Today is the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, mystic and Doctor of the Church, Patron Saint of Europe. At 16 she became a Dominican tertiary. She never learned to write and she had no formal education, dictating her letters and other writings to secretaries. The best known of her writings is The Dialogue, a series of theological treatises on doctrine written with a combination of logical precision and heart-felt emotion.
Here's one poem-prayer of St. Catherine which we love to sing in our community:
Eternal Trinity,
Godhead,
mystery deep as the sea,
you could give me no greater gift
than the gift of yourself.
For you are a fire
which itself consumes
all the selfish love
that fills my being.
Yes, you are a fire that takes away the coldness,
illuminates the mind with its light,
and causes me to know your
truth.
And I know that
you are beauty and wisdom itself.
The food of angels,
you gave yourself to man
in the fire of your
love.
