Latest / Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa / 045 - Part 3 Chapter 13

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045 - Part 3 Chapter 13 · Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa

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  Speaker 1: Part three, chapter thirteen 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 Boulat, Part three, chapter thirteen, Oh my Heart,
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  Speaker 1: what sayest thou of this love? What kindest thou? I say?
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  Speaker 1: My words are in interior jubilee? But they have no
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  Speaker 1: appropriate utterance, neither by exterior signs, nor yet by sufferings.
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  Speaker 1: Although endured for the love of God. Can this love
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  Speaker 1: be made comprehensible? He only who has felt it can
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  Speaker 1: somewhat understand it. All that can be said of love
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  Speaker 1: is nothing. For the further one advances, the less he knows.
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  Speaker 1: But the heart, filled and satisfied, seeks and desires nought
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  Speaker 1: else but what it feels. All His words are heartfelt,
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  Speaker 1: glowing and delightful, and so penetrating, and in such subtle
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  Speaker 1: harmony with that which inspires them, that they can be
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  Speaker 1: comprehended only by those whose hearts are also united with God.
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  Speaker 1: God only comprehends them fully. The heart feels but understands not,
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  Speaker 1: And the work is that of God alone, While the
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  Speaker 1: benefit belongs to man. But the intimate, amorous relation which
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  Speaker 1: God sustains with the heart of man is a secret
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  Speaker 1: between him and the heart the Lord, Oh soul, what
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  Speaker 1: hast thou to say? Touching this operation? Soul, I find
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  Speaker 1: my will so strong, and my liberty so vivid and
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  Speaker 1: so great, that I fear no impediments between me and
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  Speaker 1: my object, and in it I rest content. My intellect
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  Speaker 1: is greatly enlightened, and daily becomes more calm. Daily are
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  Speaker 1: manifested to it things so new and processes so delightful,
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  Speaker 1: that it is satisfied to remain ever thus employed, and
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  Speaker 1: seek no further. Here it finds its rest, but it
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  Speaker 1: is impossible for it to explain these operations. The memory
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  Speaker 1: is satisfied to be employed in spiritual things, and can
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  Speaker 1: with difficulty recall any others. The affections which are natural
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  Speaker 1: to man are overshadowed by a supernatural love, which alone
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  Speaker 1: satisfies him and makes him desire no other food, since
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  Speaker 1: in it he finds all that he requires. And yet
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  Speaker 1: man can render no account of the way in which
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  Speaker 1: he is conquered by an operation surpassing all his powers.
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  Speaker 1: What more shall I say concerning this work of love?
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  Speaker 1: I am forced to silence, yet have an instinctive wish
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  Speaker 1: to speak, although I cannot speak as I desire. Let
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  Speaker 1: him who wishes to experience these things abstain, as Saint
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  Speaker 1: Paul commands, from every appearance of evil. Whenever man does this,
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  Speaker 1: at once God infuses into his soul some gift of grace,
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  Speaker 1: which he increases with so much love that the man
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  Speaker 1: is lost, absorbed, transformed, and overpowered. And however difficult it
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  Speaker 1: may appear to abstain from evil, no one would allow
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  Speaker 1: any hindrance to prevent him from doing everything for God,
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  Speaker 1: who could see the readiness with which he comes to
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  Speaker 1: the help of man, and the loving and watchful care
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  Speaker 1: with which he aids him and defends him from his adversaries.
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  Speaker 1: But when man has once entered the straight road, he
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  Speaker 1: learns that it is God who works all that is
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  Speaker 1: good in us by his gracious inspirations and the love
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  Speaker 1: infused into the soul, which acts without hindrance. By reason
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  Speaker 1: of the satisfaction which God mingles with all her toils.
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  Speaker 1: It is enough for man not to act in contradiction
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  Speaker 1: to his conscience, for God inspires all the good he
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  Speaker 1: would have us do, and gives the instinct and the
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  Speaker 1: strength for it. Otherwise man could do no good. For
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  Speaker 1: this God gives all the facilites and the means, so
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  Speaker 1: that He enables us to do all things with pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: even those that to others seem the greatest penances. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: how great is the love, the kindness, and the mercy
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  Speaker 1: which God shows to man in this wretched world. Justice
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  Speaker 1: is made known afterwards. At the moment when the soul
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  Speaker 1: leaves the body, then, if she has not to undergo purgation,
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  Speaker 1: God receives her into himself, where she is transformed by
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  Speaker 1: His burning love, and thus transformed, remains in Him forever.
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  Speaker 1: At that moment also she goes to purgatory or to Hell,
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  Speaker 1: if there is aught within her to be purged or
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  Speaker 1: to be punished. This is accomplished by the divine decree,
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  Speaker 1: which sends each one to his own place. Everyone carries
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  Speaker 1: within himself his own sentence, and is by himself condemned.
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  Speaker 1: If souls did not find the places ordain for them
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  Speaker 1: by God, their torments would be even greater, for they
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  Speaker 1: would have violated the divine order. And as there is
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  Speaker 1: no place which His mercy does not visit, when they
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  Speaker 1: are within His order, their sufferings are less than they
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  Speaker 1: would otherwise be. The soul was created by God for himself,
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  Speaker 1: and is governed by Him, and can find no repose
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  Speaker 1: but in Him alone. The condemned in Hell are in
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  Speaker 1: the order of God through justice. Could they be outside
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  Speaker 1: of it, they would be in a still greater hell
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  Speaker 1: by their violation of the divine order, which gives them
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  Speaker 1: the terrible instinct to go directly to their appointed place,
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere their sufferings would be redoubled. And therefore they go thither,
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  Speaker 1: not indeed that they may suffer less, but impelled by
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  Speaker 1: that supreme and infallible decree of God which cannot err.
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  Speaker 1: End of Part three, Chapter thirteen. End of Part three
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  Speaker 1: end of spiritual dialogue between the soul, the body, self, Love,
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit, humanity and the Lord God. By Saint Catherine
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  Speaker 1: of Genoa,