Catherine of Siena

Saint of the day: 29th April
At our Community pre-Compline Reading we are finding the book, "Catherine of Siena’s Way" by Mary Ann Fatula, as the best of contemplative listening at the end of the monastic day.

Catherine of Siena’s Way by Mary Ann Fatula 1987

The Blood of Jesus: Mercy for the Human Hear! Chap. 6.

Catherine’s Mystical Grace: Thirst for the Blood of Jesus Three years earlier, Catherine had witnessed what a death in and for the Lord could mean. In 1375, the same year in which she had received mystically the Lord's wounds, a Sienese youth, Niccolo di Tuldo, had been condemned to beheading for a political offense. Hearing of his bitterness and despair, Catherine went to strengthen and comfort the imprisoned young man; on the morning of the execution she accompanied him to Mass and assisted at his first Communion in a long time. The grace of this Eucharist so filled Niccolo with God's mercy that his rage turned inexplicably to contentment, and he began to long for the death that would unite him to his Lord. The youth begged Catherine to stay at his side during the execution. "So it shall not be otherwise than well with me. And I die content." (Letter T 273 (DT 31) to Raymond of Capua; Scudder, p. 112). As Catherine ministered to him, she sensed how fragrant an offering in the Church his death would be if he went to it bathed in forgiveness and peace. She encouraged him to go to his execution as to his wedding feast, covered with Jesus' blood. Catherine's words pierced the young man's heart. Fear and sadness gave way to an interior joy so deep that he called the place of justice a "holy place" and begged Catherine to await him there. As she did, her own desire to die for the Lord so deepened that she longed to take Niccolò's place. When he arrived, she gently blessed him, speaking to him of Jesus' blood; within moments, she received his severed head into her hands. Immediately afterwards, Catherine wrote to Raymond recounting this experience. At Niccolò's death, she seemed to see Jesus bathed in his own blood and the fire of infinite love. In turn, he drew to himself the young man's blood filled with his desire for Jesus. Fire met fire. As mercy alone had converted Niccolò, Jesus now led him to his open side, full of mercy. Catherine felt the sweetness of the Lord's desire to receive the youth into his heart; bathed in his own blood made powerful by Jesus' blood, Niccolò approached Jesus' open side. The youth then seemed to turn his face toward Catherine and to give a parting sign "sweet enough to draw a thousand hearts." Having tasted the sweetness of God, Niccolò did as the bride who, at the threshold of the spouse's home, turns her gaze toward the companions who have assisted her, and gives a gentle sign of love and gratitude. "And the hands of the Holy Spirit locked him within" the paradise of the Lord's heart. This vision filled Catherine with such peace that she could not bear to remove the youth's blood from her clothes, so fragrant an offering it seemed to her. "Ah me, ... 1 will say no more," she writes." I stayed on the earth with the greatest envy." (Ibid.; Scudder. p. 114). In the bitterness of Niccolò's death, Catherine experienced the power of Jesus' blood to transform both his own sin and that of his enemies. "Ask, and it will be given you" (Lk 11 :9); convinced that God remains true to his promise, she began to make her life a living intercession for a new outpouring of Jesus' blood upon the world. She realized that this blood is ours, that God has made it a bath for us and will not refuse it to anyone who asks. "Put into the scales the price of your Son's blood," she begs the Father; "it is this blood that your servants, hungry as they are, are asking for at this door. They are asking you through this blood to be merciful to the World." (ID 134, p. 276). Catherine began to steep herself in the mystery of God's mercy which longs to reach down to our lowliness and to help us in our need. "Oh very sweet love. How mercy is proper to you!" When the human race first sinned, God did not command the earth to swallow us up nor the beasts to devour us, but instead clothed us in mercy, indeed, lavished on us a mercy infinitely greater than the effects of our sin.'? The Father forbids us to expect less of him today: "Keep expanding your heart and your affection in the immeasurable greatness of my mercy." And Catherine in turn urges us: "Hide yourself under the wings of the mercy of God, for it is more inclined to pardon than you are to sin. Bathe yourself in the blood of Christ." (Let T 173 to a religious who left his order).