Latest / Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa / 037 - Part 3 Chapter 5

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037 - Part 3 Chapter 5 · Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa

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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter five of Spiritual Dialog 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 five, Oh Love,
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  Speaker 1: with thy sweetness, Thou breakest the heart that is harder
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  Speaker 1: than adamant, and meltest it like wax in the fire.
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  Speaker 1: Oh Love, Thou makest great men to esteem themselves as
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  Speaker 1: the least of the earth, and the richest as the poorest.
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  Speaker 1: Oh Love, Thou causest wise men to appear as fools,
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  Speaker 1: and thou takest their knowledge from the learned, and givest
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  Speaker 1: them an understanding surpassing all other understanding. Oh Love, Thou
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  Speaker 1: banishest from the heart all melancholy hardness and natural inclinations,
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  Speaker 1: and all delight in worldly things. Oh Love, Thou makest
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  Speaker 1: bad men good and artful men simple. Thou dost ingeniously
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  Speaker 1: deprive men of their free will, so that they are
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  Speaker 1: contented to be guided by THEE alone. Because thou art
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  Speaker 1: our guide, Oh Love, Thine operations are alien to this earth,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore thou changest men from earthly to celestial, and
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  Speaker 1: depriving him of every human mode of operation. Dost unfit
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  Speaker 1: him for all earthly occupations, Oh Love, Thou dist accomplish
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  Speaker 1: the whole work of our salvation, which we neither know
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  Speaker 1: how to do, nor are able to do without THEE.
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  Speaker 1: Oh Love, Thy name is so sweet that it imparts
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  Speaker 1: sweetness to all things. Sweet is the mouth that names
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  Speaker 1: THEE most of all, when the words proceeded from a
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  Speaker 1: heart full of thy liquid sweetness, which makes men benign, meek, gracious, joyous, bountiful,
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  Speaker 1: and ready, so far as may be to serve all men,
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  Speaker 1: Oh Love, When by any way thou art able to
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  Speaker 1: penetrate the heart of man with thy sweet and gracious darts,
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  Speaker 1: if it be unoccupied by any other love, however slight
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  Speaker 1: may be thy flame, it is powerful enough to make
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  Speaker 1: him abandon all things else for THEE. This love makes
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  Speaker 1: every affection and contradiction appear sweet, Oh Love, What sweet quiet,
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  Speaker 1: and what quiet sweetness thou bringest with THEE as thou
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  Speaker 1: belongest to all. The more thou art diffused among creatures
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  Speaker 1: so much, the more fully is thy will accomplished. The
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  Speaker 1: more man feels and comprehends thy gentle warmth, the more
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  Speaker 1: he is inflamed with desire, and he neither asks for
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  Speaker 1: any proof beyond his own feeling, nor knows how to
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  Speaker 1: give any other reason for it. But love carries with
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  Speaker 1: it its own reason and the will likewise, and remains
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  Speaker 1: lord of the whole man, subjecting him entirely to its
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  Speaker 1: will according to its pleasure. And this work is wholly
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  Speaker 1: its own, for then its operations are affected through love
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  Speaker 1: in love and by love by works done through love.
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  Speaker 1: Those works are understood which man performs through the love
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  Speaker 1: of God. When God gives him an instinctive desire to
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  Speaker 1: work for the benefit of himself or his neighbor. In
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  Speaker 1: this first state of love, God causes man to undertake
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  Speaker 1: many and various useful and necessary works, which he performs
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  Speaker 1: with a pious intention. The works of the second state
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  Speaker 1: of love are done in God. These are such as
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  Speaker 1: are done with no view either to the advantage of
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  Speaker 1: oneself or of one's neighbor, but rest in God, with
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  Speaker 1: no motive in him who does them. Here man perseveres
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  Speaker 1: in good works through the habits of virtue which he
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  Speaker 1: has formed, although God has deprived him of that share
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  Speaker 1: in them which gave him aid and pleasure. This work
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  Speaker 1: is more perfect than the other, for in that there
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  Speaker 1: are many motives which nourish both soul and body. The
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  Speaker 1: works done by love are more perfect than the other two,
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  Speaker 1: because man has no part whatever in them. Love has
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  Speaker 1: so subdued and conquered him that he finds himself drowned
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  Speaker 1: in the sea of love, and knows not where he is,
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  Speaker 1: but is lost in himself and left without the power
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  Speaker 1: to act. In this case, it is love itself which
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  Speaker 1: works in man, and its works are works of perfection
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  Speaker 1: inasmuch as they are not wrought by human power, and
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  Speaker 1: are works of sanctifying grace. And God accepts them. All.
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  Speaker 1: This sweet and pure love takes possession of man, absorbs him,
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  Speaker 1: and deprives him of himself. It keeps possession of him
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  Speaker 1: and continually works within him, solely for his benefit and advantage,
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  Speaker 1: without any thought or care on his part. Oh Love,
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  Speaker 1: What a sweet companion and faithful guide? Art Thou neither
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  Speaker 1: speech nor thought can do justice to thy excellence. Blessed
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  Speaker 1: is the heart possessed and occupied by THEE. Love makes
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  Speaker 1: men just, simple, pure, rich, wise and contented, and with
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  Speaker 1: its sweetness lessens every grief, Oh Love, All that is
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  Speaker 1: done through THEE is done with ease, with gladness and
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  Speaker 1: good will. And though the toil be great, thy sweetness
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  Speaker 1: tempers every trial. Oh, the torment of working without love,
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  Speaker 1: It is beyond belief. Love gives a sweet flavor to
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  Speaker 1: every by ende. If it is bad, it makes it good,
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  Speaker 1: and if good, it makes it better, according to the
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  Speaker 1: grade and the capacity of the subject. God infuses love
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  Speaker 1: into the heart of man. Oh, how sweet a thing
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  Speaker 1: it would be to speak of this love if fitting
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  Speaker 1: words were found to express the delight with which it
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  Speaker 1: fills the heart. But because the soul is immortal and
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  Speaker 1: capable of greater love than it can feel in this life.
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  Speaker 1: On account of the weakness of the body, which does
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  Speaker 1: not allow the soul to support all that it desires,
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  Speaker 1: it remains ever craving, and in this life can never
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  Speaker 1: be fully satisfied. O Love, Thou fillest the heart, but
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  Speaker 1: thou art so great that it cannot contain thee It
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  Speaker 1: remains filled but not satisfied by the road of his heart.
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  Speaker 1: Thou takest possession of the entire man, and permittest none
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  Speaker 1: but thyself to find entrance with a strong bond. Thou
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  Speaker 1: bindest all the faculties of soul and body. O sweet
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  Speaker 1: servitude of love, which gives man freedom and contentment in
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  Speaker 1: this life, and eternal blessedness in the other. Oh Love,
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  Speaker 1: Thy bonds are so sweet and so strong that they
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  Speaker 1: bind angels and saints together, and so firm and close
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  Speaker 1: that they are never broken. Men who are bound by
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  Speaker 1: this chain are so united that they have but one
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  Speaker 1: will and one aim, And all things among them are
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  Speaker 1: in common, both temporal and spiritual. In this union, there
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  Speaker 1: is no difference between rich and poor, between nation and nation.
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  Speaker 1: All contradiction is excluded. For by this love, crooked things
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  Speaker 1: are made straight, and difficulties reconciled. End of Part three,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter five,