The Catholic Torch

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(0:00) Hello, and welcome to the Catholic Torch Podcast. (0:04) My name is Richard Becker, and I will be your host. (0:07) I’d like to start out every episode by praying the memorare, In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.(0:15) Remember a most gracious Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who fled to (0:21) thy protection implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. (0:25) Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O virgin of virgins and Mother, (0:31) to thee do I come before thee I stand sinful and sorrowful, O mother of the (0:37) word incarnate despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me, amen. (0:43)In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.(0:47) Today’s episode is brought to you by Juan’s Mobile Welding LLC. (0:52) Thank you for your kindness and generosity, my dear friend. (0:57) I would like to preface everything before we get into talking about the dialogue of St. (1:02) Catherine of Siena with a statement, and that statement is this, anything that is true and (1:07) good and beautiful belongs to the honor and glory of our Lord and our Lady, and anything (1:14) that is erroneous is truly my own fault.

(1:16) The dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, a Treatise of Divine Providence,

The soul who (1:23) is lifted by a very great and yearning desire for the honor of God and the (1:27) salvation of souls begins by exercising herself for a certain space of time in (1:34) the ordinary virtues remaining in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know (1:39) better the goodness of God towards her. This she does because knowledge must (1:44) precede love, and only when she has attained love can she strive to follow and do (1:49) clothe herself with the truth, but in no way does the creature receive such a taste (1:54) of the truth, or so brilliant a light therefrom, as by means of humble and (1:59) continuous prayer, founded on knowledge of herself and of God, because prayer, (2:05) exercising her in the above way, unites with God the soul that follows the (2:10) footprints of Christ crucified, and thus by desire and affection and union of (2:16) love makes her another himself. Christ would seem to have meant this when he said, (2:23) to him who will love me and will observe my commandment will I manifest (2:27) myself, and he shall be one thing with me and I with him. In several places we find (2:33) similar words by which we can see that it is indeed through the effect of love (2:38) that the soul becomes another himself, that this may be seen more clearly I (2:44) will mention what I remember having heard from a handmade of God, namely that when (2:50) she was lifted up in prayer with great elevation of mind God was not wont to (2:55) conceal from the eye of her intellect, the love which he had for his servants, but (3:00) rather to manifest it, and that among other things he used to say, open the eye (3:06) of thy intellect and gaze into me, and thou shall see the beauty of my rational (3:11) creature, and look at those creatures who among the beauties which I have given to (3:16) the soul, creating her in my image and similitude, are clothed with the (3:21) nuptial garment, that is the garment of love, adorned with many virtues, by which (3:27) they are united with me through love, and yet I tell thee, if thou shouldst ask me, (3:33) who these are, I should reply, (said the sweet and amorous word of God,) they are (3:39) another myself, inasmuch as they have lost and denied their own will, and are (3:44) clothed with mine, are united to mine, are conformed to mine.

It is therefore true (3:49) indeed, that the soul unites herself with God by the affection of love, so that (3:56) soul wishing to know and follow the truth more manfully, and lifting her (4:00) desires first for herself, for she considered that a soul could not be of use, (4:06) whether in doctrine, example, or prayer to her neighbor, if she did not first (4:11) profit herself, that is, if she did not acquire virtue in herself, addressed four (4:17) requests to the supreme and eternal Father, the first was for herself, the (4:22) second for the reformation of the Holy Church, the third a general prayer for the (4:27) whole world, and in particular, for the peace of Christians who rebel with much (4:31) lewdness and persecution against The Holy Church, in the fourth and last, she (4:36) besought the divine providence to provide for things in general, and in (4:41) particular, for a certain case with which she was concerned. (Refrence 1)

So now I would (4:46) like to go back through and read little snippets and then explain what these (4:51) little snippets mean, so that we get a bigger picture of what is being said here.

(4:58) “The soul who is lifted by a very great and yearning desire for the honor (5:03) of God and the salvation of souls begins by exercising herself for a certain (5:08) space of time in the ordinary virtues, remaining in the cell of self-knowledge (5:13) in order to know better the goodness of God towards her, this she does because (5:18) knowledge must precede love, and only when she has attained love can she strive to (5:23) follow and to clothe herself with the truth.”

So what this section is (5:30) basically saying is how a soul who has a great desire for the honor of God and (5:36) the salvation of her neighbor starts to cultivate the ordinary virtues in (5:40) their everyday life, while staying in the cell of self-knowledge so that you may (5:44) know better how truly good God is to each soul. You first have to know your own (5:49) self, all of your good qualities and where you excel, but also where you fail, (5:56) this self-knowledge helps you employ each ordinary virtue at the right time to (6:01) combat vice when it comes around. Also this will help the soul to contemplate (6:05) how merciful and loving God is when the soul stumbles and commits a sin, how He (6:11) does not just smite us where we stand, but is patient like a parent is when a (6:16) child does something offensive to the house rules or to their neighbor, for (6:20) example their brother or sister, or how a spouse is supposed to be patient with (6:25) their husband or wife when they do something that offends their spouse, this (6:29) knowledge of self and of its faults must make us start striving in a practical way (6:36) to doing better to overcome those insufficiencies, but this comes before (6:41) love. It must precede love. One cannot truly begin to love someone if they do (6:47) not know where they fail and what they are working on because if you don’t know (6:52) those things, then how do you know that the one that you love is not repulsed by (6:58) your behavior, or turned away from you because your lack of virtue. And now how (7:03) much more important is this that we are talking about God, who never offends, (7:08) who never does anything to provoke us to anger or hatred, who is the perfect (7:13) gentleman at all times? God who is always showing us the greatest love so much so, (7:21) that He sent His only son to die for us on the cross for our sins? that we may (7:26) enjoy eternal bliss with Him in heaven, if we but just love him back, but we must (7:31) love him on his terms. I can’t tell someone how they want to be loved and the (7:37) terms in which I will love them. They have to tell me so that I can conform myself (7:43) to what they want because love is sacrificing oneself and your own selfish (7:49) desires, for the wants and needs of the other as long as they do not break the (7:54) commandments of God, (that is a whole other subject that will be covered much (7:59) later) but the point of all this is to end up clothing yourself with Christ so as (8:05) to be pleasing to God. To put on Jesus Christ as being the truth.

“But in (8:12) no way does the creature receive such a taste of the truth or so brilliant a (8:17) light there from as by means of humble and continuous prayer founded on (8:21) knowledge of herself and of God because prayer exercising her in the above way (8:27) unites with God the soul that follows the footprints of Christ crucified and thus (8:33) by desire and affection and union of love makes her another himself. Christ (8:39) would seem to have meant this when he said, “To him who will love me and will (8:44) observe my commandment will I manifest myself and he shall be one thing with Me (8:49) and I with him.”

The only way we can achieve this clothing and the light (8:56) that emanates from it, is by humble and continuous prayer based on knowledge of (9:02) oneself and of God. This prayer unites the soul with God and makes us follow in (9:08) the footprints of Christ crucified.

“In several places we find similar (9:14) words by which we can see that it is indeed through the effect of love that the (9:20) soul becomes another himself that this may be seen more clearly I will mention (9:26) what I remember having heard from a handmaid of God, namely that when she was (9:31) lifted up in prayer with great elevation of mind, God was not won’t to conceal (9:36) from the eye of her intellect the love which he had for his servants, but rather (9:41) to manifest it, and that among other things he used to say, open the eye of thy (9:47) intellect and gaze into me and thou shall see the beauty of my rational (9:52) creature. And look at those creatures who among the beauties which I have given (9:56) to the soul creating her in my image and similitude, are clothed with the (10:02) nuptial garment, that is the garment of love, adorned with many virtues by which (10:08) they are united with me through love.”

So I would like to touch on now, image (10:15) and similitude. similitude’s an older word meaning a person or thing resembling (10:21) someone or something else. In this case God. So image and likeness is used a lot (10:27) so if we look at the Catechism of Saint Pius the X, it says:

We say that man (10:33) was created in the image and similitude of God because the human soul is spiritual (10:38) and rational. Free in its operations, capable of knowing and loving God and (10:44) of enjoying him forever. Perfections which reflect a ray of the infinite (10:49) greatness of the Lord in us. (Refrence 2)

And the Penny Catechism states:

The likeness we are (10:55) talking about is chiefly in the soul. The soul is like to God because it is a (11:01) spirit and immortal. Immortal because the soul can never die. We must take most (11:07) care of our soul. Christ said For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole (11:12) world and suffereth the loss of his own soul or what exchange shall a man give for (11:18) his soul (Matthew 16:26 DRA) (Refrence 3)

Clothed with the wedding garment, or I said the nuptial (11:25) garment, in the dialogue it says the nuptial, but another way to say that is, (11:30) clothed with the wedding garment of love which is adorned with the virtues. As a (11:36) bride is adorned for her wedding with many jewels on her dress so the soul is (11:40) adorned with the virtues all over the garment of love they are clothed them so (11:45) as to be more pleasing to God.

“And yet I tell thee if thou shouldest ask me (11:53) who these are I should reply (said the sweet and amorous word of God) they are (11:59) another myself and as much as they have lost and denied their own will and are (12:05) clothed with mine, are united to mine, are conformed to mine. It is therefore true (12:11) indeed that the soul unites herself with God by the affection of love.”

(12:16) when the soul denies their own will then they are clothed with God’s will (12:23) united to God’s will and are conformed to God’s will.

“So that soul wishing to (12:31) know and follow the truth more manfully, and lifting her desires first for herself, (12:36) for she considered that a soul could not be of use whether in doctrine, example, (12:42) or prayer to her neighbor, if she did not first profit herself, that is if she (12:48) did not acquire virtue in herself, addressed four requests to the Supreme (12:54) and Eternal Father.”

Now what is being said is, Catherine then wished to (13:01) follow Christ more manfully and knew that she could not be of any use to her (13:06) neighbor if she first did not acquire virtue in herself. She could not help her (13:13) neighbor whether by teaching, or example of life, or even in prayer if she did not (13:18) adorn herself with those virtues that shine like jewels to God.

“The first (13:24) was for herself, the second for the reformation of the Holy Church, the third (13:31) a general prayer for the whole world, and in particular for the peace of Christians (13:37) who rebel with much lewdness and persecution against The Holy Church in (13:42) the fourth and last she besought the divine providence to provide for things (13:47) in general and in particular for a certain case with which she was concerned.” 

(13:53) So to give a little background on what was going on and why Catherine (13:59) was asking for some of these intentions, we will go over this very briefly. She (14:04) asked for the reformation of The Holy Church and for the peace of the Christians (14:08) who rebel with much lewdness and persecution against Holy Church this (14:14) was a time in the church called the Western Schism. The pope was residing in (14:19) Avignon France and not in Rome at the time. Pope Gregory XI had just left (14:25) Avignon in 1378 to reestablish the residence of the Papacy in Rome, thanks (14:32) much to Catherine’s insistence that he come back home to Rome after many visits (14:37) and letters. He died after re-establishing the Pontifical See in Rome on March 27th (14:44) 1378. This began a long process of debates and arguments inside the Church (14:50) as to where the papacy was to be established either in Avignon or Rome, (14:55) since for about a century the Popes had actually taken up residency in (15:00) Avignon. There were actually a couple claimants to the papal see and many were (15:05) confused. It finally ended in 1417 with the Councils of Pisa and Constance. I’m no (15:14) expert on these events and have not really dove into the subject matter too (15:17) deeply, but if you want to learn more, there are many great resources out there (15:22) on the subject. For now this brief history will do for the scope of what we (15:26) are talking about.

On the next episode, we will be discussing how the desire of (15:31) Catherine grew when God showed her the neediness of the world, and then God will (15:38) talk to Catherine about how finite works are not sufficient for punishment or (15:42) recompense, without the perpetual affection of love.

Well that will end our (15:48) episode for today. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free (15:53) to drop me an email. You can find that in the contact us button below.

And now I (16:01) would like to end the episode with an Ave Maria, In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Ave Maria, gratia plena Dominus tecum (16:12) benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.

(16:18) Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus nunc et in ora mortis nostrae. Amen. In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Thank you for (16:32) listening and I will see you on the next episode.

Refrences:

1. https://dn790000.ca.archive.org/0/items/seraphicvirginca00cathuoft/seraphicvirginca00cathuoft.pdf
2. 2. https://archive.org/details/catechism-of-pope-saint-pius-x/page/n15/mode/2up (Section 2: Subsection Man, Question 55)
3. 3. https://olmhtchurch.org/penny-catechism-pdf (Chapter I: Questions 3-7 combined)