The Well
In a letter to Frate Tommaseo dalla Fonte, Catherine likens the inner core of the self to a well of deep, clear water. In order for us to attain to that depth-that wondrous source-we must first of all confront and acknowledge the earth, the muddied soil of our human misery. Catherine writes: As we discover the earth we get to the living water, the very core of the knowledge of God’s true and gentle will which desires nothing else but that we be made holy. So let us enter into the depths of this well. For if we dwell there, we will necessarily come to know both ourselves and God’s goodness. In recognizing that we are nothing we humble ourselves. And in humbling ourselves we enter that flaming, consumed heart, opened up like a window without shutters, never to be closed.
The Full Circle
In the Dialogue, God the Father says to Catherine: “This knowledge of yourself, and of me within yourself, is grounded in the soil of true humility.” It is a union, he explains, that forms a “circle” that should never be broken: Imagine a circle traced on the ground and, at the center of the circle, a tree with an off-shoot grafted into its side. The tree finds its nourishment in the earth within the expanse of the circle. But, were it ever uprooted from the earth, it would die, yielding no fruit…. It is necessary, therefore, that the root of this tree, that is the affection of the soul, should grow in and issue from the circle of true self-knowledge, knowledge that is joined to me, who, like the circle itself, have neither beginning nor end. Our most fundamental task, therefore, is to move from knowledge of God to knowledge of self and then back to knowledge of God. But should it happen, the Father warns, that knowledge of self becomes disconnected from knowledge of God, “there would be no full circle at all,” and everything “would end in confusion.” In a more positive vein, however, the Father adds that this “circle,” although clearly grounded in the plain earth of self-knowledge-the humble soil of truth-is of infinite expanse, and has “neither beginning nor end.” Accordingly, by surrendering ourselves to the movement of the circle, we are able to flourish greatly, and grow like trees “made for love and living only by love.”
‘St Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire, Preacher of Freedom’ written by Paul Murray Order of Preachers (OP)—Dominican friar. A Word on Fire book
On Living Life to the Full
When your heart is empty
and your hands are empty
you can take into your hands
the gift of the present
you can experience in your heart
the moment in its fullness.
And this you will know,
though perhaps you may not
understand it,
this you will know:
that nothing
of all you have longed for
or have sought to hold fast
can relieve you of your thirst,
your loneliness,
until you learn
to take in your hands
and raise to your lips
this cup of solitude
this chalice of the void
and drain it to the dregs.
