April 29
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Short bio vid + Beautiful Divine office 2nd reading
St. Catherine (1347-1380) was a responsible instrument for the return of Pope Gregory XI from Avignon to Rome. In deed and in truth, she showed her love for God’s Church and the Roman Pontiff. With her short life she gave us a lesson of courage: the courage of telling the truth for love of the Church and of souls. Imprinted with the sacred stigmata, she died in Rome at thirty-three years of age. She was proclaimed patroness of Italy on 18 June 1939. In 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed her Doctor of the Church.
+++SECOND READING BEGINS HERE++
Second Reading
From the dialogue On Divine Providence by Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor
I tasted and I saw
Eternal God, eternal Trinity, you have made the blood of Christ so precious through his sharing in your divine nature. You are a mystery as deep as the sea; the more I search, the more I find, and the more I find the more I search for you. But I can never be satisfied; what I receive will ever leave me desiring more. When you fill my soul I have an even greater hunger, and I grow more famished for your light. I desire above all to see you, the true light, as you really are.
I have tasted and seen the depth of your mystery and the beauty of your creation with the light of my understanding. I have clothed myself with your likeness and have seen what I shall be. Eternal Father, you have given me a share in your power and the wisdom that Christ claims as his own, and your Holy Spirit has given me the desire to love you. You are my Creator, eternal Trinity, and I am your creature. You have made of me a new creation in the blood of your Son, and I know that you are moved with love at the beauty of your creation, for you have enlightened me.
Eternal Trinity, Godhead, mystery deep as the sea, you could give me no greater gift than the gift of yourself. For you are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being. Yes, you are a fire that takes away the coldness, illuminates the mind with its light and causes me to know your truth. By this light, reflected as it were in a mirror, I recognise that you are the highest good, one we can neither comprehend nor fathom. And I know that you are beauty and wisdom itself. The food of angels, you gave yourself to man in the fire of your love.
You are the garment which covers our nakedness, and in our hunger you are a satisfying food, for you are sweetness and in you there is no taste of bitterness, O triune God!
Responsory
℟. Now that you are endowed with the gift of my Spirit, cleansed from all stain by the outpouring of my blood,* leave the quiet of contemplation and resolutely take up the work of witnessing to my truth, alleluia.
℣. Open your heart to me, my sister, co-heir with me of my kingdom; my beloved, who have understood Truth’s hidden mysteries;* leave the quiet of contemplation and resolutely take up the work of witnessing to my truth, alleluia.
Let us pray.
O God, who set Saint Catherine of Siena on fire with divine love in her contemplation of the Lord’s Passion and her service of your Church, grant, through her intercession, that your people, participating in the mystery of Christ, may exult forever in the revelation of his glory. Who lives and reigns with you.
ORIGINAL PHOTO SOURCES: https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/3ee14-santacatalinadesiena-morandis-xvii.jpg http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_373035/Sevillian-School/The-Death-Of-Saint-Catherine-Of-Siena https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/bbd72-el2bmatrimonio2bm25c325adstico2bde2bsanta2bcatalina.jpg http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_379709/(after)-Juan-De-Valdes-Leal/The-Vision-Of-Saint-Catherine-Of-Siena https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTE1ODA0OTcxNTgyNzg1MDM3/st-catherine-of-siena-9241691-1-402.jpg http://herenciacristiana.com/heroinas/siena5big.jpg
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POPE FRANCIS ON THE 5TH SUNDAY OF LENT A 
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