Episode Transcript  

One

Today is the feast of St. Catherine of Siena. She is a doctor of the Church which means what she has to teach us is universally beneficial.

Catherine was born on March 15th, 1347, in Siena, Italy. At 16, moved by a vision of St. Dominic, Catherine became a Third Order Dominican. As a lay person, she lived a life of prayer and penance while caring for the physical and spiritual needs of the people around her. 

Her main work was to give spiritual direction and counsel to people in all walks of life: nobles and politicians, ordinary people and artists, priests and religious, bishops and even Pope Gregory XI. They all called her “Mamma” because she cared for them all as her spiritual children. Her confessor, St. Raymond of Capua, wrote her biography. I also really like the biography of Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset because it weaves together Raymond’s work with Catherine’s own letters. 

You can find the spiritual teaching of Catherine in a work dictated to her by Christ called The Dialogue. In 1970, Pope Paul VI made her a doctor of the Church which means her teaching is something everyone needs to know. 

Catherine experienced her first vision of Christ at the age of six, dedicating herself to him immediately. Like Charles de Foucauld would later write, “As soon as I knew God was real, I had to live for Him alone.” 

Two

Exchange of Hearts

Once when in fervent prayer, Catherine said to the Lord, “Create in me a clean heart O God: Change my Cold – Stony Heart, full of Temptation; and lacking in Love. Jesus - Give me a new heart.”

Jesus then appeared to Catherine, He opened her left side, took her heart, and went away. This vision was so impactful that she truly felt that her heart had been removed, and she told this to her confessor, St. Raymond of Capua. Naturally, he explained it was impossible to live without a heart. She responded, “Nothing is impossible to God.”

Not long after, Jesus reappeared to Catherine, this time holding out to her His Sacred Heart in his hand. Like before, He opened her left side, and this time, placed his own heart inside, saying, “I took your heart that you offered to me. Now, you see, I am giving you mine, so that you can go on living with it forever.”

We should make every Mass an exchange of hearts. In the Mass, the priest invites us to “Lift up your heart,” and we respond, “We lift them up to the Lord.” Give your heart to Jesus when the bread and wine are placed on the altar. Then receive the heart of Jesus in Communion. 

Three

Humility 

Catherine of Siena lived by two virtues: humility and trust in Divine Providence. One day, Jesus said to Catherine, “Do you know who you are and who I am? If you know these two things, you will be blessed and the Enemy will never deceive you. I am He who is; and you are she who is not.”

Humility is living in the truth about who God is and who I am. I have gifts and limitations. Humility does not deny our worth, but begins by recognizing our dignity. We are made in God’s image, baptized into His life, and adopted as His children. God has given us real gifts, freedom, reason, grace, and the capacity to love. But we are not God. We are limited, dependent, and always in need of His help. We make mistakes. We cannot control everything or save ourselves.

In our pride, we forget this and we try to act like God, relying on ourselves, trying to control everyone and everything. But this always leads to fear, frustration, and self-destruction: anxiety, anger, envy, addiction, or endless distraction. The weight becomes too much, and we look for escape.

The only way out is humility: to remember what Jesus said to St. Catherine of Siena, “I am He who is, and you are she who is not.” Humility frees us from illusion and draws us into friendship with God and with others. It is not weakness, but strength. It teaches us to live in reality, with gratitude, trust, and love.

Four

Trust in Divine Providence

Jesus appeared to Catherine a second time, giving her the second principle to guide her life: Divine Providence. Jesus said to her, “Daughter, think of me; if you do, I will immediately think of you.” 

Discussing this with St. Raymond of Capua, she said the Lord commanded her to shut all other thoughts out of her mind and to retain only the thought of Him. And to prevent her from any worry or anxiety, He added, “I will think of you,” meaning, “Do not worry about your body or soul, for I who know and can do all things will think of it and look after you most carefully.” So, Raymond tells us, “Whenever I or any other of us was afraid of any danger Catherine would say, “What have you to do with yourselves? Leave it to Divine Providence. However much afraid you are, Providence still has its eyes on you and is always aiming at your salvation.’” 

Divine Providence is God’s eternal wisdom and love by which He directs all things toward the good of those who love Him.

To live by Providence means we think and act responsibly, doing the good we can, then entrusting the rest to God. Everything beyond our control is in His hands. Nothing happens unless God wills it or permits it. God never causes evil, but He permits it to respect our freedom and because He can bring a greater good from it. Even our sins, when repented of, can become part of His plan to sanctify us. Therefore, we have no reason to be afraid. God’s Providence is always at work, even in our failures, and is always ordering all things toward our salvation. And to those who were scandalized and rebelled against what happened to them that they didn’t like, Catherine said, “Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.”

Five

The Unlimited Cask of Wine 

In 14th-century Italy, the water was unsafe to drink. Instead, they drank a kind of weak wine. One year, there was a grape blight that caused a shortage of wine, and the poor were in real danger of dying of thirst. Catherine’s family was down to one barrel, which normally lasted two to three weeks. But Catherine made it known that anyone could come to their home and receive as much as they needed because she knew Jesus would provide.

Two weeks, three weeks, a month went by with the whole family drinking the wine from one last barrel, plus serving all the poor people of the district, yet the cask showed no signs of giving out. While no one could account for this, Catherine knew. So, she began to give out the wine more generously to everyone in need. But even then the cask showed no signs of drying up or the wine of losing its flavor. So a second month went by, and a third came, and still there was as much wine as ever.

Finally, the new grape harvest came and it was time to empty the cask so that it could be filled with new wine. Then a marvelous thing happened: the one last barrel from which the wine had been flowing abundantly the day before was opened, and it was found to be as dry as if it had not contained a drop of wine for months.

The barrel that would not run dry taught Catherine to place all her trust in Divine Providence, the main theme of her life.  

As Jesus would later say to St Faustyna, “My daughter, I assure you of a permanent income on which you will live. Your duty will be to trust completely in My goodness, and My duty will be to give you all you need. I am making Myself dependent upon your trust: if your trust is great, then My generosity will be without limit.” 548

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

• Make the Mass an exchange of hearts by offering your heart up to Christ, promising to trust His will and His providence, then spending ten minutes in thanksgiving after receiving Communion.

• Read the works of St. Catherine of Siena by picking up “The Dialogue”, "The Life of St. Catherine of Siena" by Raymond of Capua (her confessor), or “Catherine of Siena” by Sigrid Undset.

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