"Three in a row!"

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Yesterday’s Feast of St. Catherine of Siena made it “three in a row” of saints who inspire us to love God and His Holy Church, of whom Mary is the icon. St. De Montfort (author of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary) and St. Gianna Molla whose feasts we celebrated on Apr. 28 were connected in my mind to the theme of Motherhood. See HERE

In St. Catherine of Siena, whose Feast day was Apr. 29, we see the beauty of both virginity and spiritual motherhood bearing fruit, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in her great love for the Church. Her letter to Pope Gregory entreating him to return from France to Rome shows the ardor of her heart:

Letter to Gregory XI

In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary: Most holy and most reverend my father in Christ Jesus: I Catherine your poor unworthy daughter, servant and slave of the servants of Christ, write to you in His precious blood; with desire to see you a good shepherd. For I reflect, sweet my father, that the wolf is carrying away your sheep, and there is no one found to succor them. So I hasten to you, our father and our shepherd, begging you on behalf of Christ crucified to learn from Him, who with such fire of love gave Himself to the shameful death of the most holy cross, how to rescue that lost sheep, the human race, from the hands of the demons; because through man’s rebellion against God they were holding him for their own possession.

Then comes the Infinite Goodness of God, and sees the evil state and the loss and the ruin of these sheep, and sees that they cannot be won back to Him by wrath or war. So, notwithstanding they have wronged Him-for man deserves an infinite penalty for his disobedient rebellion against God-the Highest and Eternal Wisdom will not do this, but finds an attractive way, the gentlest and most loving possible to find. For it sees that the heart of man is in no way so drawn as by love, because he was created by love. This seems to be the reason why he loves so much: he was created by nothing but love, both his soul and his body. For by love God created him in His Image and Likeness, and by love his father and mother gave him substance, conceiving and bearing a son…

Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us. May we, like you and your daughter St. Catherine, ardently love the Church which is the Body of Your Son. Help us, dear Mother, to pray with you for one another and especially for the Pope as he shepherds God’s flock in these very difficult days.

St. Pope Pius VI whose Feast we celebrate today, pray for us.
St. Catherine and all Holy Saints of God, pray for us.