Latest / Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa / 036 - Part 3 Chapter 4

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036 - Part 3 Chapter 4 · Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa

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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter four 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 Boulay, Part three, Chapter four. The Lord,
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  Speaker 1: all beloved soul, knowest thou who it is that employs
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  Speaker 1: my love? He whose heart is pure and empty of
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  Speaker 1: every other love. When he has found it, he remains
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  Speaker 1: content and satisfied, although he knows not my mode of
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  Speaker 1: operation nor his own condition. Because love works in secret
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  Speaker 1: and subtlety, without external show, such a one is continually occupied,
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  Speaker 1: yet without occupation, he is bound, yet knows not who
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  Speaker 1: holds him. He is in prison without an outlet. The
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  Speaker 1: soul can avail herself of neither her understanding, her memory,
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  Speaker 1: nor her will, and seems like a thing insensate, duh
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  Speaker 1: and blind, because the divine love has overpowered all the
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  Speaker 1: sensibilities of both soul and body, and therefore the soul
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  Speaker 1: and spirit, funding themselves so transformed from their wonted habit
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  Speaker 1: of loving and acting, and secretly and strongly swayed by
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  Speaker 1: a higher love, are constrained to ask, O Lord, what
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  Speaker 1: manner of love is this? What is this love which
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  Speaker 1: is ever changing man from good to better? Continually bringing
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  Speaker 1: him nearer to his end, and yet as he approaches
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  Speaker 1: it more closely plunges him into ever profounder ignorance of
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  Speaker 1: his situation. Man in this state is kept alive by
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  Speaker 1: the rays of love with which God pierces his heart,
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  Speaker 1: and which return to Heaven in ardent size. If he
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  Speaker 1: did not find this relief, he would die through the
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  Speaker 1: vehemence of this fire. Sometimes it so restrains him that
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  Speaker 1: he can neither speak nor sigh, in order that his
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  Speaker 1: work may be more quickly done. But it does not
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  Speaker 1: hold him long in this condition, because he cannot remain
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  Speaker 1: in it and live. Then the soul, enlightened inflamed with
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  Speaker 1: divine love, and filled with sweetness and delight, exclaims soul,
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  Speaker 1: Oh Love, the soul that feels THEE, begins even in
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  Speaker 1: this world to possess eternal life. But thou Lord, dost
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  Speaker 1: conceal this work even from its possessor, lest he should
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  Speaker 1: spoil it by making it his own. Oh Love, He
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  Speaker 1: who feels THEE understands THEE. Not he who desires to
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  Speaker 1: comprehend THEE cannot know THEE. Oh Love, our life, our blessedness,
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  Speaker 1: our rest, divine love, brings with it every good and
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  Speaker 1: banishes every evil. Oh heart, wounded with divine love, Thou
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  Speaker 1: art forever incurable and dying of this sweet wound. Thou
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  Speaker 1: dost enter upon never ending life, Oh fire of love,
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  Speaker 1: What doest thou in many? Thou purifiest him as gold
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  Speaker 1: is purified by fire, and dost conduct him with thee
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  Speaker 1: to that country and that end for which he was created.
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  Speaker 1: Love is a divine flame, and as material fire ever
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  Speaker 1: burns and consumes according to its nature. So in man
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  Speaker 1: the love of God is, by its nature ever working
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  Speaker 1: toward its end, and for its part, never ceases to
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  Speaker 1: benefit and serve him who it holds. So dear, he
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  Speaker 1: who does not know its power has but himself to blame,
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  Speaker 1: since God never tires of doing good to man while
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  Speaker 1: he is in this life, and has always the most
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  Speaker 1: tender love for him. O Love, I can no longer
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  Speaker 1: be silent, And yet I cannot speak, as I desire
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  Speaker 1: of thy sweet and gentle operation, for I am filled
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  Speaker 1: with love, which inspires me with the wish to speak,
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  Speaker 1: but deprives me of the power within myself. I speak
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  Speaker 1: with the heart and with the mind, But when I
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  Speaker 1: would pronounce the words something checks me, and I find
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  Speaker 1: myself betrayed by this poor tongue. I would be silent,
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  Speaker 1: but I cannot. For still, the instinct for speech urges
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  Speaker 1: me on. If I could utter that love of which
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  Speaker 1: my heart is full, I think that every other heart
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  Speaker 1: would be inflamed, however remote from love it might be.
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  Speaker 1: Before I leave this life, I long to speak once
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  Speaker 1: of this love, to speak of it as I feel
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  Speaker 1: it within me, of its affects in me, and of
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  Speaker 1: what it requires of him into whom it is infused,
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  Speaker 1: and whom it fills to overflowing with the sweetness above
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  Speaker 1: all sweetness, and with an indescribable content so great that
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  Speaker 1: for it one would willingly be burned alive. For God
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  Speaker 1: unites a certain zeal for this love, by the power
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  Speaker 1: of which man disregards all contradictions. However so great, oh Love,
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  Speaker 1: powerful and sweet, Happy is he who is possess us
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  Speaker 1: by THEE. For Thou dost strengthen defend and preserve him
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  Speaker 1: from all ills of body and soul. Thou gently guidest
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  Speaker 1: all things to their end, and never doest abandon man.
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  Speaker 1: Thou art ever faithful, Thou givest light against the deceit
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  Speaker 1: of the devil, the malice of the world, and against ourselves,
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  Speaker 1: who are so full of self and so perverse. This
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  Speaker 1: love is so illuminative and efficacious that it draws all
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  Speaker 1: imperfections from their secret caverns, that we may apply the
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  Speaker 1: remedy and purge ourselves from them. This love, which rules
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  Speaker 1: and governs our will in order that it may grow
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  Speaker 1: strong and firm to resist temptation, so occupies the affections
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  Speaker 1: and the intellect that they desire not beside the memories engrossed,
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  Speaker 1: and the powers of the soul are satisfied, so that
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  Speaker 1: love remains her soul, possessor and inhabitant, and she allows
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  Speaker 1: nothing else to enter. There. Love exhales a continual, sweet
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  Speaker 1: perfume by which man suffers himself to be allured. And
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  Speaker 1: so powerful is this fragrance, that, however great may be
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  Speaker 1: the torments through which he passes to salvation, there is
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  Speaker 1: no martyrdom he would not suffer gladly to attain it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh Love, No words of mine can express the sweetness
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  Speaker 1: and delight with which thou fillest the heart ere remains
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  Speaker 1: enclosed within, and by speaking it is inflamed. Whoever hears
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  Speaker 1: or reads these words without the sentiment of love, makes
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  Speaker 1: little account of them, and they pass by him like
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  Speaker 1: the wind. But if I could express the joy, the pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: and the peace which it brings to the beloved heart,
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  Speaker 1: all men who hear or read these words would surrender
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  Speaker 1: without resistance. For it is so adapted to the human
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  Speaker 1: heart that at its first touch it opens wide its door.
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  Speaker 1: Although man can never receive this celestial gift till he
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  Speaker 1: is free from every other love. If the heart receives
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  Speaker 1: but the smallest drop, it so earnestly desires to increase
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  Speaker 1: it that it rais as nothing all the goods of
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  Speaker 1: this world. With this love, man conquers the evil habits
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  Speaker 1: which are a hindrance to him, and in its strength
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  Speaker 1: he stands ever ready to perform great deeds. End of
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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter four,