Ring Out Your Joy
A parishioner, born and raised in Siena, told me this morning that the bells would be ringing out their joy today to feast Caterina, Siena’s doctor of the Church.
Suzanne Noffke, O.P., in her fine “Introduction” to Paulist’s Classics of Western Spirituality edition of The Dialogue writes:
Theologically there is nothing new or original. Catherine is completely immersed in the main current of Catholic teaching … What is original in Catherine is her capacity for fresh and vivid expression of the tradition. The scholars taught and wrote still in Latin. Yet all that she wrote and dictated was in her own Sienese dialect, nel suo volgare.
And here is an example of her dialogue with the Lord:
In mercy you cleansed us in the blood; in mercy you kept company with your creatures. O mad lover! It was not enough for you to take on our humanity: You had to die as well! Nor was death enough: You descended to the depths to summon our holy ancestors and fulfill your truth and mercy in them.
I see your mercy pressing you to give us even more when you leave yourself with us as food to strengthen our weakness so that we, forgetful fools, should be forever reminded of your goodness. Every day you give us this food, showing us yourself in the sacrament of the altar within the mystic body of holy Church. And what has done this? Your mercy.
“O mad Lover!” — “O Pazzo d’Amore!”
on April 29th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Thank you Fr. Imbelli for sharing this…
A great Doctor of the Church for us…
I could not help, after reading the excerpt of Catherine’s dialogue with the Lord of the fine article
in this issue of COMMONWEAL by Lisa Fullam wherein she writes;
“The God of Israel, the God of Jesus is a jealous God, in that God is vulnerable to us, and invites us to love God as intensely and personally as God loves us. We learn how to do that partly from our direct experiences of loving God, but we also learn that by learning how to love well in any other realm of our lives.”
What a Passionate Lover we have for our God!
on April 29th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
One of Catherine’s images that has been a source of meditation for me is her line that’s something like, “God is in us and we are in God, as the fish is in the sea and the sea is in the fish” (though I’m sure it sounds better in Italian).
There’s so much to tease out of that simple line–our symbiotic relationship with God, God as our creator, and we as his witnesses; the nurturing relationship with God, who, like the sea, sustains the fish; the inescapability of God who flows around and through us, living in us, feeding us with the elements we need for physical and spiritual life, and connecting us to other lives.
It seems to me that God, in Catherine’s image, is not separate from us, some far off “other,” tearing his hair out over our misdeeds and sending us luck when we’re good, as with more anthropomorphic images of the Creator. He is right here “swimming” with us, holding us up. All the time.
It is an image that inspires extreme gratitude.
The image becomes more profound in light of scientific discoveries that tell us the sea is the source of life on earth–something Catherine couldn’t have known, but perhaps was able to intuit by grace.
on April 29th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
In My Life With the Saints, James Martin says, “Sometimes I think that one reason we begin praying to a saint is that the saint has already been praying for us.” That rings particularly true for me in my relationship with St. Catherine — she’s not my official patron, but throughout my life she has had an uncanny way of popping up whenever I need an intercessor. And she’s been a saint I can grow with — at different times I draw inspiration from the various facets of her life: her spirituality, her humility, her service to the sick, her intellectual and theological achievement, her prayers for/advice to the pope and the hierarchy…
Today (like most days) I’m wearing a medal I bought in Siena last fall. On the back it says, “S. Catarina da Siena, prega per noi.” I have that Paulist Classics edition of the Dialogue (I’m working my way through it, slowly), and I remembered reading in the introduction (I think) that Catherine dictated and wrote in vernacular Italian, not Latin. So I liked the idea of petitioning her in Italian!
on April 29th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Truly a saint for the ages! Father Imbelli, since St. Catherine is one of the national patrons of Italy, do you celebrate the feast as a “festa” as though you were in Italy or as a mere “memoria”? In either case, auguri di una buona festa!
on April 29th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
A parent of one of the students at my school just wrote a new book on Catherine:
Reclaiming Catherine of Siena: Literacy, Literature, and the Signs of Others
by Jane Tylus
Dr. Tylus is a professor of Italian language and studies at NYU (and an assistant provost, I think).
I just started reading the book and like it very much. Though not a book of theology (Tylus is more interested in Catherine as a writer), I have been learning what an amazing and powerful she was. Here are some blurbs on the book:
“With elegant `sprezzatura,’ this book proposes a radical revision of the origins of the Italian literary canon. A leading figure in an era of extraordinary political and religious importance, a woman-Catherine-now stands alongside Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio as a prominent vernacular writer fully aware of the significance of her writing. A provocative and innovative book, written with learning and passion.”-Lina Bolzoni, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Lina Bolzoni 20080207)
“This book considers Catherine of Siena from the perspective of language, especially her own Tuscan dialect, a strong vernacular Tylus argues Catherine helped to shape. Tylus nuances long-standing questions about Catherine’s ability to read and write in a completely original way. There is nothing straightforward or unproblematic about the type of literacy she proposes for Catherine, but it is entirely framed in the context of late medieval Italy, and paints a new portrait of the saint.”-Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania (Ann Matter )
“Catherine of Siena was one of medieval Europe’s most fascinating and important religious and political personages, male or female. Thanks to Jane Tylus, we now have a book in English that presents her in all her impressive complexity, constantly engaging the reader in Catherine’s spiritual and political mission as well as her life story. Tylus is a fine storyteller, a discerning interpreter, and a generous thinker.”-Deanna Shemek, University of California-Santa Cruz (Deanna Shemek )
on April 29th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Anthony,
Thank you for the reference. It sounds like a book I would be interested to read as well.
John,
grazie per gli auguri! we certainly celebrated at supper con un buon vino.
The woman whom I mentioned in the post has a mother who is in her late eighties. She pines for Siena, and can’t stand the Florentines. When I speak with her I feel that not much has changed since Dante’s day!
on April 29th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Anthony Andreass
Thank you for the information on Dr. Tylus’s book. I have ordered it.
on April 30th, 2009 at 7:03 am
Jean,
One place she uses the metaphor is in the context of the Eucharist (in chapter 112) where the Lord says: “Dearest daughter, contemplate the marvelous state of the soul who receives this bread of life, this food of angels, as she ought. When she receives this sacrament she lives in me and I in her. Just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish, so am I in the soul and the soul in me, the sea of peace.”
on May 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
Ah. I was thinking of the first section, where Catherine contemplates her own sins and the ills of the world, her yearning to be united with God.
As a non-communicant with some of those same yearnings, I guess that spoke to me.
But in the passage you cite, looks like there ain’t much hope for me. Thanks for the reality check.
on May 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 am
Ah, Jean,
the Eucharist is the burning center of God’s mercy/Christ’s blood; but who of us can say where its circumference extends and who it embraces?