Customer Reviews

The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena

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The first two sections of St. Catherine's "Dialogue", the Prologue and the Way of Perfection, are very powerful statements about our relationship to God. In the Prologue we, through Catherine, are speaking to God by expressing our hopes and fears. But in the Way of Perfection it is God who is speaking about His hopes and fears for us and for our society. Thus, the work of Catherine truly represents a dialogue between two parties - us and God.

The remarkable characteristic about this dialogue is that it is similar to the model for dialogue promoted by today's counsellors and psychologists: the model where a staff member first listens to the client before responding with professional expertise in order to respect the freedom of the client. Since her model for dialogue is similar to that of contemporary counsellors, Catherine can be said to be very relevant today.

In the Prologue Catherine opens the discussion by expressing some very human and normal desires. She hopes for the good of herself, of the Church, and of the world. Catherine even manages to present to God a special intention which affirms the Catholic teaching that God knows not only universal, cosmic events, but also ordinary, everyday particular circumstances.

The petitions of Catherine reveal two characteristics of her relationship with God. First, by her example Catherine teaches that God is able to relate to us humans on our level. She was able to tell God about human events and affairs. Secondly, her action of asking God for things is a sign that Catherine had a great trust in God and in His love. She would not have made those prayers in the Prologue if she thought God was unconcerned and indifferent to our well-being. Consequently, Catherine shows not only her fragile, human side, but also her trust and hope.

The Way of Perfection is the section where God speaks to His dialogical partner in reply. This section is longer than the Prologue, yet this should be of no surprise since God obviously has more to say than Catherine. In this section the distinction between virtuous and non-virtuous people is made. The difference is that, unlike those who live in vice, virtuous people have an awakened conscience, appreciate the fragrant smell of virtue, and take joy in the company of other believers (p.30). And because the life of virtue is superior to its opposite, the life of vice, just as love is superior to hatred (p.34), God desires virtue for all people. "... I look on them and give them light (p.30)."

A finer distinction is made between the virtuous and the truly virtuous. The virtuous are those who enjoy the presence of God yet take it for granted. They do not make perfect contrition for their sins. Consequently, their sins are forgiven, but not the penalty due to their sins. "...These receive no pardon of the penalty but only of the sin itself (p.31)." But the truly virtuous are those who not only participate in the presence of God, they also are disposed to receive this presence in a humble way. As a result, their sins and the penalty due for their sins are forgiven.

In summary, St. Catherine's words to God are encouraging because she speaks to Him about some of the things relevant to my life. But God's words to Catherine are challenging because they point out the inconsistencies and weaknesses of believers. Fortunately, God would not have said these difficult things to Catherine if He did not think we could learn from them and change our ways.

Dictated by St. Catherine while in ecstasy and speaking with God. Contains page after page of divine wisdom on a host of spiritual subjects under 4 main categories: Divine Providence, Discretion, Prayer, Obedience. One of the great literary treasures if the Church. A famous classic. It was largley for this book that St. Catherine of Siena was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970. Catherine had no formal education but yet was able to dialogue with the Pope, Bishops and many of the ecclesiastic members of the Church through the grace of God. I will quote from her treatise of prayer: "When the soul has arrived at the attainment of the general light, of which I have spoken, she should not remain contented, because, as long as you are pilgrims in this life, you are capable of growth, and he who does not go forward, by that very fact, is turning back". Powerful words in the context of living and growing in our spiritual life. No matter what stage we are in our spiritual growth, we can always test ourselves on our capacity to love and be loved. Faith, hope and love but the greatest is love. Jesus left us a new commandment to love one another as He loves us.

As a teacher, I cannot recommend this translation. The Victorian style may be elegant (as one reviewer suggested) but its overly flowery presentation can get between the reader and the subject, making Catherine sound like she was perpetually floating above the ground instead of living as a citizen of her time who was seeking to know God and live in a very practical manner in the world. The contrast between this translation and the one done by Dr. Suzanne Noffke is marked and I highly recommend the latter instead.

Editor's Note: This is one of the greatest Catholic Classics and has been updated to modern English for easier reading and completely re-typeset. The Search Inside the Book function is currently not accurate for this edition and shows a different edition of the same title by another publisher that is misleading since it is not the same wording or look. (I don't know if Amazon will update it at some point.) The editing that was done consisted of changing most archaic expressions to their modern equivalent. Words such as "didst" and "shouldst" have been replaced with "did" and "should". Archaic words have been researched and replaced, for example "meed" was replaced to "recompense". Also the book interior is modern and digitally typeset in easy-to-read type rather than scanned pages of an older version.

I'm sure this is a worthwile book to read, but it is not properly formatted for Kindle! Words are chopped up and spacing is not uniform. Look for a different version for Kindle or Amazon do something about this problem!

I am sure it is very good writing from an esteemed Doctor of the Catholic Church, but I found it a bit much; not as readable as I thought it would be.