Saint Catherine of Siena

Facts about Saint Catherine of Siena
https://epicpew.com/10-things-didnt-know-saint-catherine-siena/

 

Novena to Saint Catherine:
https://www.praymorenovenas.com/st-catherine-of-siena-novena

 

She is a great favorite of mine. There is a marvelous novel by louis deWhol about her life called "Lay Siege to Heaven" available on amazon. She asked Our Lord once after receiving Him in Holy Communion and praying in front of the tabernacle ,"how is it you are in my heart right now yet you are here in the Tabernacle too,?"
He told her "You are the fish and I am the Sea. I am in you and you are in Me." Isnt that beyond amazing?

 

Yes Louis wrote some wonderful books about saints.

St Sienna would make a great role model for our present time, given all that is going on in the Church. A Docotr of the Church, an outstanding mystic with an active apostaolate. Who could ask for more.

Even if it were only as basic as a woman who knew how to tell the turth to power I would be happy enough to settle for that.

Why oh why are Churchmen these days so scared witless by fear of speaking the truth? learn from St Catherine.

 

That's so lovely. I've always loved the name Catherine. What a lovely Saint!

I am trying to be more quiet, and just trust things. I can't see the future, or know what is in the Holy Father's heart or head. I can't see that. But the resounding call seems to be, pray the Rosary, hang on, be faithful, don't give up. Love the Holy Father, too. Even when it is hard to. We must love the See of Peter, and the Vicar of Christ.

 

Interesting to find out that she was a lay person. The only lay Doctor of the Church. Always thought she was a religious for some reason.

 

https://www.catholicsun.org/2015/04...an-but-not-a-religious-st-catherine-of-siena/

A Dominican Tertiary

Catherine of Siena was closely associated with the Dominicans, having become a member of the Mantellate, a Tertiary organization that assisted lay members to pursue holiness of life while remaining in the world and strengthened there by the charism, example and counsel of Dominican Sisters and Friars.


In this year of consecrated life, it is good not only to honor men and women religious but also the many laity who are closely associated with their charisms and apostolates. In this regard, followers of St. Francis include more than his Friars, Sisters and the Poor Clare Nuns; there are also lay associates known as secular order Franciscans. Similarly, the Benedictines have their Oblates, Carmelites their Third Order, Passionists their Associates, and so it goes. Moreover, the laity who associate themselves closely with a particular Institute of Consecrated Life are not called to holiness any less than those who belong fully to each Institute. Of this truth, St. Catherine of Siena is a prime example.'

I think it was necessary for Catherine not to be a religious for her to do the work she did. She would never have been able to move about Europe so freely if she were a nun. This is I think a lesson for our own time when many voices are saying that , once again it will be lay people who will save the Church.

The clergy are too tied into Church structures. Part of the Status Quo. You will rarely do well in any big organisation if you are a boat rocker.

Catherine rocked and rolled like Elvis Presley.

 

The most extraordinary person in Catherine's life was her mother Mona Lapa. She actually attended the Parade at her Daughter's canonisation, the only time I heard of such a thing.. just imagine.

Mona Lapa was the mother of 22 children and her house must have been like a railway station as they ran a cloth dying operation there. Apprentices , trades people, servants, customers, huge family in laws. neigbours..they must never have closed the front door. The strong impression I get was that Mona Lapa cracked the whip .

Not a woman, like her saintly daughter, to mess about with.

 

One thing we see in St Catherine's life we see in the lives of many, many saints. That is a period of retreat when the saint withdraws from the world for a while and then comes back. In the case of St Catherine this took place in her little room where she went into seclusion. I suspect she took her line in this from Scripture.

Matthew 6:6

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Let's see; examples from other saints

The three years St Paul spent in the deserts of Arabia after his conversion.

St Patrick on Mount Slemish.

St Anthony the Great in the desert.

St Paul of the Cross and his brother being hermits for a while.

St Francis of Assisi outside the town trying to build the ruined Church on his own.

You see this in the Life of Jesus too. He keep going off for periods of private prayer, often alone but sometimes taking the Disciples with Him.

It's amazing how Catherine managed this with the mother she had and in such a crazy home. Her mother by this point must have suspected her daughter was a saint , otherwise Catherine would never have gotten away with it.

 

When I read her year of birth, I thought "uh-oh."

Based on my reading about The Black Death, 1347 was THE worst year of it.

 

There is some reason for supposing God decided to End the World around that time on account of its sins, but changed his mind (because a sufficient number repented...as at Ninevah).

 

The Black Death started near central China, and through India. It also swept northern Africa.

Terrible.

I've read two books about it. Nearly impossible to visualize or comprehend.

 

There are still many, many traces of it to be found in Modern Europe. One time I was in London , walking in a Park in an area called Black Heath. I wondered at the strange name so I checked it out. It was the place were all the dead from the Black Plague in London were buried. So I was actually walking across a huge mass grave.

I'm a bit nervous of people disturbing graves of people who died in Pandemics. The Spanish Flu at the end of the First World War killed far more people than the war itself. Some of the bodies of the dead remained frozen in places like Siberia and Alaska. I wish no one would disturb these bodies but leave them alone.

I hear that there is a real risk of the plague breaking out in Los Angeles; things have gotten so bad there.

 

I hadn't thought of that. Amazing that traces linger, despite its severity, considering how long ago (or at least "long ago" to an American mind).

Yikes.

Agreed!

California is controlled by Democrats, as you probably know. Either they don't care or they're...hoping???

 

Sometimes I wonder.

Are people doing things because they're stupid?

Or are they doing things because they're not stupid?

By this I mean are they doing this because they are evil?

Leaving tens of thousands of tons of garbage piling up in a huge modern city seems on the surface seems totally stupid.

But maybe its not totally stupid at all. Maybe its totally evil. Maybe they want the garbage piling up; for a reason.

 

Yeah.

I formerly (until two years ago) was continually baffled by "how foolish" certain people "seemed to be." Or how "outraged" they were. Or why they didn't simply walk away from something they claim so "offends" them.

Now I'm inclined to think a lot of it's on purpose (ruses).

 

From the All Ireland Rosary Rally Fb page:

"Today is the feast of St Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church.

She was born on the feast of the Annunciation in 1347, the 23rd child of a cloth dyer in Italy.

Catherine had her first vision of Jesus when she was still a child.

She gave her life to Him and resisted her parents' attempt to have her marry.

St Catherine wrote about developing a little cell at the centre of her being where she could commune with God.

She became a third order Dominican, continuing to live in her “little cell” at her parent’s house.

As a Dominican, she would have learned to pray the Rosary.

Catherine loved the Blessed Mother and left many beautiful pieces in the prayers she composed and the writings she dictated.

In the beautiful painting of Our Lady of Pompeii, the Blessed Virgin is depicted giving the Rosary to St Dominic while the Infant Jesus gives one to St Catherine of Siena."