Latest / Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa / 034 - Part 3 Chapter 2

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034 - Part 3 Chapter 2 · Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa

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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter two 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 two, Soul, O tongue,
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  Speaker 1: Why dost thou speak when thou canst find no fitting
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  Speaker 1: words for the love felt by my heart? O heart
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  Speaker 1: inflamed with love? Why dost thou not consume the body
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  Speaker 1: where thou dwellest, O spirit? What dost thou thus bound
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  Speaker 1: upon the earth? Seest thou not that vehemence of love,
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  Speaker 1: wherewith God attracts and desires thee destroy this body, that
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  Speaker 1: each may go to his own place. And God, when
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  Speaker 1: he beheld the soul, kindled with a flame so great
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  Speaker 1: and limitless, desiring in some measure to restrain her, showed
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  Speaker 1: her one spark of that love with which He loves man,
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  Speaker 1: and which is so pure, simple andscence that the soul,
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  Speaker 1: when she beheld it, was wellnigh overpowered with astonishment. Then
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  Speaker 1: the Lord demanded of her, saying, the Lord, why do
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  Speaker 1: I behold you thus changed? What new thing have you
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  Speaker 1: seen that kindles in you such a flame of love?
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  Speaker 1: Hitherto you have seemed ready to break through the body
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  Speaker 1: in order to find your love by reason of the
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  Speaker 1: great delight and sweet enjoyment you tasted, together with many
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  Speaker 1: other of your friends, with whom you were united in
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  Speaker 1: the bonds of that sweet and winning love. But now
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  Speaker 1: I see you pausing and bewildered, and caring to converse
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  Speaker 1: with no one. Until now, this soul had often occupied
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  Speaker 1: herself in conversing with her spiritual friends on the divine love,
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  Speaker 1: until it seemed to them as if they were already
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  Speaker 1: in paradise. Oh how sweet were these coiloquies. Both he
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  Speaker 1: who spoke and he who listened were fed alike upon
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  Speaker 1: this spiritual, sweet and delicious food, and were not satisfied
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  Speaker 1: to see time pass so quickly while they talked, But
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  Speaker 1: all inflamed and burning, could neither speak nor separate, and
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  Speaker 1: seemed as if beside themselves, Oh feasts of love, Oh
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  Speaker 1: food most exquisite, What delicious viands, what sweet union, what
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  Speaker 1: divine company? They spoke only of the love of God,
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  Speaker 1: of its operations, How all hindrances to it might be removed.
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  Speaker 1: All that took place between them was so clearly seen
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  Speaker 1: to be from God and for the benefit of souls,
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  Speaker 1: that no one could think otherwise, and hence the soul responded.
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  Speaker 1: End of Part three, Chapter two,