Today marks the last in the series on Catherine of Siena, in the process we have seen the times in which she lived and her heart for God.  We have considered her writings,  and will continue to explore more about her life and mission.

     Another area in which we se both Catherine’s spirituality and theology would be her recorded prayers.  It is though the recordings of these prayers that we can see how her intimacy with God bore fruit in her vision and her mission.

     Her biographers have recorded some of the external details and habits of her life.  For example,

“Catherine’s favorite times for prolonged prayer were after the morning’s liturgy and in the early evening as well as during the long night hours when she scarcely slept.  She would frequently and spontaneously interrupt her business or conversations to “consult” as it were with God.”

     This attitude of prayer certainly a model for us as directors.  She would easily fall into an ecstatic trance, losing use of all her senses except speech.  Often in such a trance she was physically very expressive: Walking, kneeling, or prostrate on the floor, extending her arms or clasping her hands to her heart or striking her breast in contrition, gazing upward or closing her eyes.  And when she prayed alone, especially in the garden, she liked to sing.

     Obviously, what is more important for us are the personal traits which we can find in her prayers.  It is through these that we can get a glimpse of Catherine and her relationships with God and others.  Examples of these prayers are also recorded or eluded to in her many letters.  On one such occasion a letter in August of 1376, we can read of a prayer for Pope Gregory XI, a portion of it follows;

“Oh eternal Godhead, ineffable love, in you I see the love that compelled you to open the eye of compassion upon us poor wretches.  For after we had through the wretchedness and weakness fallen into the filth of sin when our first father disobeyed you, you, high eternal father, sent us the Word incarnate, you only-begotten Son, veiled in our poor flesh and clothed in our mortality.  And you, Jesus Christ, our reconciler, our refashioner, our redeemer–you, Word and love, were made our mediator.  You took out on your own body the punishment for Adam’s disobedience and our sins by being obedient even to the shameful death of cross.”

     As her biographers have written of the external details of her prayers one can see the physical energy and concern in her prayers.  When we look into the recorded words, we can see her deep passion for Christ and the people for whom she intercedes.

     As we conclude this series, we have just scratched the surface of the person Catherine of Siena.  Catherine was an individual who through the “Unity of the Spirit” loved both God and her neighbor.  Catherine was a woman living in a crucial period of time; with injustice, illness, and death around her.  We can learn much from her today.  We too live in a world filled with wars, injustice, and catastrophes.  We have the same hope, love and mercy to incarnate before the world by the power of the Spirit in Jesus Christ.  Her model for spiritual direction through perhaps more “direct” is something for us to consider at times in our world today.  As people around us seek the truth, may we follow Christ so intently in the grace of the Spirit that others would receive the bread that they need for their journey.  In spite of initial resistance from her family, and the resistance of the world around her, Catherine of Siena, the mystic, used to the fullest the life that God gave her for his glory.

Quotes:  Suzzane Noffke, OP., The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, 2nd ed.

     Though Catherine lived centuries ago, we can learn much from her writings.  Catherine was not a scholar, being a woman of her class and in the fourteenth century education was typically not an option.  From and early age Catherine wanted to learn how to read so that she could join in the liturgical praise of the Lord.  Reading and writing would be some of the grace’s that God would bestow upon her.  In fact she would be thirty years old before learning to write.  The writings that we have  today were dictated by her to secretaries who wrote down her thoughts and who were available at a moments notice to record what she had to say.  They in fact would even hear her petitions and prayers before God, and record them.  This is why we have what we know of her today.

     It is through  her writings that we can learn much about her life and interactions.  But these letters also tell us much about the theology of Catherine.  In 1970 the pope, Paul VI, declared Catherine of Siena, Doctor of Ecclesiae, Doctor of the Church.  This title has been conferred on relatively few Christian theologians in the course of Church history, and on no woman before 1970.  The pope in his speech, goes on to say much about the profound assimilation of truths and how God through the power of the Spirit, gave Catherine the ability to share this wisdom with others.  Historically, we know that she was not formally educated, but she is said to have been an intelligent, perceptive person and a great listener.

     We know that she had many conversations with Dominican Friars at the church close to her home.  And as Suzzane Noffke writes, ”she never wrote what could be called theology reduced to a system, in fact, it is her lack of an established system that lends her writings their marvelous if sometimes frustrating and tiring style of  layer one layer of interwoven development.”  It is her quest for self-knowledge which becomes the filter for her theology.  Mary O’Driscoll states, “Self knowledge is really a double knowledge: it is a knowledge of ourselves acquired by looking at God, and a knowledge of God acquired by reflecting on God’s goodness towards us.  It is through self knowledge we come to appreciate both our dignity and our nothingness.  Catherine asks us to hold together both these perspectives on ourselves for we need them in order to know who we are and who God is.”

     Catherine’s theology as expressed above, would definitely work its way into how she conducted herself as a spiritual guide.  This lens along with the times in which she lived and the love that she showed forth, certainly would guide her as she interacted with others.

Quotes:  Suzanne Noffke, OP., Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue. pgs. 9-10

                 Mary O’Driscoll, OP., Catherine of Siena: Passion for Truth, Compassion for Humanity. pgs. 14-15

     Catherine of Siena, left behind many letters and written prayers that teach us much about her as a person and how she effected her world.  It is within these writings that we can see how her interactions with others take on a form of spiritual direction.  Kenneth Leech writes,

“In the Dominican tradition,  St. Catherine of Siena became spiritual director to a circle of friends, her bella brigada, and she wrote numerous letters of guidance.  St. Vincent Ferrer in his “Treatise on the Spiritual Life”, emphasized that a person who has a director by whom he allows himself to be guided, whom he obeys in all his actions, great and small, will more easily and quickly arrive at perfection that he ever could by himself.”

     As a type for us to follow today this fourteenth century idea of direction may seem “too directive” however, if we consider that direction is ultimatelyy about our awareness and movement towards a deeper relationship with God, this may fit within the context of even our modern concept of spiritual direction.  W. Paul Jones describes spiritual direction as “providing companionship on some one’s pilgrimage; walking together in the spirit so as to provide support, discernment, and encounter; integrating spiritually the intersections of the person’s intellectual, emotional, social, and cultural contexts.” Thomas Merton writes, “Spiritual direction is, in reality, nothing more than a way of leading us to see and obey the real Director— the Holy Spirit hidden in the depths of our soul.” Both of the above modern definitions do not fit totally with the model that can be found with Catherine of Siena, but they do both mention leading and support of the other as we as Directors journey with those who have come along side us.

     Though Catherine left many writings, it is in her letters that we can see her fervent guidance and support of others on their journey of faith.  In a letter written to Giovanni Perotti, Catherine writes after sharing the Word and some of her thoughts on faith,

“So in this way I want you to follow, my dear son, so that you may be a real father in nurturing your soul and the children God has given you, growing constantly from virtue to virtue.  Understand, though that there is no way we can have these fruits, the virtues, of ourselves.  We are wild trees, and must be en grafted, through the love and desire for God, into this sweet tree, Christ crucified. How? When we see that he loves us so much as to have given his life for us, we cannot keep ourselves from becoming one thing with him.”

     Unfortunately we do not have Giovanni’s side of the dialogue, but this as in many of her letters, shows a deep loving relationship between them.  We see here more than a nudging towards good action.  We see strong but loving encouragement to progress in the faith.  There is a sense of disciple and teacher and yet an inclusion of the teacher as one who also is on the journey.  In one of her letters, Catherine states, “I was provided with writing so that I might give vent to my heart, lest it should burst.”   This statement gives insight to the zeal and fervor that had developed in her due to her connection with God.  It was this strong connection that gave rise to her desire for God and for her love and encouragement of all, especially those who wanted to follow hard after God.  Perhaps her model or type of direction needs to be seen within the context of her day and religious culture.  It may not be what we would do on a regular basis with all people, but it may be something that we will sense by the Spirit when it is needed.

Quotes:  Kenneth Leech, Soul Friend: Spiritual Direction in the Modern World.  pg. 51-52

                  W. Paul Jones, The Art of Spiritual Direction: Giving and Receiving Spiritual Guidance.  pg. 13

                  Spiritual Directors International, What is Spiritual Direction? Reflections from Different Spiritual Traditions.

                 Suzanne Noffke, OP., The Letters of Catherine of Siena, Vol.1. pg. 301

                Guilliana Cavallini, OP., Catherine of Siena. pg. 1

     As we have seen so far in this series, Catherine of Siena, lived in extra ordinary times.  Times of plague and insecurity all around her.  Yet as a young women she was trying to listen to and follow the Father.  As we continue, we will see yet more about this woman of amazing insight and faith, by the Holy Spirit.

     From many resources we learn that she was a warm, affectionate person.  As she grew older, she decided to dedicate her life to God as a Dominican Mantel late.  The Mantel late were a group of lay women who belonged to the Dominican Order.  This group made up what is known as a third-order movement or tertiary movement.  These movements produced several saints that became famous in medieval Europe.  Gerald Sittser writes,

“The most famous Dominican tertiary was Catherine of Siena.  As a young girl she pleaded with her parents to give her permission to become a Dominican tertiary.  She joined the movement in 1365.  Like Mary of Oiginies, she lived in isolation and contemplation for several years. Then she began her vocation as a reformer.  She purposed to reform herself, the church, and the world, and admittedly ambitious undertaking.”  

     During her time in solitude she spent much time in prayer and received much from God.  It was during this time that she developed a special closeness with Jesus Christ.  She was so close with God that she did not want to leave the Solitary life.  But it was also during this time that God was calling her to leave.  God was telling her that she still could abide with Him and in fact draw all the more close to Him, by loving her neighbor.  This now would be what would drive her.  This now would be her mission in life.  “The balance  of contemplation and action in the last twelve years of Catherine’s life was not merely a relationship of complementarity.  She did not pray simply to “refuel” herself for further activity  (the principle behind even the interpretation that her three years of solitude were but preparation for the years of activity to follow); nor was prayer and oasis of rest from work, a kind of holy self-indulgence.  It was precisely what she experienced in contemplation that impelled her into action.  All that she touched or was touched by in her activity was present in her prayer.”

     Catherine’s own writings chronicle many of the people she interacted with, and the places that she went.  Her biographers have created a time line of her life.  Though there is some discrepancy; we can clearly see a life in unity with God reaching out to the world around her.  There are accounts of her caring for the ill and dying, accounts of her interceding for various people, as well as Catherine confronting and encouraging the Popes of her day.  It is in these accounts and within her own writings that we will see how she not only shared her ideas with a wide range of people, but also with a small group of followers.

Quotes: Suzanne Nolfke, OP, Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, pg.8

     As we continue our series on Catherine of Siena, her life, and ministry, take note of the times in which she lived and her background.

     Catherine Benicasa was born in 1347, just four years after Julian of Norwich, the twenty-fourth of twenty five children.  Her father was a business man, a dyer of wool and the family home was next door to his business.  It is said that as early as age six, one could see the Spirit of God at work in her life.  In fact it is recorded that Catherine had a vision of Jesus wearing the papal tiara.  Further, it is recorded that she took a vow of perpetual virginity when she was seven and that she was attracted to the Dominican Order.  The church and the Cloister of St. Dominic were just up the hill from her home.  Life for her was certainly in a transition, perhaps unstable, with wars going on all around her, not just between countries, but even between neighborhoods and families.  History has recorded that the Black Plague had just come through her part of Italy, the year before her birth and it would sweep through at regular intervals.  Barbara Tuchman writes,

“In Siena, where more than half of the inhabitants died of the plague, work was abandoned on the great cathedral, planned to be the largest in the world, and never resumed, owing to loss of workers and master masons and “the melancholy and grief” of the survivors.  The cathedral’s truncated transept still stands in permanent witness to the sweep of death’s scythe. Agnolo di Tura, a chronicler of Siena, recorded the fear of catagion that froze every other instinct.  “Father abondoned child, wife husband, one brother another,” he wrote, “for this plague seemed to strike through the breath and sight. And so they died.  And no one could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship.”

     In addition to this, her parents were desperately trying to dissuade her from this sense of call on her.  As time progressed, her mother would encourage her to take care of herself, to pay attention to her hair etc., so that she would be available for marriage.  She was sorely tested by her parents.  Eventually, they gave her over to an older sister to help encourage her towards marriage versus the life she believed God was calling her to.  This older sister was “Bonaventura,to whom Catherine was deeply attached.  Catherine went through the motions of coquetry and began to slacken ever so slightly in her prayers.  Suddenly, though, and shockingly, her sister died in childbirth.  In the families bereavement over the loss of Bonaventura and therefore the loss of an alliance to his family that the marriage had ensured, they decided to procure a husband for Catherine regardless of her wishes.” Catherine of course wanted nothing to do with this, so with advice from a confessor and spiritual director, she chopped off her hair.

     This not only made her less attractive, but also was a practice of nuns and women of the street.  He parents were outraged and put her to work like a maidservant in the home.  In addition to this, she had the use of a small room in the home where she could be in solitude and pray, and the family took that from her as well.  After this event, Catherine was able to construct within herself an inner cell, which no one could take from her.  This allowed her to go throughout her daily chores and still have her time of prayer and solitude.  Eventually, her parents would relent.

     Obviously, Catherine was a women who felt the call and hand of God in her life.  She was disciplined in her faith and wanted to be faithful and obedient to the Father.  As we continue the series we will learn much from her.

Quotes: Barbara W. Tuchman, a Distant Mirror:  The Calamitous 14th Century. pg. 96

               Carol L. Flanders, Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics. pg. 108