Q. Our parish’s patron saint, St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380; feast day, April 29) is known for a treatise called The Dialogue of Divine Providence (1377–1388), for which our parish e-newsletter, The Dialogue, is named. What is this treatise about?
A. St. Catherine’s famous work, a classic of Christian mystical writing, was dictated by the saint to scribes over a period of months while she was experiencing periods of spiritual ecstasy. In takes the form of a dialogue “between God and a soul” whose “rises up” to Him (St. Catherine herself being “the soul”).
The Dialogue makes for reading that is both illuminating and convicting. Though it was written almost seven centuries ago, it provides many telling insights into the life of the soul and of the Church as a whole even today.