Tuesday, July 23 : Saint Catherine of Siena

[St Catherine heard God say:] “I am the vineyard, my father is the winemaker, and you are the branches” (cf. Jn 15,1. 5). This is the truth. It is I who am the winemaker, since everything that can be done, came and comes from me. My power is incomprehensible, and by my power and my virtue I govern the whole universe, so that nothing is done or ordered outside of me. Yes I am the winemaker; It was I who planted the true vineyard of my only son in the land of your humanity, so that you branches, united to this vine, you bear fruit. That which will not produce the fruit of good and holy works will be entrenched from the vine and will dry out; Because, separated from the sap, he loses his life of grace and is thrown into eternal fire, as the branch that does not bear fruit is cut and set to fire because it is no longer good for something else. So it goes for those cut off from the vineyard by their own fault, if they remain in fatal sin, divine justice can nothing but throw them into fire which burns eternally. (…) This is not what my servants do, and it is like them that you must do, by remaining united to this vine and grafted on it. From then on you will produce abundant fruits, because you will share in the sap. By remaining in the Word my son, you remain in me, because I am one and the same with him, and him with me. By remaining in him, you will follow his teachings; By following its teachings you will participate in the substance of this Word, that is to say that you will participate in my eternal divinity, united to humanity, and will draw from it a divine love where the soul is drunk. This is why I told you that you participate in the substance of the vine.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team