Novena to St Catherine - Day 9
Published by Dominican Nuns Ireland in Reflections (Dominican) · 28 April 2024
Tags: st, catherine, of, siena, novena, to, st, catherine, feast, day, patron
Tags: st, catherine, of, siena, novena, to, st, catherine, feast, day, patron
Novena to St Catherine - Day Nine
Novena Prayer
The holy virgin, Saint Catherine, never ceased praying to God
to let peace return to His holy Church, alleluia.
V/: Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us.
R/: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Almighty God, you made St Catherine of Siena a contemplative lover of the Lord’s sufferings
and an ardent servant of your Church.
Grant, through her prayer that your people may be united to Christ in His mystery,
and rejoice forever in the revelation of His glory.
and an ardent servant of your Church.
Grant, through her prayer that your people may be united to Christ in His mystery,
and rejoice forever in the revelation of His glory.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Reflection
Catherine & Divine Indwelling
28th of April
The theme of the Divine indwelling runs through this morning’s Mass Readings. Jesus uses the image of the vine – just as the sap flows through the vine to the very tiniest branch, in order for it to bear fruit, so the same divine life-giving energy flows from Christ to each member of his Body, the Church. On the eve of his Passion, he reveals this truth of our union with him and invites us to make our home in him as he makes his in us. It seems that Jesus is pleading with us to remain closely united to Him for unless we stay united to Him we cannot bear any fruit.
In her writings, St Catherine speaks eloquently of this union between Christ and each individual baptised person in the state of grace. She compares it to “the fish in the sea and the sea in the fish” and keeping our vessel in the fountain so that it will not be emptied while we drink. (D 2; 64)
Catherine was fully aware of her own weakness – God the Father had revealed to her: “I am He who IS, you are she who is not!” She knew that of herself she was nothing but united to Christ she was strong with the power of His love working through her weakness. Her consciousness of her weakness and poverty did not blind her to the dignity and beauty of each individual person created in the image and likeness of God which God himself had revealed to her:
“Open your mind’s eye and look within Me and you will see the dignity and beauty of my reasoning creature. But beyond the beauty I have given the soul by creating her in my own image and likeness, look at those who are clothed in the wedding garment of charity, adorned with many true virtues. They are united with me through love - they are another Me for they have lost and drowned their own will and have clothed themselves and united themselves and conformed themselves with mine.” (D 1)
Catherine came to know and understand this truth of God’s love for humankind ever more deeply through her contemplation of the Incarnation of the Word who clothed Himself in our humanity – taking on all the weakness of our sinful flesh – sin excepted – so that by the Godhead’s power hidden in the lowliness of our flesh, we could rise to the height of the Godhead. By making Himself small He made us great! But He even went further in his Passion, when stretched out on the cross, He embraced us. She prays: “For us you have made a cavern in your open side, where we might have a refuge in the face of our enemies and in this cavern we can come to know your charity because by this you have shown that you wanted to give us more than you could give by your finite actions. There we have found the bath in which we have washed our soul’s face clean of the leprosy of sin.”
It is very appropriate that we celebrate the feast of St Catherine during this beautiful Easter season when the whole Church rejoices and contemplates God’s infinite love in redeeming the human race through the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus. Catherine prays: “You gave us memory so that we might be able to hold your blessings and so bring forth the flower of glory to your name and the fruit of profit to ourselves. Our whole monastic life is ordered to this constant remembrance of God. As we celebrate this feast of St Catherine may she obtain the grace to be faithful and bear much fruit for God’s glory and the salvation of souls.
(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)
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