Feast of St Catherine of Sienna

By Ivonne Hernandez

God speaking to St Catherine:
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“So this Word, My Son, with His most sweet Blood, is one Sun, all God and all man, because He is one thing with Me and I with Him. My power is not separated from His wisdom, nor the fiery heat of the Holy Spirit from Me, the Father, or from Him, the Son; …I have said to you that this Body is, as it were, a Sun. Wherefore, you cannot receive the Body without the Blood, or the Blood or the Body without the Soul of the Incarnate Word; nor the Soul, nor the Body, without the Divinity of Me, the Eternal God, because none of these can be separated from each other, as I said to you in another place that the Divine nature never left the human nature, either by death or from any other cause. So that you receive the whole Divine Essence in that most Sweet Sacrament concealed under the whiteness of the bread; for as the sun cannot be divided into light, heat, and color, the whole of God and the whole of man cannot be separated under the white mantle of the host; for even if the host should be divided into a million particles (if it were possible) in each particle should I be present, whole God and whole Man.” [1]

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MEDITATION:

This feast day of St Catherine of Sienna gives us a perfect opportunity to ponder on the Eucharistic teachings this great Doctor of the Church left for us. Sometimes we can focus so much on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist that we might forget or overlook the fact that it is not only Jesus Who is truly present in the Sacrament, but that the Father and the Holy Spirit are also present. In the Eucharist “God's whole life encounters us and is sacramentally shared with us. God is a perfect communion of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” [2]

In the Eucharist we are invited to participate in this mystery of love; to be caught up with the Holy Spirit in the embrace between the Father and the Son. If we allow ourselves to remain in this reality, and we move and act from this place of love, we will be truly one in Him. It is only from this place that we will find the grace to live the law of the New Covenant, the law of love; to love one another as He has loved us. It is this Love that we are called to share, not out own selfish love. It is the Love of God that will overflow in us and perfects us in Charity. "Wherefore, I show you that in My house are many mansions, and that I wish for no other thing than love, for in the love of Me is fulfilled and completed the love of the neighbor, and the law observed. For he, only, can be of use in his state of life, who is bound to Me with this love." [3]


[1] Catherine of Siena, Saint. The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena (Kindle Locations 2596-2597). Kindle Edition.
[2] http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis.html
[3] Catherine of Siena, Saint. The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena (Kindle Locations 561-563). Kindle Edition.