Latest / Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa / 042 - Part 3 Chapter 10

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042 - Part 3 Chapter 10 · Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa

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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter ten of spiritual Dialogue by Saint Catherine
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  Speaker 1: of Genoa. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Anne Boulet, Part three, Chapter ten, The Lord,
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  Speaker 1: What will you do o soul, thus naked and despoiled?
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  Speaker 1: What will you do o heart and mind, which are
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  Speaker 1: both so empty? How is it with you in this state? Before?
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  Speaker 1: Unknown to you soul, I know not where I am.
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  Speaker 1: I have lost will, understanding, memory, love, in all enjoyment.
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  Speaker 1: I can give no reason for myself, and am lost,
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  Speaker 1: and can neither place myself, nor seek or find any
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  Speaker 1: other thing. The heart and the mind of this creature,
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  Speaker 1: being deprived of all the ways by means of which
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  Speaker 1: Heaven seemed to make an entrance, now exclaim we are
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  Speaker 1: absorbed in an operation too subtle and secret to be
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  Speaker 1: made known by us. But in that occupation a loving
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  Speaker 1: and ethereal spirit is hidden and restrained, which fills the
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  Speaker 1: whole man so entirely that soul, heart, mind, and body,
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  Speaker 1: every bone and nerve and vein are overflowing with it,
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  Speaker 1: so that all are absorbed with such a secret and
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  Speaker 1: concentrated force, that every size struggling from the heart is
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  Speaker 1: felt interiorly as a vehement flame. But the body, unable
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  Speaker 1: to endure the action of so powerful a flame, grieves,
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  Speaker 1: yet finds no words to express its grief. The mouth
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  Speaker 1: is filled with burning size and amorous conceits, which rise
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  Speaker 1: from the heart and seem ready to break forth in
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  Speaker 1: words powerful enough to break a heart of stone, but
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  Speaker 1: they find no utterance. The true and loving coilloquy is
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  Speaker 1: going on within, and its sweetness cannot be conceived. The
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  Speaker 1: heart is made the tabernacle of God, into which by
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  Speaker 1: himself and also by as many graces are infused, which
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  Speaker 1: bear in secret wondrous fruits. This creature has a heaven
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  Speaker 1: within herself. If such as she and they are rare
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  Speaker 1: in this world were understood, they would be adored upon earth.
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  Speaker 1: But God hides them from themselves and from all others,
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  Speaker 1: until the hour of death, at which time the true
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  Speaker 1: and false are made known. Oh, how few creatures are
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  Speaker 1: conducted by this road of secret and penetrating love, which
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  Speaker 1: keeps both soul and body in such subjection that it
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  Speaker 1: leaves no imperfection in them. But pure love can comport
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  Speaker 1: with none, however slight, and it perseveres in its sweet
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  Speaker 1: action in the soul until it purifies her entirely, so
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  Speaker 1: that she can reach her proper end without passing through purgatory.
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  Speaker 1: Oh soul, Oh mind bound and imprisoned in that divine flame.
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  Speaker 1: Who could comprehend that beauty, that wisdom, that amorous care
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  Speaker 1: wrought in you by divine love and for love, those coiloquies,
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  Speaker 1: so sweet, so loving, and so gracious, And not feel
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  Speaker 1: his heart melt within him, though it were harder than
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  Speaker 1: a stone, Oh love, thou art called love? Until all
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  Speaker 1: that love is perfected, which God has infused into the
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  Speaker 1: heart of man, in which he rests inebriated and immersed,
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  Speaker 1: until he knows no longer what love is, For then
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  Speaker 1: it becomes spirit and unites with the spirit of man,
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  Speaker 1: so that he becomes spiritual. And the spirit, being invisible
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  Speaker 1: and inscrutable to the powers of the soul, man is
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  Speaker 1: conquered and subdued, and knows no longer where he is,
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  Speaker 1: where he should be, nor whether he should go. But
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  Speaker 1: by reason of this secret and intimate union with God,
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  Speaker 1: there remains in the soul a sweet impression, so firm
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  Speaker 1: and assured, a satisfaction that no torture, however cruel, could
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  Speaker 1: overpower it, and is zeeal so ardent that a man,
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  Speaker 1: had he a thousand lives, would risk them all for
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  Speaker 1: that hidden consciousness, which is so strong that Hell itself
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  Speaker 1: could not destroy it. Oh, Spirit, naked and invisible, none
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  Speaker 1: is able to lay hold of THEE. By reason of
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  Speaker 1: thy nakedness, thy habitation is in heaven, albeit with thy body.
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  Speaker 1: Thou yet remainest on the earth. Thou knowest not thyself,
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  Speaker 1: nor art thou known by others in this world. All
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  Speaker 1: thy lovers and thy kindred who are in Heaven are
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  Speaker 1: known to THEE only by virtue of an interior instinct
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  Speaker 1: implanted within THEE by the spirit of God. Oh that
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  Speaker 1: I could find words fitting to describe that gracious friendship
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  Speaker 1: and that vanished union. Vanished, I say, because so far
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  Speaker 1: as man is concerned, he has lost completely all expressions
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  Speaker 1: that is of love, union, annihilation, transformation, sweetness, softness, goodness,
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  Speaker 1: has lost, in short all forms of speech by means
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  Speaker 1: of which the absolute union of two separate things could
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  Speaker 1: be expressed and comprehended. Where nothing remains but one pure spirit,
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  Speaker 1: active and simple and incomprehensible. End of Part three, Chapter ten,