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(0:00) Hello, and welcome to the Catholic Torch Podcast, Episode 9. We will start out with prayer as usual.
(0:07) We will be praying The Memorare.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins and Mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
(0:49) Today’s episode is brought to you by Holy Queen Handmade.
As usual, anything that I say that is (0:57) true and good and beautiful, belongs to the honor and glory of our Lord and our Lady, and anything (1:03) that I say that is erroneous is purely my own fault. And now we will continue with the Dialogue (1:09) of St. Catherine of Siena.
“When she has discovered the advantage of this unitive love in Me, (1:16) by means of which she truly loves herself, extending her desire for the salvation of the (1:23) whole world, thus coming to the aid of its neediness, she strives, inasmuch as she has (1:29) done good to herself, by the conception of virtue, from which she has drawn the life of grace, (1:35) to fix her eye upon the needs of her neighbor in particular. Wherefore, when she has discovered, (1:42) through the affection of love, the state of all rational creatures in general, she helps those (1:48) who are at hand, according to the various graces which I have entrusted to her to administer; (1:55) one she helps with doctrine, that is, with words, giving sincere counsel without any respect of (2:02) persons, another with the example of a good life, and this indeed all give to their neighbor, (2:08) the edification of a holy and honorable life. These are the virtues, and many others, (2:15) too many to enumerate, which are brought forth in the love of the neighbor’ but, although I have (2:21) given them in such a different way, that is to say, not all to one, but to one one virtue, and to (2:27) another another, it so happens that it is impossible to have one without having them all, because all (2:34) virtues are bound together. Wherefore, learn, that, in many cases I give one virtue, to be as it were (2:40) the chief of the others, that is to say, to one I will give principally love, to another justice, (2:48) to another humility, to one a lively faith, to another prudence or temperance, or patience, (2:55) or another fortitude. These and many other virtues I place indifferently in the souls of many (3:01) creatures; it happens, therefore, that the particular one so placed in the soul becomes (3:07) the principal object of its virtue, the soul disposing herself for her chief conversation, (3:13) to this rather than to other virtues, and, by the effect of this virtue, the soul draws to herself (3:21) all the other virtues, which, as has been said, are all bound together in the affection of love; (3:27) and so, with many gifts and graces of virtue, and not only in the case of spiritual things, (3:34) but also of temporal. I use the word temporal for the things necessary to the physical life of man;(3:41) all these I have given indifferently, and I have not placed them all in one soul, (3:46) in order that man should, perforce, have material for love of his fellow. I could easily have (3:52) created men possessed of all they should need, both for body and soul, but I wish that one (3:58) should have need of the other, and that they should be My ministers to administer the graces (4:03) and the gifts that they have received from me. Whether man will or know, he cannot help making (4:10) an act of love. It is true, however, that that act, unless made through love of Me, (4:16) profits him nothing so far as grace is concerned. See then, that I have made men My ministers, (4:23) and placed them in diverse stations and various ranks, in order that they may make use of the (4:29) virtue of love.
Wherefore, I show you that in My house are many mansions, and that I wish for no (4:36) other thing than love, for in the love of Me is fulfilled and completed the love of the neighbour, (4:42) and the law observed. For he only can be of use in his state of life, who is bound to Me (4:49) with this love.” Reference 1)
So now we will go back through what we just read, and I will try to make sense (4:54) of it, a couple sentences at a time.
“When she has discovered the advantage of this (5:02) unitive love in Me, by means of which she truly loves herself, extending her desire for the (5:09) salvation of the whole world, thus coming to the aid of its neediness, she strives inasmuch as (5:15) she has done good to herself by the conception of virtue, from which she has drawn the life of (5:21) grace, to fix her eye on the needs of her neighbour in particular.”
(5:27) When the soul sees what fruit is produced by loving God and your chief neighbor, next, (5:32) and then letting that love overflow into the whole world by desiring their eternal salvation, (5:37) the soul will then come to the aid of its neighbor by practicing the virtues it has obtained, (5:43) through living the life of grace, and focuses this on the needs of its neighbor.
“Wherefore, when she has discovered through the affection of love the state of all rational (5:55) creatures in general, she helps those who are at hand, according to the various graces which I have (6:02) entrusted to her to administer. One she helps with doctrine, that is, with words, giving sincere (6:08) counsel without any respect of persons. Another, with the example of a good life; and this indeed (6:16) all give to their neighbor, the edification of a holy and honorable life.”
(6:22) Next, the soul sees through love, the state of all rational creatures in general, focusing on (6:28) neighbors that this soul can actually see and help, the ones that are directly in front of them, (6:35) whether that be our spouse at home, or our children, (they are both our closest neighbors) (6:41) or for those that are in the religious state of life, whether it be your brother Priests, or (6:49) Brothers of a certain order, or Sisters who are Nuns and their Mother Superior, and for the single (6:54) state of life, for those people that you come into contact most often with. Usually that would be at (7:00) daily mass firstly, and then it all branches off from there out into society, our work colleagues, (7:07) the people we run into that live in our neighborhood, the people who work at the (7:11) various places we frequent. God entrusts this soul, so full of love for Him, with graces to (7:17) administer to its neighbor. God says, to one neighbor this soul will help with doctrine, (7:23) by say for instance, teaching someone the Catechism, whether that is our own children, (7:28) or anyone that doesn’t know beyond our own little societies in our homes. This soul will give (7:35) counsel without fearing what the other thinks, because the truth must be given no matter the (7:40) cost. To another this soul will give an example of a good life, but we owe to everyone this example (7:46) at all times, we should be doing this without even a second thought into just doing it, (7:50) for a holy and honorable life.
“These are the virtues, and many others, (7:57) too many to enumerate, which are brought forth in the love of the neighbor; but although I have (8:03) given them in such a different way, that is to say, not all to one, but to one one virtue, and to (8:10) another another, it so happens that it is impossible to have one without having them all, because all (8:17) virtues are bound together. Wherefore, learn, that, in many cases I give one virtue, to be as it (8:24) were the chief of the others, that is to say, to one I will give principally love, to another justice, (8:32) to another humility, to one a lively faith, to another prudence or temperance, or patience, (8:39) to another fortitude. These, and many other virtues, I place indifferently in the souls (8:45) of many creatures; it happens, therefore, that the particular one so placed in the soul, (8:51) becomes the principal object of its virtue, the soul disposing herself by her chief conversation, (8:58) to this rather than to other virtues, and, by the effect of this virtue, the soul draws to herself (9:05) all the other virtues, which as has been said, are all bound together in the affection of love, (9:11) and so, with many gifts and graces of virtue, and not only in the case of spiritual things, (9:18) but also of temporal.”
God says he does not give all the virtues to one person, (9:26) but spreads them out amongst people, so as to show us all that we have need of each other. (9:32) God says he gives each one of us a chief virtue. This virtue will help us to obtain the various (9:38) other virtues. God says here that to have one virtue that you have worked on to become very (9:45) effective in, then all the other virtues shall follow. You cannot have just one without all (9:51) the rest of them. All of these virtues are bound together in the love of God. So to grow in (9:57) holiness you need to figure out your chief virtue, that God has blessed you with, to grow deeper in (10:03) the love of God, and then love of our neighbor. It makes perfect sense that if we have a predominant (10:09) fault, then we should also have a predominant virtue that will help us to battle and eventually (10:14) slay the predominant fault. But also remember that the predominant fault pops back up whenever (10:20) it pleases, and we must be vigilant to cut out its root again as soon as we notice it. (10:26) (God will talk more about this weapon that he has equipped us with to cut out that ugly root again (10:32) and again later on in The Dialogue.) This virtue will not only help us spiritually, but also (10:38) temporally.
“I use the word temporal for the things necessary to the physical life of man. (10:46) All these I have given indifferently, and I have not placed them all in one soul, (10:51) in order that man should, perforce, have material for love of his fellow. I could easily have (10:58) created men possessed of all they should need both for body and soul, but I wish that one should have (11:05) need of the other, and that they should be My ministers to administer the graces and the gifts (11:10) that they have received from Me.”
God says here He could have given man everything he (11:17) needed temporally, but then men would not have need of each other. Men will always need each other (11:22) for spiritual and temporal things. A married man cannot be a Priest because the married man needs (11:29) the Priest to counsel him on how to bring up his family, while living a life of virtue. The married (11:35) man needs the sacraments for his family, and sometimes at the drop of a hat, especially in (11:40) the case of Extreme Unction. Death comes like a thief in the night. The married man, who has (11:46) to go out into the world to work to provide for his family, cannot drop everything and go and attend (11:52) to other things, spiritual things, if his family is in need of him more. A Priest can and does (11:59) do that, so I have need of him. He also needs me to help him to live, to travel to the different (12:06) places he has to go to administer the Sacraments, and say Holy Mass at. The married man must provide (12:13) for the temporal needs of the Priest, while the Priest must provide for the spiritual needs of (12:17) the married man and his family. This is only one very small reason as to why a married man cannot (12:23) rightly be a Priest. The married man also has need of his boss to continue to bring home a paycheck (12:29) to be able to take care of his family, but the boss also has need of the married man so that (12:34) the boss can deliver the goods produced by his company to his customer. This also goes for the (12:39) married man that is his own boss. He relies on his customer base to bring him the temporal needs he (12:46) has by providing them with what they need. You see it goes on and on. I could very easily talk about (12:53) how a Nun cannot be a married woman and the relationship between those two also. The nuns (12:58) are constantly either praying for all of us poor sinful souls and doing great penance for us (13:03) to keep us open to grace, (Priests also do this), but the nuns are also teaching our children at their (13:09) schools, so as to make them strong healthy Catholics, hopefully. Teaching them by example and (13:15) Doctrine. The married woman has need of the Nuns for their help in these areas and the nuns need (13:21) help of the married woman for their temporal needs. I can keep going, but this could get very long, (13:27) so I will let your own minds ponder really how deep you can go down that rabbit hole. (13:32) God wants us to be His ministers of the graces and gifts He has blessed us with.
“Whether man will or know, he cannot help making an act of love. It is true, however, that (13:46) that act, unless made through love of Me, profits him nothing so far as grace is concerned. See then (13:53) that I have made men My ministers, and placed them in diverse stations and various ranks, (13:59) in order that they may make use of the virtue of love.
Wherefore, I show you that in My house (14:06) are many mansions, and that I wish for no other thing than love. For in the love of Me is fulfilled (14:12) and completed the love of the neighbor, and the law observed. For he only can be of use in his (14:19) state of life who is bound to Me with this love.”
God says man cannot help but make an (14:26) act of love. To go against this is to go against our own nature God has given us. But we must (14:33) make that act of love out of love for God, and not for love of ourselves. God says there are many (14:40) mansions in His house, and he wishes for us to love him firstly, and then love our neighbor, (14:45) because that completes the love that God has given us and commanded us to do, and it also (14:51) fulfills the whole of the law.
For in Matthew it says,
“Master, which is the greatest commandment (14:59) in the law? Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with (15:05) thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the (15:11) second is like to this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth (15:17) the whole law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22 :36-40) (DRB)
On the next episode we will be discussing (15:26) how virtues are tried and strengthened by their contraries!That will end our episode for today. (15:33) If you have any questions or comments you can find my email in the contact button below. If you need (15:40) a catholic priest, please reach out to me and I will help you find one. And now we will end in prayer.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Ave Maria, gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in ora mortis nostrae. Amen.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
(16:11) Thank you for listening and I will see you on the next episode.
References
The Catholic Torch 