St Catherine of Siena – Dialogue

Inquiring Chapter 8 – Inquiring After God by Repentance and Forgiveness

Introduction

writing took the form of a dialogue between herself, presented as a “soul”, and God, through what she believed God would say to her in repsonse to her concerns.
narrator provides window in Catherine’s own thinking
people are born wounded by original sin
wound is healed by baptism into Christ when one receives the power of the Holy Spirit, leaving only a scar.
redemption reclaims the freedom of the will to resist evil
two groups

true servants of God
those who ought to serve God but do not yet, especially the clergy

Christian teaching that God became human in the Incarnation becomes something that one can taste, touch, and smell.
In the Eucharist believers eat, drink and are strengthened by this very bridge.
prayers, tears, and sweat of faithful servants constitute a powerful rebuke to corrupt ministers

seeing the tears and hearing the prayers of the faithful God controls his anger at the corrupt ministers of the Church / the faithful laity sustain the reconciling work of Christ by their holiness
a holy life servers others by example

to tend the garden of one’s own spiritual life is to tend to the spiritual purity of the whole body of Christ.
the weak redeem the strong

St Catherine of Siena, Dialogue

narrator – the eternal Father was showing her how he was being offended and souls were being harmed
183 - by our sin we lost the dignity you had given us
183 – You, God, became human and we have been made divine!
185 – God had to satisify God’s divine justice and divine mercy
185 – only the scar remains of that original sin as you contract it from your father and mother when you are conceived by them
185 – that neither the devil nor any other creature can forced you to the least sin unless you want it
185 – so sin is punished more serverly after people have been redeemed by the blood than before
186 – narrator – but to see such goodness offended brought her grief
187 – narrator – and that medicine by which he willed to heal the whole world and to soothe his wrath and divine justice was humble, constant, holy prayer
188 – Son is the bridge, this was necessary if I wanted to remake the road that had been broken up
188 – role of minister – rooting out from you the thorns of deadly sin and planting grace within you
189 – each of you has your own vineyard, your soul, in which your free will is appointed worker during this life.
189 – for in holy baptism the will was armed with a knife that is love of virtue and hatred of sin.
189 – if you would receive the fruit of this blood, you must first rouse yourself to heartfelt contrition, contempt for sin, and love for virtue
189 – If you are in him you will follow his teaching, and if you follow his teaching you will share in the very being of this Word
189 – These are the true workers. They till their souls well, uprooting every selfish love, cultivating the soil of their love in me. They feed and tend the growth of the seed of grace that they received in holy baptism. And as they till their own vineyards, so they till their neighbors’ as well, for they cannot do the one without the other.
190 – You already know that every evil as well as every good is done by means of your neighbors
190 – Keep in mind that each of you has your own vineyard. But every one is joined to your neighbors’ vineyards without any divinding lines. They are so joined together, in fact, that you cannot do good or evil for yourself without doing the same for your neighbors.
190 – they are the workers who have the keys to the wine cellar, that is, the blood poured forth from this vine.
190 – I want you, therefore, to be true workers. With deep concern help to till the souls in the mystic body of holy Church.

Petitions

first?
second (186) – she had concerned herself with the good that both Christians and unbelievers would reap from the reform of the holy Church.
third (187) – asking God to light within him a lamp of grace by which he might in truth pursue this Truth.