Catherine of Genoa and Benedict XVI on Purgatory

Jack and Thom,
Good Morning, I love you
110120, 1342

Yesterday I fell onto a blurb about a recent comment by Pope Benedict on Purgatory. On Sunday, I tried to explain purgatory to my class of third graders – very inadequately, I know. And, my version was one remembered from childhood, maintained to this day: more place than process.

In the midst of this transcript that follows, the Pope reminds us: “Dear friends, we must never forget that the more we love God and the more constantly we pray, the better we will succeed in truly loving those who surround us, who are close to us, so that we can see in every person the Face of the Lord whose love knows no bounds and makes no distinctions. The mystic does not create distance from others or an abstract life, but rather approaches other people so that they may begin to see and act with God’s eyes and heart.”

So, come with me through a transcript of 1/12/11 remarks by the Pope on Catherine of Genoa.

Saint Catherine of Genoa b. 1447 d. 1510
Catherine of Genoa, known above all for her vision of purgatory.

< What vision have you had that a) brought you closer to God and b) for which you will be known? A vision you will write about. A vision you will share with one another, your family and friends, your own, if you are so blessed, children. >

Catherine was born in Genoa in 1447. She was the youngest of five.

< I guess she comes by ‘Catherine of Genoa’ honestly. Since the ‘of place’ usually connotes the place where the person made the greatest contribution and usually the place where the person died, you would guess that Catherine was born, served, and died in Genoa. >

Her father, Giacomo Fieschi, died when she was very young. Her mother, Francesca di Negro provided such an effective Christian education that the elder of her two daughters became a religious.

< I cannot imagine the effect of losing a parent at a very young age. I do know the experience of ‘losing’ my young children before our time…. Fortunately for Catherine and her sisters, their mother gave them an effective Christian/Catholic education. Would that you had received the same from your mother. >
When Catherine was 16, she was given in marriage to Giuliano Adorno, a man who after various trading and military experiences in the Middle East had returned to Genoa in order to marry. Married life was far from easy for Catherine, partly because of the character of her husband who was given to gambling.

Catherine herself was at first induced to lead a worldly sort of life in which, however, she failed to find serenity. After 10 years, her heart was heavy with a deep sense of emptiness and bitterness.

< Catherine’s story of humanness evolving into mystic saintliness is not only one of inspiration but one of hope – that we, too, will find our own way to answer God’s continuous call and gift of Love. >

< Ten years before the cumulative burden of an unserene marriage weighed heavily on her increasingly empty and bitter heart? 1982 to 1994 – twelve years. Ora pro me. >

On 20 March 1473 went to the Church of San Benedetto in the monastery of Nostra Signora delle Grazie, to make her confession and, kneeling before the priest, “received”, as she herself wrote, “a wound in my heart from God’s immense love”.

< Go to Our Lady of Grace, or any of our handful of Catholic Churches, and immerse yourself in the sacrament of reconciliation. On Wednesday nights, 1730 – 1900, St. Paul’s has confessions and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. >

< The experience of Love, redundantly, true love, pierces our heart, wounds our heart, purifies our heart. I pray that you too will allow yourself to receive God’s immense love. >

Catherine of Genoa’s penitential experience came with such a clear vision of her own wretchedness and shortcomings and at the same time of God’s goodness that she almost fainted.

< We are who we are. Creatures. Imperfect. In the presence of one who loves us, we experience sharply, deeply our own failings, our shortcomings, our sins, all that makes us unworthy of the GIFT of Love. Pray that you too will experience Love, especially God’s Love. >

The experience of God’s Love and the knowledge of herself which it brought moved Catherine of Genoa’s heart. Catherine of Genoa saw starkly in the mirror of God’s Love the empty life she was leading and of the goodness of God.

< When we are loved, we cannot but help acknowledge the goodness of the GIFT and the Giver. Then, simultaneously, we see ourselves under the light of the Gift of Love. We see ourselves as Love sees us. >

This experience prompted the decision that gave direction to Catherine of Genoa’s whole rest of her life. She expressed it in the words: “no longer the world, no longer sin.”

< Start with ‘no longer sin.’ When we are loved, strike that, When we let ourselves experience the Gift of Love regardless of the source, we necessarily experience a will to conversion. We resolve that we never again will do anything to hurt the person who loves us so much, loves us so freely, loves us without condition. In the case of God, we resolve that we will no longer sin. (Read Dulles’ work on freedom and the choice of doing what we ought as the source of freedom and the via veritatis.) >

On arriving home Catherine of Genoa entered the remotest room. At that moment Catherine of Genoa received an inner instruction on prayer and became aware of God’s immense love for her, a sinner.

< We are sinners. Jesus came for us because that’s how much, infinitely, God Loves us. To acknowledge our sinnerness is to also be aware of God’s love. To be aware of God’s Love is also to be in communication with God, to be praying, to have our personal instruction on prayer. Start at any point on the circle. Experience God’s Love. Admit our sinfulness. Talk with and listen to God – pray. >

After her confession, Catherine of Genoa began the “life of purification” which for many years caused her to feel constant sorrow for the sins she had committed and which spurred her to impose forms of penance and sacrifice upon herself, in order to show her love to God.

< Once we acknowledge that we are loved, we have the natural and overwhelming desire to make up for – do penance for – our sins against the One Who Loves Us. We wish to reciprocate the purity of the Love received with our own, more worthy, purified love. To the degree that we tap into our responding love, we are driven to feel sorrow and express our love with our efforts to make up for the sins of our past. >

< The parable of the Good Father, aka Prodigal Son, shows us a different model. Come home to your father who is waiting patiently and prayerfully for you and we will kill the fatted calf and get on with celebrating the rest of our loving lives together. C’est moi. >

On this journey Catherine became ever closer to the Lord until she attained what is called “unitive life”, namely, a relationship of profound union with God.
Catherine of Genoa was nourished above all by constant prayer and by Holy Communion which she received every day, an unusual practice in her time.

< Prayer plus the greatest prayer the Church offers us, Mass. Fundamental building blocks for all of us. >

The place of Catherine of Genoa’s ascent to mystical peaks was Pammatone Hospital, the largest hospital complex in Genoa, of which she was director and animator. Hence Catherine lived a totally active existence despite the depth of her inner life.

< Life, service, in a hospital, regardless of role – volunteer for a while regardless of your sense of vocation elsewhere – inherently, in the service to the sick, brings us closer to God. Catherine of Genoa is one of many saints who show us that mysticism, constant contact with God, ‘prayer in action,’ is a doable proposition with the proper commitment. Even if you take a couple of steps in St Catherine’s footsteps in service at a hospital, you will find yourself with a deeper inner life, wherein you will find God’s grace. >

In Pammatone a group of followers, disciples and collaborators formed around her, fascinated by her life of faith and her charity. Indeed her husband, Giuliano Adorno, was so won over that he gave up his dissipated life, became a Third Order Franciscan and moved into the hospital to help his wife.

Catherine’s dedication to caring for the sick continued until the end of her earthly life on 15 September 1510.

Dear friends, we must never forget that the more we love God and the more constantly we pray, the better we will succeed in truly loving those who surround us, who are close to us, so that we can see in every person the Face of the Lord whose love knows no bounds and makes no distinctions. The mystic does not create distance from others or an abstract life, but rather approaches other people so that they may begin to see and act with God’s eyes and heart.


Catherine’s thought on purgatory

Catherine of Genoa’s first original passage concerns the “place” of the purification of souls. In her day it was depicted mainly using images linked to space: a certain space was conceived of in which purgatory was supposed to be located.

Catherine, however, did not see purgatory as a scene in the bowels of the earth: for her it is not an exterior but rather an interior fire. This is purgatory: an inner fire.

The Saint speaks of the Soul’s journey of purification on the way to full communion with God, starting from her own experience of profound sorrow for the sins committed, in comparison with God’s infinite love.

Here too is another original feature in comparison with the thought of her time. Catherine of Genoa does not start with the afterlife in order to recount the torments of purgatory — as was the custom in her time and perhaps still is today — and then to point out the way to purification or conversion. Rather Saint Catherine of Genoa begins with the inner experience of her own life on the way to Eternity.

“The soul”, Catherine says, “presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God”. Catherine asserts that God is so pure and holy that a soul stained by sin cannot be in the presence of the divine majesty.

We too feel how distant we are, how full we are of so many things that we cannot see God. The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love; and love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin.

With her life St Catherine teaches us that the more we love God and enter into intimacy with him in prayer the more he makes himself known to us, setting our hearts on fire with his love.

In writing about purgatory, the Saint reminds us of a fundamental truth of faith that becomes for us an invitation to pray for the deceased so that they may attain the beatific vision of God in the Communion of Saints.

Moreover the humble, faithful and generous service in Pammatone Hospital that the Saint rendered throughout her life is a shining example of charity for all and an encouragement, especially for women who, with their precious work enriched by their sensitivity and attention to the poorest and neediest, make a fundamental contribution to society and to the Church. Many thanks.

< I read and reread and read again these last several paragraphs by Pope Benedict viz. St Catherine of Genoa. No comment I might add would add a dollop of usefulness or meaningfulness or any other –ness. I suggest you read Catherine of Genoa. I suggest you go to the Vatican site and read the full text of the Pope’s brief presentation to the audience. I suggest that you open yourself to the Love God is offering you – directly and via your father and grandfather and uncle and cousin etc. et al. It is, Catherine of Genoa and Pope Benedict seem to be telling us, it is in our experience of God’s Love that we will lovingly strive to purify our hearts, to live our Catholic lives, to become what God is calling us to do/be. >

I love you,
Dad
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