Letters of Catherine BenincasaCatherine, of Siena, Saint
Religion
Letters of Catherine Benincasa
Catherine, of Siena, Saint
Catherine, of Siena, Saint, 1347-1380 -- Correspondence; Christian women saints -- Italy -- Siena -- Correspondence
the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live. If the man abode
in fear alone, it would not suffice to give him life, nor would he attain
to the perfect favour of his Lord; but he would be a mercenary servant.
Nor ought he to remain only in the love of the fruit and the consolation
which he might receive from his Lord, after he has been made a friend; for
this kind of love would not be strong, but would fail when it was deprived
of sweetness or consolation and joy of mind, or else when some contrary
wind struck it, of persecution or temptation from the devil; then at once
it would fail under temptations of the devil or vexations of the flesh. So
it would fall into confusion through being deprived of mental consolation;
and in the persecutions and insults wrought against it by fellow-
creatures, it would fall into impatience.
So you see, that this kind of love is not strong. Nay, he who loves with
this love does as St. Peter, who before the Passion loved Christ tenderly;
but he was not strong, therefore he failed in the time of the Cross: but
then, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, he separated him from the love
of sweetness, and lost fear, and reached a love strong, and tried in the
fire of many tribulations. Thence, having reached the love of a son, he
bore all such with true patience--nay, ran under them in great gladness,
as he had been going to a marriage feast and not to torment. This was
because he had been made a son. But had Peter remained absorbed in the
sweetness and the fear which he felt in the Passion and after the Passion
of Christ, he would not have reached such perfection as to be a son and
champion of Holy Church, a lover and seeker of souls. But note the way
that Peter took, and the other disciples, to gain power to lose their
servile fear and love of consolations, and to receive the Holy Spirit, as
had been promised them by the Sweet Primal Truth. Therefore says the
Scripture that they shut them in the house, and stayed there in vigil and
continual prayers; they stayed ten days, and then came the Holy Spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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