"Since I began to love, love has never forsaken me. It has ever grown to its own fullness within my innermost heart."
Our catechesis today deals with Saint Catherine of
Genoa, a fifteenth-century saint best known for her vision of purgatory.
Married at an early age, some ten years later Catherine had a powerful
experience of conversion; Jesus, carrying his cross, appeared to her, revealing
both her own sinfulness and God's immense love. A woman of great humility, she
combined constant prayer and mystical union with a life of charitable service
to those in need, above all in her work as the director of the largest hospital
in Genoa. Catherine's writings on purgatory contain no specific revelations,
but convey her understanding of purgatory as an interior fire purifying the
soul in preparation for full communion with God. Conscious of God's infinite
love and justice, the soul is pained by its inadequate response, even as the
divine love purifies it from the remnants of sin. To describe this purifying
power of God's love, Catherine uses the image of a golden chain which draws the
soul to abandon itself to the divine will. By her life and teaching, Saint
Catherine of Genoa reminds us of the importance of prayer for the faithful
departed, and invites us to devote ourselves more fully to prayer and to works
of practical charity.
summary of Wednesday Catechesis on Saint Catherine of Genoa
Vatican City State, 12 January 2011
