Greetings dear friends of Jesus and of His Saints. Have a Blessed Feast Day of Saint Catherine of Genoa MYSTIC, WIFE, AND HOSPITAL DIRECTOR Feast: September 15 Information: Feast Day: September 15 Born: 1447, Genoa, Italy Died: 15 September 1510, Genoa, Italy Canonized: 1737 by Pope Clement XII Before we begin, I would like to share with you, what my Parish Priest said today about suffering, ( As I see This Holy Stigmatist in Saint Catherine of Genoa ). He said, Today is the Feast Day of our Lady of Dolors ( of Sorrows ). Many people thing that Catholic Christians like to suffer. That we need to suffer, in order to go to Heaven. But that is far from truth. If God Permits suffering in our lives, it must be don out of pure Love for Him, Who is Goodness Itself and for the Love we have for Him and for others. Just like Jesus had, when He went to the Cross to Die for our Salvation. He Did it, for the Love that He has for us. Not because He Wanted for Suffer, but because of Love, sometimes one suffers. But we must offer our sufferings with Love up to God. Just like Saint Catherine of Genoa and All of Gods Saints Did here on earth. As Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say, Love Truly. Love until it hurts. Which basically means that love without sacrifice is not true love. Sacrifice with love, is obedience and humility for the Love to Gain Souls for Heaven, for God, Amen :-) Born at Genoa in 1447, died at the same place 15 September, 1510. The life of St. Catherine of Genoa may be more properly described as a state than as a life in the ordinary sense. When about twenty-six years old she became the subject of one of the most extraordinary operations of God in the human soul of which we have record, the result being a marvellous inward condition that lasted till her death. In this state, she received wonderful revelations, of which she spoke at times to those around her, but which are mainly embodied in her two celebrated works: the Dialogues of theSoul and Body, and the Treatise on Purgatory. Her modern biographies, chiefly translations or adaptations of an old Italian one which is itself founded on Memoirs drawn up by the saints own confessor and a friend, mingle what facts they give of her outward life with accounts of her supernatural state and doctrine, regardless of sequence, and in an almost casual fashion that makes them entirely subservient to her psychological history. These facts are as follows: St. Catherines parents were Jacopo Fieschi and Francesca di Negro, both of illustrious Italian birth. Two popes -- Innocent IV and Adrian V -- had been of the Fieschi family, and Jacopo himself became Viceroy of Naples. Catherine is described as an extraordinarily holy child, highly gifted in the way of prayer, and with a wonderful love of Christs Passion and of penitential practices; but, also, as having been a most quiet, simple, and exceedingly obedient girl. When about thirteen, she wished to enter the convent, but the nuns to whom her confessor applied having refused her on account of her youth, she appears to have put the idea aside without any further attempt. At sixteen, she was married by her parents wish to a young Genoese nobleman, Giuliano Adorno. The marriage turned out wretchedly; Giuliano proved faithless, violent-tempered, and a spendthrift. And made the life of his wife a misery. Details are scanty, but it seems at least clear that Catherine spent the first five years of her marriage in silent, melancholy submission to her husband; and that she then, for another five, turned a little to the world for consolation in her troubles. The distractions she took were most innocent; nevertheless, destined as she was for an extraordinary life, they had the effect in her case of producing lukewarmness, the end of which was such intense weariness and depression that she prayed earnestly for a return of her old fervour. Then, just ten years after her marriage, came the event of her life, in answer to her prayer. She went one day, full of melancholy, to a convent in Genoa where she had a sister, a nun. The latter advised her to go to confession to the nuns confessor, and Catherine agreed. No sooner, however, had she knelt down in the confessional than a ray of Divine light pierced her soul, and in one moment manifested her own sinfulness and the Love of God with equal clearness. The revelation was so overwhelming that she lost consciousness and fell into a kind of ecstacy, for a space during which the confessor happened to be called away. When he returned, Catherine could only murmur that she would put off her confession, and go home quickly. From the moment of that sudden vision of herself and God, the saints interior state seems never to have changed, save by varying in intensity and being accompanied by more or less severe penance, according to what she saw required of her by the Holy Spirit Who guided her incessantly. No one could describe it except herself; but she does so, minutely, in her writings, from which may here be made one short extract: -- [The souls in Purgatory] see all things, not in themselves, nor by themselves, but as they are in God, on whom they are more intent than on their own sufferings. . . . For the least vision they have of God overbalances all woes and all joys that can be conceived. Yet their joy in God does by no means abate their pain. . . . This process of purification to which I see the souls in Purgatory subjected, I feel within myself. (Treatise on Purgatory, xvi, xvii.) For about twenty-five years, Catherine, though frequently making confessions, was unable to open her mind for direction to anyone; but towards the end of her life a Father Marabotti was appointed to be her spiritual guide. To him she explained her states, past and present, in full, and he compiled the Memoirs above referred to from his intimate personal knowledge of her. Of the saints outward life, after this great change, her biographies practically tell us but two facts: that she at last converted her husband who died penitent in 1497; and that both before and after his death -- though more entirely after it -- she gave herself to the care of the sick in the greatHospital of Genoa, where she eventually became manager and treasurer. She died worn out with labours of body and soul, and consumed, even physically, by the fires of Divine love within her. She was beatified in 1675 by Clement X, but not canonized till 1737, by Clement XII. Meantime, her writings had been examined by the Holy Office and pronounced to contain doctrine that would be enough, in itself, to prove her sanctity. (Taken from Catholic Encyclopedia) Read more: ewtn/saintsholy/saints/C/stcatherineofgenoa.asp#ixzz3DRLSUJxP Dear Saint Catherine of Genoa, Bless and Pray with us for World Peace and for our Holy Father Pope Francis and for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and for our personal prayer intentions, Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 02:35:49 +0000
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