NOTE: THIS SUNDAY'S EUCHARIST WILL BE ONLY ON ZOOM: JEAN AND RON ARE AWAY FOR A RESTFUL WEEKEND AND REV. MARY MICHAEL LEAHY, RCWP WILL BE PRESIDING.
Dear Friends,
We hope that you are safe and well.
You may have heard me (Ron) talking about Catherine of Siena as one of my heroines. Today is her feastday and Today's Meditation features her and her sayings. One of the reasons I admire her is that she walked all the way from Siena, Italy to Avignon, France to convince the Pope that he needed to go back to Rome.
Hence, she lived out her saying: "Speak out the truth as if you had a million voices; it is silence that kills the world." One of my favorite sayings of hers is "All the way to heaven is heaven:" heaven is not some prize at the end of the journey, heaven is a way of living everyday of our lives, in joyful gratitude that God is with us and that we have each other's company and support. If you ever get to Siena, Italy visit her church, Basilica of San Domenico and when you enter, in the little area up a few steps to the right is the sanctuary where she used to pray and there are markers on the floor where she had some of her memorable prayer experiences. It is a peaceful place and one can sense her spirit connecting with God there still today. Visit her home as well.
We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.
In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.
We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!
With our love and care,
Ron and Jean
MEDITATION 658: Catherine of Siena: Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices: it is silence that kills the world.
Blessed Among Us from Give Us This Day
St. Catherine of Siena
Doctor of the Church (1347–1380)
St. Catherine of Siena was one of the greatest saints of a tumultuous era. Like other great mystics, she enjoyed an intimate relationship with Christ. This was certified by a dazzling array of miraculous signs, which even in her lifetime made her something of a celebrity. What was distinctive about Catherine was the way she mediated through her own heart the burning love of Christ and the needs of her time.
Early in life she declared her betrothal to Christ. When her parents retaliated by forcing her to work as a household servant, she responded by erecting within her heart “a secret cell” of “self-knowledge” to which she could retreat from her daily drudgery. Eventually, while still living at home, she was permitted to put on the habit of a Dominican tertiary. But after three years she experienced a mystical marriage with Christ. This launched her on a new public career as she cared for the poor and sick and attracted a large band of disciples.
In 1374 she received a divine commission to help heal the world and the Church. She wrote hundreds of letters to the pope, monarchs, and other powerful men, counseling them on their duties to make peace and restore unity in the Church. She even traveled to Avignon on a mission to persuade the pope to return to his see in Rome.
After a final vision in which she saw the Church, as if like a mighty ship, placed on her back, she collapsed in pain. She died soon after on April 29, 1380, at the age of thirty-three. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church.
“Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices. It is silence that kills the world.”—St. Catherine of Siena
Sayings of Catherine of Siena:
"All the way to heaven is heaven."
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
“God is closer to us than water is to a fish.”
“To the servant of God... every place is the right place, and every time is the right time.”
“Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.”
“You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love.”
“Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.”
“One who knows more, loves more.”
“To a brave person, good and bad luck are like one's left and right hand. One uses both.”
“We were enclosed, O eternal Father, within the garden of your breast. You drew us out of your holy mind like a flower petaled with our soul's three powers and into each power you put the whole plant, so that they might bear fruit in your garden, might come back to you with the fruit you gave them. And you would come back to the soul, to fill her with your blessedness. There the soul dwells like the fish in the sea and the sea in the fish.”
“The human heart is always drawn by love.”
“Do not be satisfied with little things, because God wants great things!”
“Every step of the way to heaven is heaven.”
“Out of darkness is born the light.”