Thought for the Day – 29 April – Monday of the Second week of Easter, Year C and the Memorial of St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) Doctor of the Church
I tasted and I saw
Saint Catherine of Siena OP (1347-1380)
Doctor of the Church
An excerpt from Dialogue on Divine Providence
With a look of mercy that revealed His indescribable kindness, God the Father spoke to Catherine:
“Eternal God, eternal Trinity, You have made the blood of Christ so precious through His sharing in Your divine nature. You are a mystery as deep as the sea, the more I search, the more I find and the more I find, the more I search for You. But I can never be satisfied, what I receive, will ever leave me desiring more. When You fill my soul I have an even greater hunger and I grow more famished for Your Light. I desire above all to see You, the true Light, as You really are.
I have tasted and seen the depth of Your mystery and the beauty of Your creation with the light of my understanding. I have clothed myself with Your likeness and have seen what I shall be. Eternal Father, You have given me a share in Your power and the wisdom, that Christ claims as His own and Your Holy Spirit has given me, the desire to love You. You are my Creator, eternal Trinity and I am Your creature. You have made of me a new creation in the blood of Your Son and I know, that You are moved with love, at the beauty of Your creation, for You have enlightened me.
Eternal Trinity, Godhead, mystery deep as the sea, You could give me no greater gift than the gift of Yourself. For You are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being. Yes, You are a fire that takes away the coldness, illuminates the mind with its Light and causes me to know Your truth. By this Light, reflected as it were in a mirror, I recognise that You are the highest good, one we can neither comprehend nor fathom. And I know, that You are beauty and wisdom itself. The food of angels, You gave Yourself to man, in the fire of Your love.
You are the garment which covers our nakedness and in our hunger, You are a satisfying food, for You are sweetness and in You there is no taste of bitterness, O triune God! Amen”
AnaStpaul 