Saturday, May 4 : Saint Catherine of Siena

[Saint Catherine heard God say to her:] Do not look back with your back to the plow, for fear of creatures or of tribulations: it is in tribulations that you must rejoice. The world takes pleasure in doing you a thousand injustices; only be saddened by the injustices of the world because they are offenses that it does to me: for by offending me, they offend you, and by offending you, they offend me, I who have become one with you . You know well, I have given you my image and likeness, but you have lost grace through sin. To give you this life of grace, I have united my nature to you, covering it with the veil of your humanity. So, from you, my image, I borrowed your likeness by taking human form. I am one with you, as long as the soul is not separated from me by mortal sin; for he who loves me abides in me, and I in him. But this one will be persecuted by the world, because the world is not in conformity with me. This is why he pursued my only Son until the ignominious death of the cross. So the world does to you: he persecutes you, and he will persecute you to the death, because he does not love me. If the world loved me, it would love you also, but rejoice, for your joy will be great in heaven. Truly I tell you, the more tribulation abounds in the mystical body of the Church, the more it itself will abound in sweetness and consolation. (…) Rejoice therefore in sorrow, (…) with my other servants, since I, the eternal Truth, have promised you to give you joy.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team