Vigils Reading – St Catherine of Siena

THE TRUE WORKERS

From “The Dialogues” of St Catherine of Siena2

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Do you know what course I follow, once my servants have completely

given themselves to the teaching of the Gentle loving Word? I prune them, so

that they will bear much fruit – cultivated fruit, not wild. Just as the gardener

prunes the branch that is joined to the vine so that it yield more and better wine,

but cuts off and throws into the fire the branch that is barren, so do I the true

gardener act. When my servants remain united to me I prune them with great

suffering so that they will bear more and better fruit, and virtue will be proved

in them. But those who bear no fruit are cut off and thrown into the fire.

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 have received in holy baptism. And as they

till their own vineyards, so they till their neighbor’s as well, for they cannot do

the one without the other. You already know that every evil as well as every good

is done by means of your neighbors.

You, then, are my workers. You have come from me, the supreme eternal

gardener, and I have engrafted you onto the vine by making myself one with

you. Keep in mind that each of you has your own vineyard. But everyone is

joined to your neighbor’s vineyards without any dividing lines. They are so

joined together, in fact, that you cannot do good or evil for yourself without

doing the same for your neighbors.

All of you together make up one common vineyard, the whole Christian

assembly, and you are all united in the vineyard of the mystic body of holy

Church from which you draw your life. In this vineyard is planted the vine,

which is my only-begotten Son, into whom you must be engrafted. Unless you

are engrafted into him you are rebels against holy Church, like members that

are cut off from the body and rot.

It is true that while you have time you can get yourselves out of the stench

of sin through true repentance and recourse to my ministers. They are the

workers who have the keys to the wine cellar, that is, the blood poured forth

from this vine. (And this blood is so perfect in itself that it cannot be deprived

of its benefits through any fault in the minister.)

It is charity that binds you to true humility – the humility that is found in

knowing yourself and me. See, then, that it is as workers that I have sent you

all. And now I am calling you again, because the world is failing fast. The thorns

have so multiplied and choked the seed so badly that it will produce no fruit of

grace at all. I want you, therefore, to be true workers. With deep concern help

to till the souls in the mystic body of holy Church. I am calling you to do this

because I want to be merciful to the world as you have so earnestly begged me.

2 Catherine of Siena – The Dialogue – The Classics of Western Spirituality – Paulist Press – New York – 1980 – pg

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