How a soul, elevated by desire of the honor of God, and of the salvation of her neighbors, exercising herself in humble prayer, after she had seen the union of the soul, through love, with God, asked of God four requests
The
soul, who is lifted by a very great and yearning desire for the honor of God
and the salvation of souls, begins by exercising herself, for a certain space
of time, in the ordinary virtues, remaining in the cell of self-knowledge, in
order to know better the goodness of God towards her. This she does because
knowledge must precede love, and only when she has attained love, can she
strive to follow and to clothe herself with the truth. But, in no way, does the
creature receive such a taste of the truth, or so brilliant a light therefrom,
as by means of humble and continuous prayer, founded on knowledge of herself
and of God; because prayer, exercising her in the above way, unites with God
the soul that follows the footprints of Christ Crucified, and thus, by desire
and affection, and union of love, makes her another Himself. Christ would seem
to have meant this, when He said: To him who will love Me and will observe My
commandment, will I manifest Myself; and he shall be one thing with Me and I
with him. In several places we find similar words, by which we can see that it
is, indeed, through the effect of love, that the soul becomes another Himself.
That this may be seen more clearly, I will mention what I remember having heard
from a handmaid of God, namely, that, when she was lifted up in prayer, with
great elevation of mind, God was not wont to conceal, from the eye of her
intellect, the love which He had for His servants, but rather to manifest it;
and, that among other things, He used to say: "Open the eye of your
intellect, and gaze into Me, and you shall see the beauty of My rational
creature. And look at those creatures who, among the beauties which I have
given to the soul, creating her in My image and similitude, are clothed with
the nuptial garment (that is, the garment of love), adorned with many virtues,
by which they are united with Me through love. And yet I tell you, if you
should ask Me, who these are, I should reply" (said the sweet and amorous
Word of God) "they are another Myself, inasmuch as they have lost and
denied their own will, and are clothed with Mine, are united to Mine, are
conformed to Mine." It is therefore true, indeed, that the soul unites
herself with God by the affection of love.
So, that soul, wishing to know and follow the
truth more manfully, and lifting her desires first for herself -- for she
considered that a soul could not be of use, whether in doctrine, example, or
prayer, to her neighbor, if she did not first profit herself, that is, if she
did not acquire virtue in herself -- addressed four requests to the Supreme and
Eternal Father. The first was for herself; the second for the reformation of
the Holy Church; the third a general prayer for the whole world, and in
particular for the peace of Christians who rebel, with much lewdness and
persecution, against the Holy Church; in the fourth and last, she besought the
Divine Providence to provide for things in general, and in particular, for a
certain case with which she was concerned.
How the desire
of this soul grew when God showed her the neediness of the world.
This desire was great and continuous, but grew
much more, when the First Truth showed her the neediness of the world, and in
what a tempest of offense against God it lay. And she had understood this the
better from a letter, which she had received from the spiritual Father of her
soul, in which he explained to her the penalties and intolerable dolor caused
by offenses against God, and the loss of souls, and the persecutions of Holy
Church.
All this lighted the fire of her holy desire with
grief for the offenses, and with the joy of the lively hope, with which she
waited for God to provide against such great evils. And, since the soul seems,
in such communion, sweetly to bind herself fast within herself and with God,
and knows better His truth, inasmuch as the soul is then in God, and God in the
soul, as the fish is in the sea, and the sea in the fish, she desired the
arrival of the morning (for the morrow was a feast of Mary) in order to hear
Mass. And, when the morning came, and the hour of the Mass, she sought with
anxious desire her accustomed place; and, with a great knowledge of herself,
being ashamed of her own imperfection, appearing to herself to be the cause of
all the evil that was happening throughout the world, conceiving a hatred and
displeasure against herself, and a feeling of holy justice, with which
knowledge, hatred, and justice, she purified the stains which seemed to her to
cover her guilty soul, she said: "O Eternal Father, I accuse myself before
You, in order that You may punish me for my sins in this finite life, and,
inasmuch as my sins are the cause of the sufferings which my neighbor must
endure, I implore You, in Your kindness, to punish them in my person."
How finite works
are not sufficient for punishment or recompense without the perpetual affection
of love.
Then, the Eternal Truth seized and drew more
strongly to Himself her desire, doing as He did in the Old Testament, for when
the sacrifice was offered to God, a fire descended and drew to Him the
sacrifice that was acceptable to Him; so did the sweet Truth to that soul, in
sending down the fire of the clemency of the Holy Spirit, seizing the sacrifice
of desire that she made of herself, saying: "Do you not know, dear daughter,
that all the sufferings, which the soul endures, or can endure, in this life,
are insufficient to punish one smallest fault, because the offense, being done
to Me, who am the Infinite Good, calls for an infinite satisfaction? However, I
wish that you should know, that not all the pains that are given to men in this
life are given as punishments, but as corrections, in order to chastise a son
when he offends; though it is true that both the guilt and the penalty can be
expiated by the desire of the soul, that is, by true contrition, not through
the finite pain endured, but through the infinite desire; because God, who is
infinite, wishes for infinite love and infinite grief. Infinite grief I wish
from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own sins,
which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the other way, through her
sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit against Me. Of such as
these, inasmuch as they have infinite desire, that is, are joined to Me by an
affection of love, and therefore grieve when they offend Me, or see Me
offended, their every pain, whether spiritual or corporeal, from wherever it
may come, receives infinite merit, and satisfies for a guilt which deserved an
infinite penalty, although their works are finite and done in finite time; but,
inasmuch as they possess the virtue of desire, and sustain their suffering with
desire, and contrition, and infinite displeasure against their guilt, their
pain is held worthy. Paul explained this when he said: If I had the tongues of
angels, and if I knew the things of the future and gave my body to be burned,
and have not love, it would be worth nothing to me. The glorious Apostle thus
shows that finite works are not valid, either as punishment or recompense, without
the condiment of the affection of love."
How desire and
contrition of heart satisfies, both for the guilt and the penalty in oneself
and in others; and how sometimes it satisfies for the guilt only, and not the
penalty.
"I have shown you, dearest daughter, that the
guilt is not punished in this finite time by any pain which is sustained purely
as such. And I say, that the guilt is punished by the pain which is endured
through the desire, love, and contrition of the heart; not by virtue of the pain,
but by virtue of the desire of the soul; inasmuch as desire and every virtue is
of value, and has life in itself, through Christ crucified, My only begotten
Son, in so far as the soul has drawn her love from Him, and virtuously follows
His virtues, that is, His Footprints. In this way, and in no other, are virtues
of value, and in this way, pains satisfy for the fault, by the sweet and
intimate love acquired in the knowledge of My goodness, and in the bitterness
and contrition of heart acquired by knowledge of one's self and one's own
thoughts. And this knowledge generates a hatred and displeasure against sin,
and against the soul's own sensuality, through which, she deems herself worthy
of pains and unworthy of reward."
The sweet Truth continued: "See how, by
contrition of the heart, together with love, with true patience, and with true
humility, deeming themselves worthy of pain and unworthy of reward, such souls
endure the patient humility in which consists the above-mentioned satisfaction.
You ask me, then, for pains, so that I may receive satisfaction for the
offenses, which are done against Me by My Creatures, and you further ask the
will to know and love Me, who am the Supreme Truth. Wherefore I reply that this
is the way, if you will arrive at a perfect knowledge and enjoyment of Me, the
Eternal Truth, that you should never go outside the knowledge of yourself, and,
by humbling yourself in the valley of humility, you will know Me and yourself,
from which knowledge you will draw all that is necessary. No virtue, my
daughter, can have life in itself except through charity, and humility, which
is the foster-mother and nurse of charity. In self-knowledge, then, you will
humble yourself, seeing that, in yourself, you do not even exist; for your very
being, as you will learn, is derived from Me, since I have loved both you and
others before you were in existence; and that, through the ineffable love which
I had for you, wishing to re-create you to Grace, I have washed you, and
re-created you in the Blood of My only-begotten Son, spilt with so great a fire
of love. This Blood teaches the truth to him, who, by self-knowledge,
dissipates the cloud of self-love, and in no other way can he learn. Then the
soul will inflame herself in this knowledge of Me with an ineffable love,
through which love she continues in constant pain; not, however, a pain which
afflicts or dries up the soul, but one which rather fattens her; for since she
has known My truth, and her own faults, and the ingratitude of men, she endures
intolerable suffering, grieving because she loves Me; for, if she did not love
Me, she would not be obliged to do so; whence it follows immediately, that it
is right for you, and My other servants who have learnt My truth in this way,
to sustain, even unto death, many tribulations and injuries and insults in word
and deed, for the glory and praise of My Name; thus will you endure and suffer
pains. Do you, therefore, and My other servants, carry yourselves with true
patience, with grief for your sins, and with love of virtue for the glory and
praise of My Name. If you act thus, I will satisfy for your sins, and for those
of My other servants, inasmuch as the pains which you will endure will be
sufficient, through the virtue of love, for satisfaction and reward, both in
you and in others. In yourself you will receive the fruit of life, when the
stains of your ignorance are effaced, and I shall not remember that you ever
offended Me. In others I will satisfy through the love and affection which you
have to Me, and I will give to them according to the disposition with which
they will receive My gifts. In particular, to those who dispose themselves,
humbly and with reverence, to receive the doctrine of My servants, will I remit
both guilt and penalty, since they will thus come to true knowledge and
contrition for their sins. So that, by means of prayer, and their desire of
serving Me, they receive the fruit of grace, receiving it humbly in greater or
less degree, according to the extent of their exercise of virtue and grace in
general. I say then, that, through your desires, they will receive remission
for their sins. See, however, the condition, namely, that their obstinacy
should not be so great in their despair as to condemn them through contempt of
the Blood, which, with such sweetness, has restored them.
"What fruit do they receive?
"The fruit which I destine for them,
constrained by the prayers of My servants, is that I give them light, and that
I wake up in them the hound of conscience, and make them smell the odor of
virtue, and take delight in the conversation of My servants.
"Sometimes I allow the world to show them
what it is, so that, feeling its diverse and various passions, they may know
how little stability it has, and may come to lift their desire beyond it, and
seek their native country, which is the Eternal Life. And so I draw them by
these, and by many other ways, for the eye cannot see, nor the tongue relate,
nor the heart think, how many are the roads and ways which I use, through love
alone, to lead them back to grace, so that My truth may be fulfilled in them. I
am constrained to do so by that inestimable love of Mine, by which I created
them, and by the love, desire, and grief of My servants, since I am no despiser
of their tears, and sweat, and humble prayers; rather I accept them, inasmuch
as I am He who give them this love for the good of souls and grief for their
loss. But I do not, in general, grant to these others, for whom they pray,
satisfaction for the penalty due to them, but, only for their guilt, since they
are not disposed, on their side, to receive, with perfect love, My love, and
that of My servants. They do not receive their grief with bitterness, and
perfect contrition for the sins they have committed, but with imperfect love and
contrition, wherefore they have not, as others, remission of the penalty, but
only of the guilt; because such complete satisfaction requires proper
dispositions on both sides, both in him that gives and him that receives.
Wherefore, since they are imperfect, they receive imperfectly the perfection of
the desires of those who offer them to Me, for their sakes, with suffering;
and, inasmuch as I told you that they do receive remission, this is indeed the
truth, that, by that way which I have told you, that is, by the light of
conscience, and by other things, satisfaction is made for their guilt; for,
beginning to learn, they vomit forth the corruption of their sins, and so
receive the gift of grace.
"These are they who are in a state of
ordinary charity, wherefore, if they have trouble, they receive it in the guise
of correction, and do not resist over much the clemency of the Holy Spirit,
but, coming out of their sin, they receive the life of grace. But if, like
fools, they are ungrateful, and ignore Me and the labors of My servants done
for them, that which was given them, through mercy, turns to their own ruin and
judgment, not through defect of mercy, nor through defect of him who implored
the mercy for the ingrate, but solely through the man's own wretchedness and
hardness, with which, with the hands of his free will, he has covered his
heart, as it were, with a diamond, which, if it be not broken by the Blood, can
in no way be broken. And yet, I say to you, that, in spite of his hardness of
heart, he can use his free will while he has time, praying for the Blood of My
Son, and let him with his own hand apply It to the diamond over his heart and
shiver it, and he will receive the imprint of the Blood which has been paid for
him. But, if he delays until the time be past, he has no remedy, because he has
not used the dowry which I gave him, giving him memory so as to remember My
benefits, intellect, so as to see and know the truth, affection, so that he
should love Me, the Eternal Truth, whom he would have known through the use of
his intellect. This is the dowry which I have given you all, and which ought to
render fruit to Me, the Father; but, if a man barters and sells it to the
devil, the devil, if he choose, has a right to seize on everything that he has
acquired in this life. And, filling his memory with the delights of sin, and
with the recollection of shameful pride, avarice, self-love, hatred, and
unkindness to his neighbors (being also a persecutor of My servants), with
these miseries, he has obscured his intellect by his disordinate will. Let such
as these receive the eternal pains, with their horrible stench, inasmuch as
they have not satisfied for their sins with contrition and displeasure of their
guilt. Now, therefore, you have understood how suffering satisfies for guilt by
perfect contrition, not through the finite pain; and such as have this
contrition in perfection satisfy not only for the guilt, but also for the
penalty which follows the guilt, as I have already said when speaking in general;
and if they satisfy for the guilt alone, that is, if, having abandoned mortal
sin, they receive grace, and have not sufficient contrition and love to satisfy
for the penalty also, they go to the pains of Purgatory, passing through the
second and last means of satisfaction.
"So you see that satisfaction is made,
through the desire of the soul united to Me, who am the Infinite Good, in
greater or less degree, according to the measure of love, obtained by the
desire and prayer of the recipient. Wherefore, with that very same measure with
which a man measures to Me, do he receive in himself the measure of My
goodness. Labor, therefore, to increase the fire of your desire, and let not a
moment pass without crying to Me with humble voice, or without continual prayers
before Me for your neighbors. I say this to you and to the father of your soul,
whom I have given you on earth. Bear yourselves with manful courage, and make
yourselves dead to all your own sensuality."
Taken from Saint Catherine of Genoa Treatise on Divine
Providence
Photo taken
from Wikimedia
Commons
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