On this day we celebrate the feast of Saint Catherine of Siena, only one of the two women doctors of the Church who had personified that great amount of courage in defending the See of Peter against assaults of heresy. In honour of her legacies as the saint who defied convention in the name of truth, I indicate here an account of Bl. Raymond of Capua (the saint’s biographer and spiritual director) on St. Catherine’s spiritual espousal to our Lord Jesus.

I want to Marry You in the Faith

On Shrove Tuesday, before the beginning of Lent, Christ appeared to St Catherine of Siena when she was praying in her cell and said: “You have rejected far from you and fled from all the vanities of the world, because of me. You hold all desires of the flesh with contempt, and you have chosen me as your heart’s only pleasure. That is why I have also chosen a moment to solemnly celebrate with you the wedding of your soul. As I’ve promised you, I want to marry you in the faith.”

At once, “his glorious Mother, the Virgin Mary appeared, with Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Paul the Apostle, the most holy Dominic and the prophet David. The Virgin Mother of God took the virgin’s hand in her blessed hand, and reached her fingers towards her son. She asked him if he deigned to marry Catherine in the faith. The only Son of God made a graceful gesture of assent, and presented Catherine a gold ring. With his right hand, he placed the ring on the ring finger of her right hand …”

(Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Italian saint, Dominican tertiary, and Doctor of the Church was canonized in 1461.)

Sancta Catalina, ora pronobis.

… when he descended into Hades after His death on the Cross.

quia et Christus semel pro peccatis mortuus est iustus pro iniustis ut nos offerret Deo mortificatus carne vivificatus autem spiritu in quo et his qui in carcere erant spiritibus veniens praedicavit qui increduli fuerant aliquando quando expectabat Dei patientia in diebus Noe cum fabricaretur arca in qua pauci id est octo animae salvae factae sunt per aquam

(Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit, In which also coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison: Which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. )

1 Pet 3:18-20

For a handful of days ruminating on the various consequences of sin, lukewarm spirituality, and the dark night of the soul, a question that has haunted me since forever began resurfacing anew within my brain’s subconscious barracks: Quo vadis? For a long time have I not even attempted to go into introspection, to see myself against a world beleagured by secularism inasmuch for a handful of months I have been enticed to follow the world’s footsteps and undress my longings to be within the world but not of it. However, when the going gets tough, all epiphanies of glorious ascension towards spiritual serenity tends to dissipate into thin air:–which precisely characterises what I have been through in my mundane affectations. And now, in my quest to recover myself vis-a-vis chaos, I had reckoned my heart & soul as left merely–thoroughly–scathed by neglect.

I have yet to visit my spiritual director, for it seems he is currently busy throughout this esteemed Lenten season. My brain can hardly think, my spirit hardly able to breathe. Talk of St. John of the Cross or St. Teresa of Avila in their treatises on human nature’s weaknesses and the soul’s delight to project itself heavenward: I desire nothing but solace. Of course for more than a handful of moments and opportunities have I requested that I be prayed for by my dear friends and brethren in Christ, although in myself I find my own efforts inadequate. As humans living in this world–a territory relentlessly claimed by that maleficent Serpent Beelzebub–it cannot be denied that spiritual warfare is always necessary; and as Christians, we are at the hands of God’s mercy, and entirely at the brink of martyrdom not only in the physical aspect but all those that encompass the unseen dimensions of our whole existence. It is with thus that I flagellate myself, asking for penance: I am unworthy! The expediency of residing in the desert! I invoke therefore on myself holy detachment such that my yearnings for Heaven be full.

(Image credit)

Patristics is replete with sermons and exhortations regarding various forms of mortifications–both temporal and spiritual. St. Clement, along with the famous St. John Chrysostom (whom I recently quoted in regard to how one pious Catholic must regard fasting) has also been one of those whose elocutions on spiritual matters should never be bypassed.

This piece was sent to me via our Tridentine Mass listserv. This shall now be an addendum of sorts to St. John Chrysostom’s sermon I have previously cited regarding that revered–though mostly forgotten–practice of fasting.

FASTING

Fasting is abstention from food — from the ordinary meaning of the
word; but abstention or no abstention from food neither makes us holy
or unholy. Total abstention mystically means death. Thus, fasting
really means abstention from worldly things, for we would die as far
as worldly matters are concerned; and after that, when we partake of
food of divine nature, we will live in God.

Fasting empties the soul of matter, and presents the soul pure and
nimble to the body, according to the divine words. Then, on the one
hand, worldly nourishment consists of temporal life and iniquities,
while divine nourishment is faith, hope, love, patience, knowledge,
peace, prudence; as our Lord said in Matthew: “Blessed are they who
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled,”
where truly He attributes this longing to the soul and not to the body.

I shall be coming up with a bunch of lenten reflections which should embody what I have been musing about throughout this liturgical season. My fingers have been aching to type my spiritual contemplations however since my job entails that I be online BUT write something else (marketing strategies as copy for websites… oh yes) my mind has little space to slink in some of what I would want myself to accomplish these days. No matter: I still have evenings…

Which reminds me that I should be reading Francis Carvajal’s “Lukewarmness: The Devil in Disguise” for this week then shift onto Fr. De Torre’s “Christian Philosophy” for the next. In addition, I cannot wait for an opportunity to peruse my PDF copy of St. John of the Cross’ writings for my daily spiritual reading for… next, next week I suppose.

Let us all set our minds to the saving power of Christ whose resurrection has saved us all from the clutches of burgeoning sin. May we all have a very spiritually refreshing Lenten-tide

(BTW: I plan to visit the Dominican nuns’ monastery in Cainta and the Pink Sisters in Tagaytay… maybe in April before Passionweek. Who wants to join me? ^^)

A very timely piece, inasmuch as Lent had just opened its doors yesterday for another 40 days of nourishing our impoverished souls (although the calendar for the Extraordinary Form had already started Lent preparations with Septuagesima Sunday three weeks ago). I acknowledge in myself that fasting has proved tedious for me, given my maladies which intensify with lesser food intake or none at all. Nevertheless this I see as truly worthwhile to share.

ON FASTING
St. John Chrysostom

The value of fasting consists not only in avoiding certain
foods, but in giving up of sinful practices. The person who
limits his fast only to abstaining from meat is the one who
especially lowers the value of it.

Do you fast? Prove it by doing good works. If you see
someone in need, take pity on them. If you see a friend being
honored, don’t get jealous of him. For a true fast, you cannot
fast only with your mouth. You must fast with your eye, your ear,
your feet, your hands, and all parts of your body.

You fast with your hands by keeping them pure from doing
greedy things. You fast with your feet by not going to see
forbidden shows or plays. You fast with your eyes by not
letting them look upon impure pictures. Because if this is
forbidden or unlawful, it mars your fast and threatens the safety
of your soul. But if you look at things which are lawful and
save you increase your fast, for what you see with your eye
influences your conduct. It would be very stupid to eliminate or
give up meat and other foods because of the fast but feed with
your eyes upon other things which are forbidden.

You don’t eat meat, you say. But you allow yourself to lis-
ten to lewd things. You must fast with your ears, too. Another
way of fasting with your ears is not to listen to those who speak
evil or untrue things about others. “Thou shalt not receive an
idle report. “This is especially true of rumors, gossip,
untruths which are spoken to harm another.

Besides fasting with your mouth by not eating certain foods,
your mouth should also fast from foul language or telling lies
about others. For what good is it if you don’t eat meat or
poultry, and yet you bite and devour your fellow man?

Article courtesy of the EWTN Library

[Edit: Related reading - APPETENTE SACRO (On the Spiritual Advantages of Fasting), Encyclical of Pope Clement XIII promulgated on Dec 20, 1759) ]

My hiatus in this blog has been equally bewildering, and no I haven’t been on vacation. It’s just that my priorities were piling up themselves–in a confusing way, of course–last October and there had also been some notable events in my life which I shall deign not elaborate here as they are too personal

I came across Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s blog today; and although I have not checked his website in eons, something equally satisfying caught my attention: a post on an atheist considering attending a Catholic church soon. Nothing can get more exciting than that, and one would ever more feel the thrill while reading the said blog entry. And… I’d like to likewise copy the said atheist’s missives here

Ahm, of course it has Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s comments inserted within some lines every now and then.

The whole article can be accessed via this link.

I am probably in the very smallest of small minorities reading your blog—I’m an atheist. However, for some reason I happen to be a bit of a social conservative, and really enjoy reading your discussions of tradition and Catholic rites. For the last few weeks I’ve had a lot of fun reading your articles as they come in through Google Reader.

For some time, I’ve been toying with the idea of finding a Church to attend. Mainly because the people that I respect tend to be religious.  [See what a good example can provoke?]

I think that abortion is obviously something evil, sex outside of marriage prevents a fulfilling life, that it’s hard work to be a moral human being, and that Good isn’t relative. Fellow atheists generally don’t feel this way, and they also tend to have silly ideas about the perfectibility of human nature. Besides, I was impressed by the Christian congregation I attended in my youth, and haven’t felt the same sort of sense of community for many years.

I tried to attend a Lutheran church a couple of years ago. I didn’t really feel like I got a great deal from it. Part of it was that I tried to be serious about what I was doing and checked out a book from the library that consisted of several arguments between Erasmus and Luther. I was much more impressed by Erasmus’ writings, and still am. [Good choice.]

I’m interested in finding out more about the Catholic Church, but am a bit worried about walking around the block to meet the pastor at local church … I did a quick Google search for his name and don’t know anything about him beyond the fact that he’s a big fan of Andrew Greeley books, has been quoted in the newspaper saying that abortion is just one issue among a spectrum of “life issues” like capital punishment (not a particularly convincing statement to me), and has also been quoted saying that some Cardinal’s recent statement about evolution was overdoing things. I’m not sure how to put it best, but while I’m attracted to the Catholic Church’s stand on certain issues, I’m not particularly interested in half-baked 1960’s anything-goes theology (the Unitarians are better at that, and wouldn’t even mind the atheism bit).  [Well said!]

I’d appreciate your advice on what I should do, if you have the time.

Enrapturing. God’s grace indeed works wonders.