Latest / Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa / 043 - Part 3 Chapter 11

Transcript

043 - Part 3 Chapter 11 · Spiritual Dialogues of St. Catherine of Genoa

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter eleven of Spiritual Dialog by Saint Catherine
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: of Genoa. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Recording by Anne Boulay, Part three, chapter eleven. O Sweetest,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: my Lord, in how many hidden ways thou workest in man?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: When thou desirest to purify him by means of thy
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: most pure love, which removes all rust from the soul
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and prepares it for the most holy union with THEE.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: O vast and happy country unknown to wretched mortals, but
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: for which they were created by God, O Infinite God.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: How is it possible that thou shouldst not be known
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and loved by Him whom thou hast made capable of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: knowing and enjoying THEE, unless solely by reason of the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: little taste and feeling which by thy grace thou hast
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: bestowed upon him. For if in this world man possessed THEE,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: he would leave all things beside, O Lord, What loving
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: care thou takest day and night of man who knoweth
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: not himself, and much less knoweth THEE. Although thou lovest
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: him so much, seekest him with such diligence, and waitest
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: for embarrast him with so much patience out of thy
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: divine love. Thou art that great, most high God, of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: whom we can neither speak nor think, because of the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: ineffable supereminence of Thy glory, wisdom, power, and infinite goodness.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And all these thou employest in the service of man,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: who is so vile, but whom thou wouldest make so
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: great and worthy. And therefore thou art ever luring him
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: with thy love, because thou art unwilling to force the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: free will which thou hast given him. Thou drawest him
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to THEE by love, and desirest that he consent to
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: THEE through love. Thou workest in him by love, and
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: with thy love thou wouldest have the whole man act
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: through love, that so without thy love he might do nothing. Thou,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: who art our God and Lord, has disregarded thine own ease,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: both of soul and body, that thou mightst saved man.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: And thou willest that he also should disregard all ease
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of soul and body, that he may do thy will,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: And this chiefly because thy will is our best good.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: But this thy blind and miserable man, is never understood.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I have not spoken well of the nakedness of the spirit.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: It is because there are no words by which this
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: nakedness might be expressed. And the soul which finds herself
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: in that condition has in her mind a fullness, a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: repletion of which she knows not how to speak. And
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: yet by reason of this vehemence of her emotions she
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: is forced to speak, and in a language more fitting
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: than she is aware. This language is like the ink,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: black and unseen, and yet by its means many thoughts
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: are made plain which could not otherwise be understood. Alas
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: if man could comprehend what it is that the mind
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: feels in such a state, these words would indeed appear
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to him dark and unseemly. What then, are these hearts
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and tongues to do, which cannot utter their thoughts? So
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: secret and hidden are they that to him who feels them,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: it seems impossible that he should find anyone who can understand,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and much less express them. Will he then remain silent
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: in wonder? No, for he is unable to be silent,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: finding his heart ever more inflamed by the marvelous operations
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of divine love, which God increased day by day within him,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: which bind him so closely by the invisible chains of love,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that humanity can hardly endure it, more especially when it
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: sees the madness of men who are so wrapped in
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: exterior things that they neither know, conjecture nor comprehend this
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: divine operation. But God loves us so much that although
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: he sees us so blind and death to our own advantage,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: yet he does not, for that reason cease to not
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: continually at our hearts by his holy inspirations, so that
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: He may enter and make therein tabernacles for himself into
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: which creatures can never enter. More. End of Part three,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven