From the Pastor’s Desk
Dear St. Mary’s Parishioners:
“Open your mind’s eye,” says God the Father to St. Catherine of Siena in the beginning of The Dialogue, “and look within me, and you will see the dignity and beauty of my (human) creature.” In this private revelation, Catherine is having a conversation with God, like two friends at a cafe. He tells her to use her intellect to penetrate the truth of being created in God’s “image and likeness” as revealed in the Book of Genesis. When we begin to appreciate our God-given worth, it will open up the wider truth of who God is: “They see my goodness in themselves and they know my truth with their understanding—which is the soul’s eye—is enlightened in me. The pupil of this eye is the most holy faith, and this light of faith enables them to discern and know and follow the way and teaching of my Truth, the incarnate Word.” The Father encourages Catherine to ponder these truths and peer into pure love, “O dearest daughter whom I so love, you who are my bride, rise above yourself and open your mind’s eye. Look at me, infinite Goodness, and see my unspeakable love for you….”
Understanding Leads to Greater Desire for God
A greater understanding of who God is can act like a spark, igniting an explosive desire to be united to God. We will begin to see God as love, experiencing for ourselves what John wrote in his first letter that “God is love”. Our yearning for him will only increase as our mind pierces this reality and we find ourselves craving for “union with God, the ground of our being and supreme Beauty….” Catherine was delighted as her own desire increased for the truth of God that sprung from the depths of her soul. As she delved more deeply into the infinite goodness of God, her heart only grew more and more attracted to him, like a cavernous cave with no end in sight: “The more I enter you, the more I discover, and the more I discover, the more I seek you. You are insatiable, you in whose depth the soul is sated yet remains always hungry for you, thirsty for you, eternal Trinity, longing to see you with the light in your light.”
In Christ,
Father Brian J. Soliven
