la Navicella,” the ship of the Church. Just before Lent in 1380 she had a vision of the ship being lifted out of the mosaic and placed upon her shoulders. Three months later, on April 29, 1380, at age 33, Catherine died, exhausted by her penances and efforts in the service of the pope and the Church. “O eternal God,” she had prayed upon her deathbed, “receive the sacrifice of my life for the sake of this mystical body of holy Church.”<ref>Edmund G. Gardner, ''Saint Catherine of Siena: A Study in the Religion, Literature, and History of the Fourteenth Century in Italy'' (London: J. M. Dent, 1907), p. 343.</ref> | In November 1378 she moved to Rome to devote herself to the cause of the papacy. During the last months of her life Catherine went daily to Saint Peter’s basilica where she spent hours in prayer before the mosaic of “la Navicella,” the ship of the Church. Just before [[Lent]] in 1380 she had a vision of the ship being lifted out of the mosaic and placed upon her shoulders. Three months later, on April 29, 1380, at age 33, Catherine died, exhausted by her penances and efforts in the service of the pope and the Church. “O eternal God,” she had prayed upon her deathbed, “receive the sacrifice of my life for the sake of this mystical body of holy Church.”<ref>Edmund G. Gardner, ''Saint Catherine of Siena: A Study in the Religion, Literature, and History of the Fourteenth Century in Italy'' (London: J. M. Dent, 1907), p. 343.</ref> | ||
== The Dialogue == | == The Dialogue == | ||
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For Catherine, “love of your neighbor” consisted of both action and intercessory prayer. “Let not a moment pass without crying out with constant prayer,”<ref>Catherine of Siena, ''The Dialogue'', trans. Suzanne Noffke (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), 32.</ref> God told her. One of Catherine’s recorded prayers reads: | For Catherine, “love of your neighbor” consisted of both action and intercessory prayer. “Let not a moment pass without crying out with constant prayer,”<ref>Catherine of Siena, ''The Dialogue'', trans. Suzanne Noffke (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), 32.</ref> God told her. One of Catherine’s recorded prayers reads: | ||
<blockquote>Your Son is not about to come again except in majesty to judge.... But, as I see it, you are calling your servants christs, and through them you want to relieve the world of death and restore it to life. | <blockquote> | ||
Your Son is not about to come again except in majesty to judge.... But, as I see it, you are calling your servants christs, and through them you want to relieve the world of death and restore it to life. | |||
How? You want these servants of yours to walk courageously along the Word’s way with concern and blazing desire, working for your honor and the salvation of souls.... | |||
O best of remedy-givers! Give us then these christs who will live in continual watching and tears and prayers for the world’s salvation. You call them your christs because they are conformed to your only-begotten Son.<ref>''The Prayers of Catherine of Siena'', ed. Suzanne Noffke (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), pp. 178, 179.</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Thus Jesus revealed to Catherine that there must be many Christs. We are all Christs in potential. And the level to which our Christ is seated in the body where we sit entirely depends upon each of us and what action we take from this profound understanding. | Thus Jesus revealed to Catherine that there must be many Christs. We are all Christs in potential. And the level to which our Christ is seated in the body where we sit entirely depends upon each of us and what action we take from this profound understanding. | ||