Novena to St Catherine - Day 8

In the preparation of this reflection I focused on the ‘Prayers’ of Catherine, in the hope of acquiring some tips regarding the improvement of my own prayer. Sr. Mary O’Driscoll O.P. of the Cabra Congregation, who is an authority on the teaching of Catherine, having chosen her as the subject of her doctoral theses, has supplied me with most of the facts on Catherine’s Prayers.

Only twenty six of her Prayers have been preserved for us. These are not Prayers that she herself wrote or even dictated to others. Rather, they were transcribed by one or other of her followers who were present as she prayed aloud. All of these Prayers belong to the last four years of her life and so expound a certain maturity of her thought.

They impress us by their simplicity, their intense concentration on God who is repeatedly praised and thanked, and their constant desire for the salvation of others. This echoes the motto of the Order: to praise, to bless, to preach, always with the salvation of people uppermost in mind.

It is interesting to note how the themes that run through the Dialogue and Letters are taken up in the Prayers. In them, Catherine’s  theology becomes her doxology.

Catherine was a great and powerful intercessor. In her Prayers, we find her pleading with God passionately and urgently for mercy for all: for the world, the Church, the pope, her friends and followers, all those in need. Knowing this challenges me as I reflect on how I pray: do I focus intensely on God, in praising and thanking him and do I pray with passion and urgency for others – do I pray from the depths of my heart and with my whole heart? Catherine encourages us to do so.

In Catherine’s own life the importance and intensity of her intercession increased according as her union with God increased and as her concern for others increased. This observation teaches us something very significant about the prayer of intercession in the Christian life, namely, that it is not, as is sometimes thought, a type of prayer beyond which one passes on the way to the heights of mystical prayer, as though  intercession were for beginners and mysticism for those who are advanced in the spiritual life, but it is rather a type of prayer, which belongs most particularly to the life of  contemplative union with God and all of us, every human being is called to union with God and communion with the Blessed Trinity. This is the goal of all our lives and this is God’s greatest desire for each one of us.

I will conclude with one of Catherine’s Prayers, entitled: ‘I Plead with You for the World’, which is as relevant today as it was in Catherine’s time, if not more so. Today we have so many countries at war: Iraq; Syria: the Ukraine; the Holy Land; and large scale persecution of Christians in many of these countries and others like India and Pakistan. Perhaps we could make this prayer our own for the world in which we live, and pray it with the same passion and urgency with which Catherine prayed it. May she also intercede for us, our world and particularly for a revival of the faith in our Irish people.  I Plead with You for the World

She prays:

Power of the eternal Father,

Help me !
Wisdom of the Son,
enlighten the eye of my understanding!
Tender clemency of the Holy Spirit,
enflame my heart and unite it to yourself!
I proclaim, eternal God, that your power is powerful and strong enough to free your Church and your
people, to snatch us from the Devil’s hand,
to stop the persecution of holy Church,
and to give me strength and victory  over my own enemies.
I proclaim that the wisdom of your son, who is one with you, can enlighten the eye of my understanding and that of your people,
and can relieve the darkness of your sweet bride. (the Church)
And I proclaim, eternal gentle goodness of God, that the clemency of the Holy Spirit,
your blazing charity,
wants to enflame my heart and everyone’s and unite them with yourself.
Power of you eternal Father;
wisdom of your only-begotten Son in his precious blood;
clemency of the Holy Spirit,
fire and deep well of charity
that held this Son of yours
fixed and nailed to the cross-
you know how to
and you can
and you want to,
so I plead with you:
have mercy on the world
and restore the warmth of charity
and peace
and unity
to the Church.
O me!
I wish you would not delay any longer!
I beg you,
let your infinite goodness force you
not to close the eye of your mercy!
Gentle Jesus!
Jesus love!

St. Catherine: teach us how to pray.

Novena to St Catherine of Siena - Day 5

The Prayer of St. Catherine on which I am reflecting  today, is a typically Trinitarian one, calling on the Father as Power the Son as Wisdom and the Holy Spirit as Mercy.  Its concerns reflect St. Catherine’s pre-occupation:  Peace and unity for the Church, mercy for the world and the people to whom she was ministering, and strength for herself in the tension under which she found herself working.

 

PRAYER

Power of the eternal Father, help me!

Wisdom of the Son, enlighten the eye of my understanding!

Tender Mercy of the Holy Spirit,

enflame my heart and unite it to yourself!

I proclaim, eternal God, `

that your power is powerful and strong enough

to free your Church and your people, to snatch us from the devil’s hand,

to stop the persecution of Holy Church,

and to give me strength and victory over my own enemies.

I proclaim that the wisdom of your Son,

who is one with you, can enlighten the eye of my understanding

and that of your people,

and can relieve the darkness of your sweet bride.

And I proclaim, eternal gentle goodness of God,

that the mercy of the Holy Spirit, your blazing charity,

wants to enflame my heart and everyone’s

and unite them with yourself.

Power of you, eternal Father,

wisdom of your only begotten Son in his precious blood;

mercy of the Holy Spirit,

fire and deep well of charity

that beheld this Son of yours fixed and nailed to the cross-

you know how to

and you can

and you want to,

so I plead with you:

have mercy on the world and restore the warmth of charity

and peace and unity to holy Church.

O me!      I wish you would not delay any longer!

I beg you, let your infinite goodness force you

not to close the eye of your mercy!

Gentle Jesus!     Jesus love!

St Catherine of Siena

The following is a reflection shared by one of our sisters as part of our Novena in honour of St Catherine:

Looking for inspiration and guidance in the face of the recent upheavals in the Church that have left us all a bit bewildered and shocked I turned to Catherine of Siena. The Church in her time too was in crisis and Catherine could in fact take her stand among the ranks of present day journalists exposing the sins of the Church, so strong and forthright is her condemnation of any one from Pope to pauper who was causing scandal and discrediting the Church of Christ. Indeed very few of the Church’s present critics could equal her when it comes to plain speaking. An extract from one of her letters says it all

In whatever direction you turn among secular and religious priests, clerics and prelates, small and great, you see nothing but offence against God. They all exhale the stench of grave sin.

This was the Church that Catherine saw when she looked around her. Catherine a young woman as she puts it herself ‘restless with a tremendous desire for God’s honour and the salvation of souls’ could have been forgiven if she had become totally disillusioned and had walked away from such a travesty of the ideal but she didn’t walk away. She remained faithful to the Church which was so plainly failing in its mission and which bore little resemblance to Jesus its head and founder. Not only did she not walk away but it was within that very Body of Christ disfigured wounded and broken as it was, a Church whose ‘limbs were rotting’ that Catherine became a Saint. That is why I think Catherine is in a privileged position to speak to us.
How and why did Catherine remain faithful to the Church? How does Catherine differ from so many modern day critics of the Church? The answer to that is very simple but very profound. Catherine loved the Church. Faith gave her eyes to see past the Church’s sin into its heart. Catherine viewed the Church not as a human institution that depends on human approval and can be overthrown or collapse but as the Body of Christ, made such at the price of Christ’s own blood. She realised what so many of our contemporaries seem to forget- the Church is Divine in its origin and that the way to Christ is through the Church that he loves. In one of her letters she writes

no one can enter into the abyss of the Trinity to savour the beauty of the Godhead except through the Church it’s spouse-since we must all pass through Christ Crucified, and his gate is found only in Holy Church. I saw this bride offering life, for she has so much life within her that no one can kill her. And she was bestowing strength and light; nor can anyone intrinsically weaken her. And I saw that her fruit never fails but is always increasing.

She kept her eyes fixed on the Cross and there she saw how loved and lovable the Church is.

Christ loved the Church and gave his life for her to make her holy and to bring her pure holy and spotless into his presence.

For Catherine that was enough. This is I think an extremely important insight to hold on to. Let us too look to Jesus in faith and learn from him as He hangs on the Cross how to love the Church as He loves it.

Catherine also gave me three very direct answers to questions I’ve been asking as I see our beloved Church being attacked from within and without. Those questions are- where do I fit in to all of this and what is God asking of me as we live through this time of tribulation?

Catherine’s immediate response in the face of the grave sin within the Church is that of one who from her knowledge of her own sinfulness realises that her sin is part of the sinfulness of the Church. She sees herself as part of the problem and believes herself responsible for the contradiction between the purity the Church should have on the one hand and the sin that in fact poisons it. If only her prayer and sacrifice were more in earnest the Church would reform. ‘It is my many sins that prevent the Church’s renewal,’ she laments over and again.

Catherine doesn’t stand over and against the Church judging and condemning it but stands alongside and within it knowing herself to be a sinner every bit as much in need of God’s mercy as anyone else. Is it not the same for us?
Then from the knowledge of her wretchedness and the weakness of the Church springs her intercession. Her life becomes one long plea to God for mercy, a plea culminating in her self offering on behalf of the Church.

I offer my life to you Eternal Trinity for your sweet spouse unworthy though I am. I ask only to see the renewal of that sweet spouse your Church. This I beg of you

God hears her plea and to aid her intercession reveals to her the true state of the Church in graphic detail. He then goes on to say

I have told you all this to give you more reason for bitter weeping over the blindness of my ministers, and to give you a deep knowledge of my mercy. In this mercy you can find trust and security, offering to me these ministers of holy Church and the whole world, and begging me to be merciful to them. The more you offer me sorrowful and loving desires for them, the more you will prove your love for me. For the service neither you nor my other servants can do for me you should do for them instead. Then I will let myself be constrained by the longing tears and prayers of my servants, and will be merciful to my bride by reforming her with good and holy shepherds.

He also explains to her and to us how she must both practice virtue and serve her neighbour to truly advance the reform of the church. In the Dialogue he says to her

You recall that I have already told you that I would satisfy your anguished longings by reforming holy Church through good and holy shepherds. I will do this, as I told you, not through war, not with sword and violence, but through peace and calm, though my servants sweat and tears. I have set you as workers in your own and your neighbours’ souls and in the mystic body of holy Church. In yourselves you must work at virtue; in your neighbours and in the church you must work by teaching and example. And you must offer me constant prayer for the Church and for every creature giving birth to virtue through your neighbour. For as I have already told you every virtue and every sin is realized and intensified through your neighbours. Therefore I want you to serve your neighbours and in this way share the fruits of your own vineyard.

Such was Catherine’s wisdom shared with me these past days and I think she would be very happy if we could all take to our hearts, as a special gift from her spoken directly to each of us today, the Father’s word’s to her

To this work I have appointed you - devote, then your life and heart and mind wholly to that Bride for me, with no regard for yourself.

Watch and Pray

This week in his Wednesday Angelus address Pope Benedict focused on the importance of Holy Week for us Christians:

“Holy Week, which for us Christians is the most important week of the year, offers us the opportunity to be immersed in the central events of Redemption, to relive the Paschal Mystery, the great mystery of the faith. Beginning tomorrow afternoon, with the Mass "In Coena Domini," the solemn liturgical rites will help us to meditate in a more lively manner on the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord in the days of the Holy Paschal Triduum, fulcrum of the entire liturgical year. May divine grace open our hearts to comprehend the inestimable gift that salvation is, obtained for us by Christ's sacrifice.”

While we celebrate these days as a Church and in union with the whole Church throughout the world, yet as we read and reflect on the Gospels Jesus has a personal message for each of us if we open our hearts to listen to His word of love addressed to each of us. Above all it is an invitation to watch and pray with him – the same invitation extended to the apostles in the garden: “wait here and stay awake” and “stay awake and pray not to be put to the test” (Mt 26).

This is the heart of our Dominican contemplative vocation – to watch and pray – always seeking the glory of God and the salvation of all our brothers and sisters.

The following quotation from Jean Corbon challenged me when I first read it:

“The Cross of his Son is the place from which God seems most absent but in which He in fact gives Himself most completely. The place where His Christ is crucified is the place where His compassion is poured out, for it is the place where man is most deeply wounded by death. People today are surprised at the deep silence of God, but who is willing to enter into the silence of the compassion of Jesus, to follow him that far? It is only a stone’s throw between the slumber of the disciples and the agony of their Lord – to cross that space is to enter the struggle of prayer, intercession and compassion.” (Jean Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship, pg 247)

I asked myself how often do I stay comfortably in slumber heedless of the Lord’s invitation to cross the boundary line and engage in the struggle – for we do not come apart only to find a space of peace and quiet for contemplation, but in order to engage in the “struggle of prayer, intercession and compassion” –and thus to “perpetuate that singular gift which St Dominic had of bearing sinners, the down trodden and the afflicted in the inmost sanctuary of his compassion.” As we struggle with our own weakness, sinfulness and wounds of sin we are united in a more profound manner with our brothers and sisters wherever they may be. As our hearts ache while we helplessly watch so many lose faith and walk away from the Church we feel the pressing need to seek solutions. Yet our vocation does not lie in engaging in apostolic works.

Contemplation of the Cross teaches us that Jesus conquered sin by becoming sin for us. “He lived the reality of the other to the point where he carries the whole ‘baggage’ of the other”. (Thomas J Norris, Living a Spirituality of Communion, pg 81) In the cloister perhaps, we today are called to experience the “loneliness, meaninglessness, abandonment, anguish and despair” of our contemporaries to the point of the darkness and forsakenness of the Cross. We need to encourage each other not to be afraid to go to that forsaken place within our own heart and there wait for the Lord’s mercy and healing for ourselves and others.

It is when we have the courage to make this journey into silence, to the lonely place of our heart where we experience our own poverty and sinfulness, that we are most profoundly united to our brothers and sisters. It is here too that we experience the Risen Jesus calling us by name and we can say with Paul: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20) - our prayer becomes the prayer of Christ before the Father asking that all be gathered into unity: “Father may they be one in us”.(Jn 17:21)

He Leadeth Me

In recent months we have received many heart-breaking requests for prayers for those who have lost their jobs or are in serious financial difficulty. We carry them all -as well as the countless others who are suffering from the present economic crisis - in our hearts as we come before the Lord daily for the celebration of the liturgy and Eucharistic Adoration.


Reflective Meditation for the unemployed

Father, in those hours when You invite me to come closer to your Son, Jesus - who was despised, the most abject of men, and yet a Man whose vision was filled with the light of the invisible - help me during these weeks and maybe months of unemployment to look into Your eyes and see nothing but love and kindness, nothing but a desire to stretch me beyond myself into the arms of my Lord and God.

Lead, Lead kindly Light beyond this seemingly impenetrable darkness where things no longer make sense, and ends do not meet - where all that is left are long rows of men and women seeking and longing for employment.

You call to me to leave the pots of gold—the god and goddesses of my own creating. You say: “leave them there – do not look back at them—do not fear, am I not greater than many riches? And I will fill the void in My own way—in My own time. It is for you to be still, to trust blindly in My power to lead you on to a deeper trust and hope. You are anxious and I understand, you have a wife and little ones to feed, but give me yourself—all that you hold dear and ultimately you can be sure that I will see that all is well again”.

Father, through my tears, through my sweat and weakness and the pain in which I find myself I say YES to your will for me, Father; no longer do I want to hold the helm of my life - TOTUS TUUS now and forever more. Lead Thou me on.

And yet Father what do you say to me—nothing? everything?
“Little one I thank you for giving Me your trust, it shall not be betrayed in time or in eternity. May My peace and joy be yours”.

Father I know no greater peace and joy than this glad and full surrender of all that is mine - this touching of Your life with mine—

Lead thou me on.
I do not ask to see the distant scene
One step enough for me.