Saturday, November 18 : Saint Catherine of Siena

I’m writing with the desire to see you, a bold and good shepherd, pasturing and guiding the sheep entrusted to you with perfect zeal, and thus imitating the sweet Master of truth who gave his life for us who are his sheep, who have strayed away from the path of grace. True…, we can’t do this without God and we can’t possess God while remaining on earth. But here is a sweet remedy: when our hearts are reduced to nothing and feeling small, we must do as Zacchaeus, did. He was not tall and he climbed a tree to see God. This zeal of his allowed him to hear these sweet words: “Zacchaeus, go home, for I must dine with you today.” We must do this too when we are feeling low, when our hearts are constricted and lacking in charity. We must climb the tree of the most holy Cross and there we shall see, we shall touch God. There we shall find the fire of his inexpressible charity, the love that propelled him even to the humiliation of the Cross that raised him up and made him desire his Father’s honor and our salvation with the craving of a hunger and thirst… If this is what we want, if our carelessness doesn’t get in the way, we can, in mounting the tree of the Cross, fulfill in ourselves this word issuing from the mouth of Truth: “When I am lifted up from the earth I shall draw all things to myself” (Jn 12,32 Vg). Indeed, when the soul is thus raised up, it sees the blessings of the Father’s goodness and power…, it sees the mercy and lavishness of the Holy Spirit, that is to say the inexpressible love holding Jesus bound to the wood of the Cross. Nails and bonds cannot hold him there; only charity… O climb this most holy tree where hang the ripe fruits of all the virtues that the body of the Son of God bears; ardently hasten. Dwell within the holy and sweet love of God. O sweet Jesus, Jesus love.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team