St. Catherine of Siena – Pray for Us.
“God is closer to us than water is to fish,” St. Catherine of Siena wrote more than 600 years ago. Celebrate her memorial on April 29.
She is honored as a Doctor of the Church for contributing and strengthening the Church through her prayers and spiritual writings. Her thoughts and teachings are captured in The Dialogue on Saint Catherine of Siena, which she simply called, “my book.” She left all of her writings in the hands of Blessed Raymond Capua, who published them in The Dialogue. He also wrote The Life of St. Catherine of Siena, a biography of her life based on their conversations.
From a young age she would have visions of saints, angels, and Jesus. Her first was when she was six. She was out with her little brother Stephen, when she abruptly stopped, because she became captivated by a vision of Jesus with St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John the Evangelist. She said Jesus smiled at her and blessed her. Capua wrote, “From this moment Catherine seemed to be no longer a child; her virtues her manners, and her thoughts were superior to her age, and would have done honor to men of mature years. The first of divine love inflamed her heart and enlightened her understanding; her will strengthened, her memory developed, and her every action became conformed to the rules of the Gospel.”
Blessed Capua said her words can come across as soft and gentle like a child, but also profound like a great prophet.
Let us remember how close God really is to us. As St. Catherine said, “He is with us. He is within us. When we cry, he showers love down on us. When we rejoice, he dances too. He created us to desire him. We are restless without him. He knows us better than we know us. He created us with purpose and intent. When we doubt, when we fear, when we do not know what to do, we can call to him, and he will remind us that he never left. A fish pulls oxygen out of water to breathe. God is closer. God is our breath. He sustains us.”
