In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest sons in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of the
servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood: with desire
to see you strong and persevering till the end of your life. For I
consider that without perseverance no one can please God, or receive the
crown of reward. He who perseveres is always strong, and fortitude makes
him persevere.
We have absolute need of the gift of fortitude, for we are besieged by
many foes. The world, with its delights and deceits; the devil, with many
vexing temptations, who lights upon the lips of men, making them say
insulting and critical things, and who often makes us lose our worldly
goods--and this he does solely to recall us from devoted charity to our
neighbour; the flesh, astir in our own senses, seeking to war against the
spirit. Yes, truly, all these foes of ours have besieged us; yet we need
feel no servile fear, because they are discomfited through the Blood of
the Spotless Lamb. We ought bravely to reply to the world and resist it,
disparaging its delights and honours, judging it to have in itself no
abiding stability whatever. It shows us long life, with youth a-blossom
and great riches; and they are all seen to be vanity, since from life we
come to death, from youth to age, from wealth to poverty; and thus we are
always running toward the goal of death. Therefore we need to open the eye
of the mind, to see how miserable he is who trusts in the world. In this
wise one will come to despise and hate what first he loved. To the wiles
of the devil we can reply manfully, seeing his weakness; for he can
conquer no one who does not wish to be conquered. One can reply to him
then with lively faith and hope, and with holy hatred of one's self. For
in such hate one will become patient toward every tempting vexation and
tribulation of the world, and will bear these things with true patience,
from what side soever they come, if one shall hate one's own fleshliness
and love to abide on the Cross with Christ crucified.
From living faith one will derive a will in accord with that of God, and
will quench in heart and mind the human instinct of judging. The will of
God alone shall judge, which seeks and wills naught but our
sanctification. In this wise one is not shocked at his neighbour and does
not criticize him. Nor does he pass judgment on a man who talks against
him: he condemns himself alone, seeing that it is the will of God which
permits such men to vex him for his good. Ah, how blessed is the soul
which clothes itself in a judgment so gentle! He does not condemn the
servants of this world who do him injury; nor does he condemn the servants
of God, wishing to drive them in his own way, as many presumptuous, proud
men do, who under cloak of the honour of God and the salvation of souls,
are shocked by the servants of God, and assume a critical attitude under
cover of this cloak, saying: "Such words do not please me." And so a man
becomes disturbed in himself, and also makes others disturbed with his
tongue, claiming that he speaks through the force of love--and so he
thinks he does. But if he will open his eyes, he will find the serpent of
presumption under a false aspect, which plays the judge, judging in its
own fashion, and not according to the mysteries and the holy and diverse
ways in which God works with His creatures. Let human pride be ashamed,
and consent to see that in the House of the Eternal Father are many
mansions. Let it not seek to impose a rule upon the Holy Spirit: for He is
the Rule itself, Giver of the Rule: nor let it measure Him who cannot be
measured. The true servant of God, arrayed in His highest eternal will,
will not do thus; nay, he will hold in reverence the ways and deeds and
habits of God's servants, since he judges them fixed not by man, but by
God. For, just because things are not pleasing to us and do not go
according to our habits, we ought to be predisposed to believe that they
are pleasing to God. We ought not to judge anything at all, nor can we,
except what is manifest and open sin. And even this the soul enamoured of
God and lost to itself does not assume to judge, except in displeasure for
the sin and wrong done to God; and with great compassion for the soul of
him who sins, eagerly willing to give itself to any torture for the
salvation of that soul.
Now I summon you to this perfection, dearest sons; do you study with true
and holy zeal to acquire it. And reflect that every stage in perfection
which you reach will advance you in this holy and true judgment, free from
offence or pain. So, on the contrary, false judgment betrays you into
every sort of pain, and fault-finding and ruinous faithlessness toward the
servants of God. All this proceeds from the personal passion and rooted
pride which impels us to judge the will of our fellow-man. So such a man
is always looking back, and does not persevere in gracious love of his
neighbour, and never has strong and persevering love. Nay, his is like the
imperfect love felt by the disciples of Christ before the Passion; for
they loved Him, rejoicing much in His presence; but because their love was
not founded in truth, but pleasure and self-indulgence were in it, it
failed when His presence was taken away; and they did not know how to bear
pain with Christ, but fled in fear. Beware, beware, lest this happen to
you. You rejoice much in the presence of a friend, and in absence you make
a fire of straw; for when the presence is taken away, every little wind
and rain quenches it, and nothing remains except the black smoke of a dark
conscience. All this happens because we have made ourselves judges of the
will of our fellows, and the habits and ways of the servants of God, not
according to His sweet will. Now no more thus, for love of Christ
crucified! but be faithful sons, strong and persevering in Christ sweet
Jesus. Thus shall you discomfit the temptation of the devil, and the words
which he says, lighting on the lips of men.
Our last enemy--that is, our miserable flesh with its sense-appetites--is
overcome by the flesh of Christ, scourged and nailed on the wood of the
most holy Cross, by mastering it with fast and vigil and continuous
prayer, with burning sweet and loving desire. Thus sweetly shall we
conquer and discomfit our foes by the power of the Blood of Christ. Thus
shall you fulfil His will and my desire, which grieves when it beholds
your imperfection. I hope by His infinite goodness that He will console my
desire in you. Therefore I beg that you be not negligent, but zealous; do
not shift about in the wind like a leaf, but be firm, stable, and
constant; loving one another with true brotherly charity, bearing one
another's faults. By this I shall perceive whether you love God and me,
who desire naught but to see you in true unity. Drown you in the Blood of
Christ crucified and hide you in His sweetest Wounds. I say no more.
Let the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli be commended to you. And never
mind because I am not there, for good sons do more when the mother is not
present than when she is, because they want to show the love they have for
her, and to enter more fully into her favour.
I beg you, Sano, to read this letter to all the children. And do you all
pray God for us, that He grant us to complete what is begun to His honour
and the salvation of souls; for we wish no other desire nor work, in
despite of any who may wish to hinder it. Remain in the holy and sweet
grace of God. May God fill you with His sweetest favour. Sweet Jesus,
Jesus Love.
TO BROTHER RAIMONDO OF CAPUA
OF THE ORDER OF THE PREACHERS
With all her longing to suffer for her faith, Catherine was only once, so
far as we know, exposed to physical violence. This was on the occasion of
which she is here speaking. She is still in Florence, faithful under the
new Pope as under the old to her efforts to bring about the passionately
desired peace. In a tumult in the disordered city, it came to pass that
her life was threatened, and she took refuge with her "famiglia," in a
garden without the walls. Hither her enemies pursued her, but as they drew
near, fell back of a sudden, awestruck, as she herself here tells us, by
her words and bearing. The danger was averted, and Catherine had met one
of the disappointments of her life. [Footnote: As she herself expresses
it, "The Eternal Bridegroom played a great joke on me."] There is an
almost childlike simplicity in her account of the inner side of the
experience. Nothing could be more genuine than her grief that the crown of
martyrdom was not granted her--few things more lovely than her confiding
account of the fine joys which the mere hope of martyrdom, brief and
frustrated though it were, awakened in her spirit. Nor can she know even
so supremely isolated an experience without insisting that it be shared by
those she loves, and returning thanks for the great mercy which her "dear
sons and daughters" have received.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest father in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of
the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood: with
desire to see you a faithful servant and bridegroom of truth, and of sweet
Mary, that we may never look back for any reason in the world, nor for any
tribulations which God might send you: but with firm hope, with the light
of most holy faith, pass through this stormy sea in all truthfulness; and
let us rejoice in endurance, not seeking our own glory, but the glory of
God and the salvation of souls, as the glorious martyrs did, who for the
sake of truth made them ready for death and for all torments, so that with
their blood, shed for love of the Blood, they built the walls of Holy
Church. Ah, sweet Blood, that dost raise the dead! Thou givest life, thou
dost dissolve the shadows that darken the minds of reasonable creatures,
and dost give us light! Sweet Blood, thou dost unite those who strive,
thou dost clothe the naked, thou dost feed the hungry and give to drink to
those who thirst for thee, and with the milk of thy sweetness thou dost
nourish the little ones who have made themselves small by true humility,
and innocent by true purity. Oh, holy Blood, who shall receive thee amiss?
The lovers of themselves, because they do not perceive thy fragrance.
So, dearest and sweetest father, let us divest us and clothe us in truth,
so we shall be faithful lovers. I tell you that today I will to begin
again, in order that my sins may not hold me back from such a good as it
is to give one's life for Christ crucified. For I see that in the past,
through my faults, this has been denied me. I had desired very much, with
a new intensity, increased in me beyond all custom, to endure without
fault for the honour of God and the salvation of souls and the reformation
and good of Holy Church, so that my heart was melting from the love and
desire I had to lay down my life. This desire was blessed and grievous;
blessed it was for the union that I felt with truth, and grievous it was
for the oppression which I felt from the wrong against God, and the
multitude of demons who overshadowed all the city, dimming the eye of the
mind in human beings. Almost it seemed that God was letting them have
their way, through justice and divine discipline. Therefore my life could
not but dissolve in weeping, fearful for the great evil which seemed on
the point of coming, and because peace was hindered for this reason. But
in this great evil, God, who despises not the desire of His servants, and
that sweet mother Mary, whose name was invoked with pained and dolorous
and loving desires, granted that in all the tumult and the great upheaval
that occurred, we may almost say that there were no human deaths, except
those which justice inflicted. So the desire I had that God would show His
providence and destroy the power of the demons that they might not do so
much harm as they were ready to do, was fulfilled; but my desire to give
my life for the Truth and the sweet Bride of Christ was not fulfilled. But
the Eternal Bridegroom played a great joke on me, as Christopher will tell
you more fully by word of mouth. So I have reason to weep, because the
multitude of my iniquities was so great that I did not deserve that my
blood should give life, or illumine darkened minds, or reconcile the sons
with the father, or cement a stone in the mystical body of Holy Church.
Nay, it seemed that the hands of him who wanted to kill me were bound. My
words, "I am she. Take me, and let this family be," were a sword that
pierced straight through his heart. O Babbo mine, feel a wonderful joy in
yourself, for I never experienced in myself such mysteries, with so great
joy! There was the sweetness of truth in it, the gladness of a clean and
pure conscience; there was the fragrance of the sweet providence of God;
there was the savour of the times of new martyrs, foretold as you know by
the Eternal Truth. Tongue would not suffice to tell how great the good is
that my soul feels. I seem to be so bound to my Creator that if I gave my
body to be burned I could not satisfy the great mercy which I and my
cherished sons and daughters have received.
All this I tell you that you may not conceive bitterness; but may feel an
unspeakable delight, with softest gladness; and that you and I may begin
to sorrow over my imperfection, because so great a good was hindered by my
sin. How blessed my soul would have been had I given my blood for the
sweet Bride, and for love of the Blood and the salvation of souls! Now let
us rejoice and be faithful lovers.
I will not say more on this subject; I let Christopher tell this and other
things. Only I want to say this: do you pray Christ on earth not to delay
the peace because of what has happened, but make it all the more promptly,
so that then the other great deeds may be wrought which he has to do for
the honour of God and the reformation of Holy Church. For the condition of
things has not been changed by this--nay, for the present the city is
pacified suitably enough. Pray him to act swiftly; and I ask him this in
mercy, for infinite wrongs against God which happen through the situation
will thus be put an end to. Tell him to have pity and compassion on these
souls which are in great darkness: and tell him to release me from prison
swiftly; for unless peace is made it does not seem as if I could get out;
and I would wish then to come where you are, to taste the blood of the
martyrs, and to visit his Holiness, and to find myself with you once more,
telling of the admirable mysteries which God has wrought at this time;
with gladness of mind, and joyousness of heart, and increase of hope, in
the light of most holy faith. I say no more to you. Remain in the holy and
sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.