Today the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Catherine of Siena, a Third Order Dominican and a Doctor of the Church. In response to a vision she received in 1370, she left her secluded life and became engaged in public life in the world. She wrote letters to many major public figures and carried on a long correspondence with Pope Gregory XI, in which she urged him to reform the clergy and the administration of the Papal States. As an ambassador, she was an instrument in bringing peace and harmony between cities. She also fought hard to defend the liberty and rights of the Popes and did much for the renewal of religious life. While doing all of this, she dictated books that have been lauded as full of sound doctrine and spiritual inspiration. She died on 29 April 1380.
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Quotes attributed to Saint Catherine of Siena:
"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."
"To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his left and right hand. He uses both."
"No one should judge that he has greater perfection because he performs great penances and gives himself in excess to the staying of the body than he who does less, inasmuch as neither virtue nor merit consists therein; for otherwise he would be an evil case, who for some legitimate reason was unable to do actual penance. Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored with the light of true discretion without which the soul is worth nothing."
Saint Francis de Sales also referred to St. Catherine: "So long as we tackle all our troubles ourselves, we shall be always worried and tired, and Our Lord will leave us to our own devices; but when we leave everything to Him, He will look after all our troubles Himself. The interest that God will have for us will be in proportion to the degree that we abandon ourselves to Him. I am not just speaking of temporal things, but also of spiritual ones. The Lord Himself taught this same truth to His beloved Saint Catherine of Siena: 'Always think about me, my daughter, and I will think about you.' Oh, how happy are those loving souls who know how to observe this rule, thinking only about the Lord, faithfully keeping themselves in His presence, listening to what He has to say to their hearts, obeying His divine inspiration and attractions, and not living or aspiring for anything but to please Him."
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