St. Catherine of Siena: Saint of the Eucharist

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“For the seven year period prior to her death, Saint Catherine of Siena took no food into her body other than the Eucharist. Her fasting did not affect her energy, however. She maintained a very active life during those seven years. As a matter of fact, most of her great accomplishments occurred during that period. Not only did her fasting not cause her to lose energy, but became a source of extraordinary strength, she becoming stronger in the afternoon, after having received our Lord in His Eucharist.
It was Catherine’s tremendous love of Jesus in the Eucharist that allowed her to go out to the poor and especially the very ill and to minister to them as she did.  Wasn’t this the Eucharistic spirituality that Mother Teresa of Calcutta lived out, too — so that she could pick up the dying from the gutters of the slums, carry them to one of her clinics and care for them until they either got better or died with dignity?  Love and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist does that. They took very seriously the words of Jesus in Matthew 25: “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren you do unto me” (v. 40).
In The Dialog of St. Catherine of Siena Jesus tells her two things about love of neighbor:
“They love their neighbors with the same love with which they love me” — Dialog 60
and
“The soul, as soon as she comes to know Me, reaches out to love her neighbors” — Dialog 89
But it was the very heart of Christ that touched Catherine most deeply.  Catherine had a very powerful devotion to the Heart of Jesus — the wound in His side.  She used to long to spiritually drink of the graces that flowed freely from His side as a child suckled milk from its mother and she used this imagery as a wellspring to nourish and increase her devotion to him.
In her book The Secret of the Heart (A Theological Study of Catherine of Siena’s Teaching on the Heart of Jesus) author Sr. Mary Jeremiah, O.P. says, “Although Catherine of Siena lived in the 14th century she is still very relevant today”. Catherine herself once wrote a letter to a religious stating that the heart of Christ is “an open storehouse, full of spices with a wealth of mercy which bestows Grace” (p. 97).
We are called to live out our Baptism to love others with the heart of Christ who himself said “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34-35).  It is not enough to love others with a warm fuzzy kind of love but as He has loved us — that is, he loved us unconditionally and unto death. To love them is not just to have feelings for them.  Catherine and all of the great saints took this command of Christ to go forth and to dofor others, often at the risk of their lives.  When Catherine volunteered at the local hospital to care for a woman named Tecca who was suffering from leprosy, Catherine’s mother Lapa had great concern that she, too, would catch the hideous disease.
Indeed Catherine’s hands did develop leprosy but love for this woman (who often had an ungrateful heart for Catherine’s care) did not stop the virgin from caring for her.  When at last the woman died, Catherine herself washed and dressed the disease-ridden body, prepared it for burial, placed it tenderly in a casket, said the prayers and covered the casket with her own hands.  Whereupon, Catherine’s hands were miraculously cured and her hands appeared as more youthful than they had been.  Such is the love and faith in God that the great saints had.
Our love for Jesus in others, too, is what brings us to Heaven.  The Eucharistic Prayer II of the Liturgy implores God to bring us to “the fullness of charity” for that is where heaven is.  St. Paul urges us in his Letter to the Romans (12:1) to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”. It is what St. Catherine did when she cried out in prayer: “O Eternal God, accept the sacrifice of my life for the Mystical Body of Thy Holy Church.” For indeed we who are baptized “are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as from a rock” according to St. Justin Martyr (d. 165) in his Dialog With Trypho the Jew.
The graces of our baptism must be nourished as often as possible with the Holy Eucharist — True Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, along with frequent reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and time spent in Holy Adoration contemplating the one who has loved us so.  We are called to bring hope to those among us whom society considers as spiritual lepers — not only by way of our words but in our deeds as well.
Let us rise, then and “be on our way” (Jn 14:31); let us “rise from our slumber” (Rm. 13:11) to do all the good we can to those whom the world despises and who “count for nothing” (1 Cor. 1: 27). Let us pray for the intercession of this great saint, Catherine of Siena who found more joy in ministering to the poor than in all of the heavenly ecstasies, visions, miracles and other mystical phenomena that Jesus was pleased to bestow on her. Let us show our love of Jesus and ask him to use us according to his mind and purpose for the poor and those who have hurt us.
Author’s note: For prayers, devotions and other information on Catherine go here: http://www.drawnbylove.com/