Abide – Catherine of Siena
Welcome everyone, and welcome to Abide.
A time for us all to remember the words of Jesus, from the book of Matthew, chapter six, verse six, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
And so, friends and fellow followers of Jesus, we're here to close that door, to go into a space where we can be quiet, where we can continue to cultivate our interior lives.
Our lives that are anchored in the heart of God.
And so, find your regular space of prayer.
If you're walking, if you're in your living room, your kitchen, your commute, just begin to get situated in your seat, or in your feet, recognising that we are, literally and figuratively, closing that door to seek the Father, to remember who we are, and to grow more fully into who He's created us to be.
And as this room and this space begins to grow quiet, we recognise who is here with us. And it's the Spirit of God. The presence of our Saviour.
And today, we get to spend time with Catherine of Siena. She will be mentoring us, in her words, in her life. And just to begin our time of quieting and stilling our bodies, I'd love for Catherine's words to fill our spaces. So hear a quote from her, written in this book called ‘Love Poems from God.’ It's written by Daniel Ladinsky. And he quotes Catherine's words here:
“Strange, she once said, that so much suffering is caused because of the misunderstanding of God's true nature. God's heart is more gentle than the virgin's first kiss upon the Christ. And God's forgiveness to all, to any thought or act, is more certain than our own being.”
So let us allow this space that we're in, of prayer, to be infused with these lovely words of Catherine. That God's nature, His heart, is more gentle than the virgin's first kiss upon the Christ. And that His forgiveness to all, forgiveness of our thoughts and our acts, is more certain than our very own being.
So let's sit comfortably in this space, and also attentive and alert, for we are in the presence of a mighty God.
Begin to relax your head, your heart. Relaxing through the body by loosening the shoulders, relaxing through the hips, and making your way down through to your knees and to your feet. And beginning to slow down. Allowing your body and mind to surrender into this place. Not a space of striving. But a space of being. A space to be renewed, refreshed, re-centred.
And today, we're going to return back to a practice within the podcast that I haven't done in a while, or officially done, but to return to our gratitude practice. Many of us have been on a break between semesters. A time to enjoy the season of Advent, and Christmas, and the New Year. And so, I'm wondering if we can all begin to glance over the break we've just been on, or the days and weeks we've been living in, noticing the beauty of our created world. Maybe you've seen gentle snow falling, a soaring of birds in flight, the wind through the trees or the tall grasses, the crunching of ice beneath your feet. Or maybe you're in another part of the hemisphere, where you can feel the sunshine and the ocean roaring. Just allow yourself to remember the beauty that your eyes have seen in the last few days. And allow that to fill this space. With the beauty of our Creator. And those special moments that you and the Creator were able to have with one another.
So, spend some time now allowing those pictures and images to come forward once again.
Wonderful.
We serve such a beautiful and awesome God. So, in our little rooms, where we've closed the door, we have these beautiful images of creation around us that have come to mind. And now, we get to open the Word and unfold this story of our sister Catherine.
And so, as usual, I'm going to read you this little story from a book written by Kerry Wallace, ‘Stories of the Saints.’ And so, just allow this story of Catherine of Siena to gently rest on you, and imagine with me some of the experiences she's having, and see what the Spirit of God allows to bring forward, and remind you of, and inspire you in.
And just to begin, knowing the context, that Catherine was born in 1347 and lived until 1380. So, she had thirty-three years of life on Earth, living in what is now Italy. And some of the emblems are things that you might see Catherine in, icons. You might see her with a lily, or a book, a crown of thorns, or a heart, and you'll see why those emblems are a part of her as we read this story.
“When Catherine was a little girl, she loved to pray so much that whenever she went up and down the stairs in her house, she'd stop to say a prayer on each one. This drove her family crazy. But the angels loved it, and sometimes they would carry her up and down the stairs themselves. When Catherine was seven, she was walking down the road with her brother when something bright appeared over her head, in the sky. Looking up, she saw Jesus, seated on a giant throne amidst the clouds, surrounded by His mother and His friends. As Catherine gazed up at Him, He smiled at her with love. Beside Catherine, her brother couldn't see anything but light. He tugged at her sleeve, trying to get her to wake up. And when the vision finally vanished, Catherine cried. And from that day, she vowed to give her whole life to God. But when she was old enough to get married, her family started to think about choosing a husband for her. They wanted her to dress up and fix her hair, because they thought that would make her more beautiful. Catherine didn't want to get married. And when her family wouldn't stop trying to make her, she went on a fast and cut her own hair off. So Catherine's parents let her join an order of Dominican sisters. She stayed in her own family's home, but she learned to work and pray as the Dominicans did. Catherine still drove her family crazy, by giving away their food and clothing to anyone she saw in need. But it was hard for them to stay angry with her, because she never asked for anything for herself. When Catherine was twenty-one, she had another vision. And this time, she saw a marriage in heaven. Everyone was there, including David, who had been the greatest king of Israel, and was playing psalms, the songs he'd written. In her vision, Jesus gave Catherine a wedding ring. ‘It's time for you to leave your home,’ He told her. ‘And go out to help the poor and sick.’ Then He put a ring on her finger. To everyone else it was invisible, but Catherine could see it on her hand for the rest of her life. So Catherine went out to help the poor and sick at hospitals. And other people began to join her. As she worked with the sick, Catherine had another vision. In it, Jesus appeared, holding a human heart. He placed it inside her ribs. ‘I took your heart away,’ He told her. ‘Now I am giving you mine, so that you can go on living with it forever.’ From then on, whenever she was happy, Catherine's heart made noises of joy so loud that everyone standing near her could hear. During Catherine's life, no pope had lived in Rome for seventy years. Instead, all the popes lived in France. And that made the rest of the world feel as if they didn't really matter. And it caused all kinds of problems between the pope and the people. But both the people and the pope trusted Catherine. She served as an ambassador between powerful rulers, working to bring peace. Someone even tried to assassinate her in Florence, because she was so powerful herself. One day, the pope himself asked her, ‘Do you think I should return to Rome?’ ‘I think you should keep the promise you made to God,’ Catherine told him. The pope was astonished. He had made a promise in his heart to return to Rome if he had ever became pope, and he never told anyone about it. So he returned to Rome, riding on a white mule. And the whole church knew that it had a leader that cared about everyone, not just France. Near the end of her life, Catherine had another vision. And in this one, God gave her marks on her hands and feet and sides, just like the wounds Jesus suffered when He died on the cross. And just like with the wedding ring Jesus had given her when she was a girl, nobody but her could see the wounds. But when Catherine died, the marks appeared on her body, so that everyone could see what she had always seen.”
We give space, now, for the Spirit of God. For the Spirit of God to bring forward anything in Catherine's story that strikes you.
We just make space for you to get to know Catherine, to be mentored by her example as a Christ follower.
I'm going to gently walk us through a few parts of her story that were read, that we might be able to cultivate parts of her story in our own, and that it might become our very own, and yet, inspired by Catherine, and ultimately God.
So we return to the first part of the story, where it says, "When Catherine was a little girl, she loved to pray so much that whenever she went up and down the stairs in her house, she'd stop to say a prayer on each one."
Many times, people come to me, and we talk about how it's hard to create spaces to pray. We just, we're busy, we don't have the time, we wish we did. And I often like to think about Catherine, and how she's not always praying in rooms and in church services, but bringing prayer into the regular comings and goings of the day. And for her, obviously, going up and down steps was something that she did, and how she incorporated a prayer on each step. And, it says here, that she annoyed her family very much. But I'm wondering, if through her example, if you and I can think about things that we do every day, that we might want to incorporate prayer, or bring our attention to God, or bring our focus to God? Whether that just is an intentional focus with no words, or whether that's saying words to God, or saying names of God. I often use different places in my day for prayer, whether it's brushing my teeth and allowing this to be a time to just pray for the different people I might be seeing that day.
And so, I'm going to give you a bit of time to look over your day, and where you might want to incorporate intentional prayer. Small, little, easy ways for you and God to connect. And so, I give you time now to become curious of how this could take shape for you.
Moving further into the story, we read, "In her vision, Jesus gave Catherine a wedding ring. ‘It's time for you to leave your home,’ He told her. ‘And go out to help the poor and sick.’ Then He put a ring on her finger. To everyone else it was invisible, but Catherine could see it on her hand for the rest of her life."
We see here a commitment of Catherine and Jesus, through this ring, through this promise, through this desire to wed. There's a beautiful quote that I'll read again from ‘Love Poems from God,’ by Daniel Ladinsky. And you'll get a little bit of the humour of Catherine and her love of Jesus, in this poem she writes. And the poem is called ‘Your Hair, Your Face.’
"What is it You want to change?
Your hair, your face, your body?
Why?
For God is in love with all those things and He might weep when they are gone."
So, you get a sense, here, of Catherine's deep intimacy with Jesus, and also Jesus's love that has poured in and through her, to come to these words of just full embrace of herself.
And so, I just give us time now to ponder. Maybe there are things in your life you don't like? Simple things like maybe your hair, your body, your growing up, or just different things you might change in the way God's created you, or created your story? And I just wonder, if the love of God, and the tenderness of God, might hold those things that you might not enjoy? Almost like one being wed to another, that everything is loved, even the warts and all. And just be held in that embrace, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. And just receive that warmth, that hug, and that connection. And that desire that Jesus has to be intimately connected to you. And so, may you soak in that love.
Returning to our story, "Catherine had another vision. In it, Jesus appeared, holding a human heart. He placed it inside her ribs. ‘I took your heart away,’ He told her. ‘Now I am giving you mine, so that you can go on living with it forever.’ From then on, whenever she was happy, Catherine's heart made noises of joy so loud that everyone standing near her could hear."
And so, there's this image again from Scripture, of this new heart, and she's experiencing it in this vision. And as she's given this new heart, and as she's professed her connection to be wed to Christ, she brings forth these writings. And one of her main writings is called ‘The Dialogue,’ if you want to move further into her work. And it's basically a conversation she's having with Jesus. And how to live. And, basically, how to have a deeper interior life, and how that might, then, be moved to serve the world.
One of the most beautiful images of that piece of work, ‘The Dialogue’, is this idea of the bridge. And that Christ Himself is the bridge from earth to heaven. And below the bridge are the waters of the world, and of sin, and of the adversary. And she is describing, with God, these three steps, these three stairs, that are on the bridge. There are three stairs, but there are also three spiritual stages.
And so, let me just describe that first stair or step, is the feet, the feet of the cross, where we encounter Christ's love, His great love for you and me, which causes us to want to remove anything that's not right in our lives, to grow, to be close to Him, to know that we're loved by Him. And so that's step one. And then we move into step two, which is the heart. Moving up the cross, into the heart of Jesus, where we want to be dressed in the virtues, following the ways of Jesus. And then the third step, we move to Christ's face or the mouth of Jesus, which is unspeakable peace. We're loving God alone. Where we're entering into the living water, that is constant.
And so, as Catherine has been given the heart of Christ, and through that heart, she writes these letters, and has written this work, ‘The Dialogue,’ to show the intimacy that you and I are able to have with God.
Let's take a moment now to think, where might we be on these spiritual stages or steps?
Are we encountering Christ's feet and knowing His deep love for us? Are we aware of that?
Are we in the second step of the heart, where the virtues of love and peace and kindness are flowing in and through us?
Have we experienced that third step with the mouth, where there is unspeakable peace?
Just give yourself a moment to take in this image of the bridge, these three spiritual stages or steps, and how this image might help bring a deeper intimacy into your love of God and His love for you.
To close our time, I'll read a bit from her book, ‘The Dialogue,’ and it's on page 106. “You must stay perseveringly with Him whom I have made a bridge for you. Let neither thorn nor contrary wind, neither prosperity nor adversity nor any other suffering you might have to bear make you turn back. You must persevere until you find me and I give you living water through the mediation of this gentle loving Word, my only-begotten Son.”
Hear these intimate words. And this intimate invitation. Of Jesus wanting to connect with you, be wed with you, giving you a new heart, developing in the virtues of love, peace, and kindness. And, through this experience, through this discipline of giving your attention over and over to Jesus, like one step at a time, serving and loving will flow out, just as we saw in Catherine's life, as she was such a pivotal person in history, with the poor, with the sick, with the imprisoned, but also the popes and the spiritual leaders of her time.
I leave you with a final word that was written about Catherine. Again, from Daniel Ladinsky. “Catherine was said to have been profoundly interested in every human being that ever came before her. She devoted herself to relieving the mental and emotional suffering of the hundreds who sought her out. Her words and her touch bestowed a soothing grace.”
So, brothers and sisters, may we taste, see, and experience the deep, deep love of Jesus, for each one of us, as Catherine has brought forward. And may, then, we be the deep love of Jesus into the world. For His glory, for His honour, and for His praise. So, go in peace, my friends, with the mentorship of Catherine and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
