Catherine Of Siena Quotes

Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.

Proclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear.

Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.

All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, "I am the way.

If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire!

We've had enough exhortations to be silent. Cry out with a thousand tongues - I see the world is rotten because of silence.

Every step of the way to heaven is heaven.

Speak the truth in a million voices. It is silence that kills.

You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love.” Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

the soul always fears until she arrives at true love.

The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.

Love follows knowledge.

The love of Christ embraces all without exception. Fire of love, crazy over what You have made. Oh, divine Madman. (Prayer of Catherine Siena) Simply do the next thing in love. I have no sense of myself apart from you. Quia amasti me, fecisti me amabilem. (In loving me, you made me lovable.)

Turn over the rudder in God's name, and sail with the wind heaven sends us.

These tiny ants have proceeded from His thought just as much as I, it caused Him just as much trouble to create the angels as these animals and the flowers on the trees.

Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.

It is surely justice to share our natural gifts with those who share our nature.

If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire.

Otherwise you fall into contempt of your neighbor, if you judge his evil will towards you, instead of My will acting in him.

You know that every evil is founded in self-love, and that self-love is a cloud that takes away the light of reason, which reason holds in itself the light of faith, and one is not lost without the other.

I had not been able to show, by finite things, because My love was infinite, how much more love I had, I wished you to see the secret of the Heart,

Be glad. Celebrate! Lose your mindless fear, and take courage today. No, don’t ever be afraid, no matter what’s happened to you before. That’s right, don’t be afraid, no matter what you may see coming. Take courage because Christ was crucified for you.”2 Catherine of Siena, Letters

Take my heart and squeeze it out over the face of Your Bride, the Church.

Be strong and kill yourself with the sword of hate and love, then you will not hear the insults and abuse which the enemies of the Church throw at you. Your eyes will not see anything which seems impossible, or the sufferings which may follow, but only the light of faith, and in that light everything is possible; and remember God never lays greater burdens on us than we can bear.

Oh, let us lose our milk teeth and cut instead the strong teeth of hate and love.

The sign that you have this virtue is patience, and impatience the sign that you have it not, and you will find that this is indeed so, when I speak to you further concerning this virtue.

So you see that the eye of the intellect has received supernatural light, infused by grace, by which the doctors and saints knew light in darkness, and of darkness made light.

She [Catherine of Siena] compares Christ, too, with a knight who has ridden out to fight for us; for our sake He came down from Heaven to fight and triumph over the devil. The crown of thorns is His helmet, his flayed flesh His mail, the nails in His Hands and Feet, His gauntlet and spurs. So we should follow our Knight and take new courage in our trials and difficulties.

say, you are all obliged to help one another by word and doctrine, and the example of good works, and in every other respect in which your neighbor may be seen to be in need; counseling him exactly as you would yourselves,

We are all bound to work in the vineyard where God is the husbandman. We have all been given our little vineyard, but the way in which we cultivate it is of great importance for the prosperity of our neighbour's vineyard... In fact all our vineyards are a part of the Lord's great vineyard, the Holy Church, and we are all bound to work here too.

knoweth things as they are and not as they are said or seem to be, he truly is wise, and is taught of God more than of men. He who knoweth

Catherine [of Siena] compares justice combined with mercy with a precious pearl. Justice without mercy would be dark, cruel, more like injustice than justice. But mercy without justice would be like salve on a sore which should be cleansed with the red-hot iron; if the salve is applied before the wound is cleansed it only makes it smart, and does not heal it

believe no happiness can be found worthy to be compared with that of a soul in Purgatory except that of the saints in Paradise. And day by day this happiness grows as God flows into these souls, more and more as the hindrance to His entrance is consumed. Sin's rust is the hindrance, and the fire burns the rust away so that more and more the soul opens itself up to the divine inflowing.

Catherine [of Siena] sent the Pope five oranges which she had candied and covered with gold leaf... She develops the theme of the difference between the bitter and the sweet pain, and gives the Pope a recipe for making candied oranges.

She [Catherine of Siena] found a place of refuge in a lonely wood, where some hermits lived. It is generally thought that this brotherhood was the community of hermits in Vallombrosa, founded by St. John Gualbert, the man who had spared the life of his deadly enemy because it was Good Friday, and later rushed into the nearest church and fell before the feet of the crucified Christ, as though drunk with this adventure - the adventure of forgiveness. And the Saviour leaned down from the cross and kissed the boy.

If you are what you should be, you will set the world a blaze.

Love follows knowledge.

Penance should be but the means to increase virtue according to the needs of the individual, and according to what the soul sees she can do in the measure of her own possibility.

Our Lord hates above all things three abominable sins: covetousness, unchastity and pride.

Suffering and sorrow increase in proportion to love: When love grows, so does sorrow.

Sin is loving what God hates, and hating what God loves. Saint Catherine of Siena.

It seems to her [Saint Catherine of Siena] that the devil has this world in his power, not by his own will, for he is powerless, but through our help because we obey him. The evil aroma rising from the ... wars which are waged by Christians against Christians, are the same as war against God. ... Peace, peace, for the sake of the love of the crucified Christ, and not war; that is the only solution.

I also wish you to look at the Bridge of My only-begotten Son, and see the greatness thereof, for it reaches from Heaven to earth, that is, that the earth of your humanity is joined to the greatness of the Deity thereby.

The Devil, dearest daughter, is the instrument of My Justice to torment the souls who have miserably offended Me. And I have set him in this life to tempt and molest My creatures, not for My creatures to be conquered, but that they may conquer, proving their virtue, and receive from Me the glory of victory. And no one should fear any battle or temptation of the Devil that may come to him, because I have made My creatures strong, and have given them strength of will, fortified in the Blood of my Son, which will, neither Devil nor creature can move, because it is yours, given by Me.

See then how He returns, not in actual flesh and blood, but, as I have said, building the road of His doctrine, with His power, which road cannot be destroyed or taken away from him who wishes to follow it, because it is firm and stable, and proceeds from Me, who am immovable.

Oh, Most Holy Father, this is the sword which I beg you to take into your hand. Now is the time to draw it from its sheath, and to hate vice in yourself, in your children, and in the Holy Church. I say 'yourself', because in this life none dare say that he is free from sin, and love should begin with oneself.

humility proceeds from self-knowledge.

There is no sin nor wrong that gives man such a foretaste of Hell in this life as anger and impatience.

Remain with Him in thy chamber, for thou shalt not elsewhere find so great peace.

Everything comes from love. All is ordained for the salvation of man. God does nothing without this goal in mind.

Virginity empowered them. Women became nuns and took religious vows, and some, like Catherine of Siena and Hildegard of Bingen, found their voices rang with the authority of men.7 Indeed, the further removed medieval women were from the married state, the closer they were to God. After the Reformation, the opposite became true for Protestant women. The more closely they identified with being wives and mothers, the godlier they became.

It was too much for weak men, of more or less good will, who knew in their hearts that the Pope was right ad that they ought to cooperate with him, when the Pope demanded, with harsh and angry words, that they should immediately change their way of life and give up all small comforts they had grown accustomed to, in order to live in a state of self-denial suitable for the strictest ascetic. They were agreed that it was time for a reform within the Church. But if this were reform... And the language he used when he broke into a rage! "Shut up!" he said to the cardinals. He shouted "Pazzo!" -Idiot- to Cardinal Orsini, and "Ribaldo!" -Bandit- to the Cardinal of Geneva. His electors began to regret their choice bitterly.

Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own sins, which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the other way, through her sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit against Me.

St. Catherine of Genoa's life combined the noblest forms of Christian service with the highest levels of contemplative prayer. May her life and her doctrine help us, too, to live out our Christian discipleship, inspired by the love of God she taught and exemplified.

There are many whose salvation depends on you. The life you have led up to now will be altered: for the sake of the salvation of souls you will be required to leave your native town, but I shall always be with you—I shall lead you away, and I will lead you back again. You shall proclaim the honour of My name to rich and poor, to clerks and laymen, for I shall give you words and wisdom which no one can resist. I shall send you to the popes and the leaders of My Church and to all Christians, for I choose to put the pride of the mighty to shame by the use of fragile tools.

A woman has never been able to become a priest—she cannot even be a deacon, nor yet a chorister—but a woman can with the authority of the spirit reprove a priest who falls short of the dignity of his office, even if his office be that of the Vicar of Christ on earth. A widow from an outpost of the Europe of her day—St. Bridget of Sweden—or dyer’s daughter from Siena, St. Catherine—they bow humbly before the dignity with which the man is invested, while at the same time speaking their minds mercilessly and unafraid to the human side of him who has proved himself unworthy of his vicarship; and they do this by virtue of the spiritual authority they possess as favored souls and as courageous souls.

Then the soul will inflame herself in this knowledge of Me with an ineffable love, through which love she continues in constant pain; not, however, a pain which afflicts or dries up the soul, but one which rather fattens her; for since she has known My truth, and her own faults, and the ingratitude of men, she endures intolerable suffering, grieving because she loves Me; for, if she did not love Me, she would not be obliged to do so; whence it follows immediately, that it is right for you, and My other servants who have learned My truth in this way, to sustain, even unto death, many tribulations and injuries and insults in word and deed, for the glory and praise of My Name; thus will you endure and suffer pains.

Also in America, the Redemptorist priest and founder of the Paulist order, Fr. Isaac Hecker, was a great admirer of St. Catherine, seeing in her the perfect foil to those who claimed that Catholicism promotes a mechanical piety or fosters a sanctity unconcerned with the real needs of suffering humanity in society. To the latter charge he replied forcefully: "Read the life of St. Catherine, and in imagination fancy her in the city hospital of Genoa, charged not only with the supervision and responsibility of its finances, but also overseeing the care of its sick inmates, taking an active, personal part in its duties as one of its nurses, and conducting the whole establishment with strict economy, perfect order, and the tenderest care and love!

I call the soul ‘heaven’ because I make heaven wherever I dwell by grace. I made the soul my hiding place and by my love turned her into a mansion.” (Catherine of Siena, 1980, p. 75)

Some of the most outstanding spiritual directors in Christian history - like Catherine of Siena and Ignatius of Loyola - either never had an office or orders, or did much of their work of direction before they held such an office. Generally speaking, effective spiritual directors are discovered by the Christian community; they do not put themselves forward without first having others seek their help. Because priests and ministers stand out publicly in the churches as spiritual leaders, most often it is they who have been sought out as spiritual directors. But ordination is not necessary (nor, as we shall see, sufficient) for effective spiritual direction.

When we are who we are called to be, we will set the world ablaze.

The things done, the victories gained over circumstances by St. Bernard or St. Joan of Arc, by St. Catherine of Siena, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Teresa, George Fox, are hardly to be explained unless these great spirits had indeed a closer, more intimate, more bracing contact than their fellows with that Life "which is the light of men.

The popes detested one another, and made no efforts in hiding their disdain for the other. Following Antipope Clement's coronation, the popes excommunicated each other with no hesitation. On one end, Clement branded Urban as the “Antichrist.” St. Catherine of Siena made light of the French cardinals' hypocrisy, naming them “devils in human form.” Pope

Quien ofende a Dios, se daña a sí mismo y daña al prójimo Quiero hacerte saber cómo toda virtud y todo defecto repercuten en el prójimo. Quien vive en odio y enemistad conmigo, no sólo se daña a sí mismo, sino que daña a su prójimo. Le causa daño porque estáis obligados a amar al prójimo como a vosotros mismos, ya sea ayudándole espiritualmente con la oración, aconsejándole de palabra o socorriéndole espiritual y materialmente, según sea su necesidad. Quien no me ama a mí, no ama al prójimo; al no amarlo, no lo socorre. Se daña a sí mismo, privándose de la gracia, y causa daño al prójimo, porque toda ayuda que le ofrezca no puede provenir más que del afecto que le tiene por amor a mí. No hay pecado que no alcance al prójimo. Al no amarme a mí, tampoco lo quiere a él.

Be who God wants you to be and you will set the word on FIRE!

Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire,” said Saint Catherine of Siena.

Remember the wise words of Saint Catherine of Siena: “If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire!

What has just been said of the followers of different faiths is even more patent in their mystics. Despite the abrogation of their religions, we do not doubt the possibility of mystics of other faiths reaching a higher spiritual plane, for when the lower soul is negated and sublimated by spiritual disciplines, the powers of the higher soul seldom fail to appear, and it is not impossible that in such a condition it might behold Ultimate Reality, which is, after all, as real and objective as Detroit or anything else in the physical world. But what a difference between the few hundred Jewish, Christian, or even American Indian mystics of the Western tradition who left any record of their experiences-men and women such as Catherine of Siena, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Francis of Assisi, Moses Cordovero, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John Tauler, Henry Suso, Jakob Böhme, Handsome Lake, Isaac Luria, Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross-and the literally thousands of Sufi masters of the Islamic tradition who founded the great mystical orders, had immense influence for centuries at all levels of society, produced an unparalleled and monumental body of mystic literature in poetry and prose, and left countless adepts in the beatitude of the Divine Presence, a living tradition that continues to this day. What other religion has ever seen a Mathnawi like Rumi’s? There is a tremendous difference between a few outstanding spiritual personalities that appeared at times and places in the West, like occasional watering places scattered across a hinterland, and the throngs of mystics of the Islamic milieu, on a sea of the Divine whose tides flooded regularly. Not only in the numbers of contemplatives, but in the abidingness of their personal experiences, there is a great difference between the mystics of Islam, who proceeded from the light of true monotheism to a state of perpetual illumination, men such as Sahl al-Tustari, al-Ghawth Abu Madyan, Shams al-Tabrizi, Ibn ‘Arabi, Abul Hasan al-Shadhili, and others whose testimony is unambiguous, and those of other faiths, who through self-mortification caught momentary glimpses of the Godhead in “experiences” they then translated to others in spiritual depositions.

Silence is not emptiness but that general attitude of inwardness that enables us to have an “inner cell” in our heart, to use an expression of St. Catherine of Siena’s, where we are in God’s presence and converse with him.

In assigning Palmer to the margins of official Methodist history and denying the mysticism that gave birth to her powerful ministry and theology, Methodist theologians and historians have missed one of the greatest gifts the Methodist tradition has to offer the church universal. To put it another way, dismissing Palmer from the “important” and “real” history and theology of Methodism, is something like dismissing Catherine of Siena or Hildegard von Bingen from the “real” story of Catholicism. It is time for Phoebe Palmer to be restored to her rightful place as one of the great saints and mystics in the history of the church.

While she was generally resistant to emotionalism and sentimental religious flatulence,101 Palmer both experienced and attempted to describe many unitive moments and visions of intense spiritual ecstasy. In doing so she used language that is the native tongue of many Catholic mystics. Images of mystical marriage to Christ, being lost in oceanic love, being filled with the fire of the Spirit, becoming one with the will of God—this is the language of John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Phoebe Palmer.

Prayer is a pasturage, a field, wherein all the virtues find their nourishment, growth, and strength.—ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.

All the way to Heaven is Heaven”, said Saint Catherine of Siena. We

St. Catherine of Siena once said, ‘If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze.’ But,” I turned to him urgently, “how can I even light a single candle if someone blocks off the first step?

that the endurance of suffering alone, without desire, was not sufficient to punish a fault.

St. Catherine of Siena teaches: “Start being brave about everything. Drive out the darkness and spread light. Don’t look at your weaknesses. Realize instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything.”20

has three steps, of which two were made with the wood of the most Holy Cross, and the third still retains the great bitterness He tasted, when He was given gall and vinegar to drink. In these three steps you will recognize three states of the soul, which I will explain to thee below. The feet of the soul, signifying her affection, are the first step, for the feet carry the body as the affection carries the soul. Wherefore these pierced Feet are steps by which thou canst arrive at His Side, which manifests to thee the secret of His Heart, because the soul, rising on the steps of her affection, commences to taste the love of His Heart, gazing into that open Heart of My Son, with the eye of the intellect, and finds It consumed with ineffable love. I say consumed, because He does not love you for His own profit, because you can be of no profit to Him, He being one and the same substance with Me. Then the soul is filled with love, seeing herself so much loved. Having passed the second step, the soul reaches out to the third—that is—to the Mouth, where she finds peace from the terrible war she has been waging with her sin. On the first step, then, lifting her feet from the affections of the earth, the soul strips herself of vice; on the second she fills herself with love and virtue; and on the third she tastes peace.

O eternal Mercy, You cover Your creatures’ faults! . . . You say to those who leave deadly sin behind and return to You: “I will not remember that you had ever offended me.” O unspeakable mercy! . . . You say of those who persecute You: “I want you to pray for them so that I can be merciful to them.” . . . Your mercy is life-giving. It is the light in which both the upright and sinners discover Your goodness. . . . In mercy You cleansed us in the blood; in mercy You kept company with Your creatures. —ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (1347–1380)

When we are who we are called to be, we will set the world ablaze. —St. Catherine of Siena

The self-starvation cycle has been documented across time and cultures, including non-Western ones. In modern Western societies, concerns with fat and thinness are the main reason for weight loss and probably explain the moderate rise of Anorexia Nervosa incidence across the second half of the 20th century. However, cases of self-starvation with spiritual and religious motivations have been common in Europe at least since the Middle Ages (and include several Catholic saints, most famously St. Catherine of Siena). In some Asian cultures, digestive discomfort is often cited as the initial reason for restricting food intake, but the resulting syndrome has essentially the same symptoms as anorexia in Western countries.

She writes: “It sometimes happens that our understanding sees nothing but darkness,” and “our memory is busy with empty and passing things.” 16 The one “gate,” therefore, “wholly under our control,” the one that we possess “in total freedom,” is our will.17 “This gate,” Catherine notes further, “has freedom of choice as its guard.… And if this gate remains unopened, that is, if we don’t consent to what our memory and understanding and the other gates are sensing, our city is forever free.” 18 The disciple with whom Catherine

Depart unclean spirit; put on shame, miserable one; horribly unclean art thou, who bringest such things to mine ears. Depart from me, detestable deceiver; thou shalt have no part in me; but Jesus shall be with me, as a strong warrior, and thou shalt stand confounded. Rather would I die and bear all suffering, than consent unto thee. Hold thy peace and be dumb; I will not hear thee more, though thou plottest more snares against me. The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom then shall I fear? Though a host of men should rise up against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid. The Lord is my strength and my Redeemer.' (Psalms xxvii. 1-3; xix. 14). 8.

than it is not to exceed in word.

St Catherine of Siena spent three years in seclusion in her little room in the Via Benincasa during which she underwent a series of mystical experiences before entering upon an active life of teaching and preaching.

For I will only your well-being, and whatever I give, I give it so that you may reach the goal for which I created you. — Our Lord to St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue It is easy to see God’s hand in the good things of our lives, but it is often a struggle to see it in the difficult. How do these words of Our Lord to St. Catherine of Siena give me deeper insight? In what way does this help me to reexamine past events or a current situation?

We must bear in mind that renewal of the Church has often come through the laity. Who are the three great patron saints of Europe? St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi and St Catherine of Siena.

Do not be satisfied with little things, because God wants great things!

The truth will set you free from falsehood. It will dissolve all shadows, giving you light and knowledge in God’s mercy. In this truth, you will be freed. — St. Catherine of Siena Hegel