ST CATHERINE OF SIENA (1347–1380)
O abyss! O eternal Godhead! O deep sea! What more could you have given me than the gift of your very self?
You are a FIRE always burning but never consuming; you are a fire consuming in your heat all the soul’s selfish love; you are a fire lifting all chill and giving light.
In your LIGHT you have made me know your truth: You are that light beyond all light who gives the mind’s eye supernatural light in such fulness and perfection that you bring clarity even to the light of faith. In that faith I see that my soul has life, and in that light receives you who are Light….
Truly this light is a SEA, for it nourishes the soul in you, peaceful, eternal Trinity. Its water is sluggish; so the soul is not afraid because she knows the truth….
This water is a MIRROR in which you, eternal Trinity, grant me knowledge; for when I look into this mirror, holding it in the hand of love, it shows me myself, as your creation, in you, and you in me through the union you have brought about in the Godhead with our humanity….
Clothe me with yourself, eternal TRUTH, so that I may run the course of this mortal life in true obedience and in the light of the most holy faith. With that light I sense my soul again becoming drunk! Thanks be to God! Amen.
