Vigils Reading – St Catherine of Siena
April 29
THE WAY OF
PRAYER TO GOD
From “The Dialogues” by St Catherine of Siena
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A soul rises up, restless with tremendous desire for God’s honor and the
salvation of souls. she has for some time exercised herself in virtue and has
become accustomed to dwelling in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know
better God’s goodness toward her, since upon knowledge follows love. And
loving, she seeks to pursue truth and clothe herself in it.
But there is no way she can so savor and be enlightened by this truth as in
continual humble prayer, grounded in the knowledge of herself and of God. For
by such prayer the soul is united with God, following in the footsteps of Christ
crucified, and through desire and affection and the union of love he makes of her
another himself. So Christ seems to have meant when he said, “If you will love
me and keep my word, I will show myself to you, and you will be one thing
with me and I with you.”. And we find similar words in other places from which
we can see it is the truth that by love’s affection the soul becomes another
himself.
To make this clearer still, I remember having heard from a certain servant
of God that, when she was at prayer, lifted high in spirit, God would not hide
from her mind’s eye his love for his servants. No, he would reveal it, saying
among other things, “Open your mind’s eye and look within me, and you will see
the dignity and beauty of my reasoning creature. But beyond the beauty I have
given the soul by creating her in my image and likeness, look at those who are
clothed in the wedding garment of charity, adorned with many true virtues: they
are united with me through love. So I say, if you should ask me who they are, I
would answer,” said the gentle loving Word, “that they are another me, for they
have lost and drowned their own will and have clothed themselves and united
themselves and conformed themselves with mine.” It is true, then, that the soul
is united to God through love’s affection.