September 24 – Was She On To Something?

Catherine of Sienna is one of only three female “Doctors of the (Catholic) Church.” She traveled and spoke widely, and wrote much concerning mystical marriage with Jesus Christ.

In our time, this concept is heard and even sung, but Catherine had to defend her position in her day.

She once advised her adviser, “Build a cell in your mind from which you cannot escape.”

Was she on to something there?

Not if our idea of a cell is a place where a celibate man or woman lives apart from family and municipal obligations – unless of course we have been called to celibacy. However, if we build a place in our minds where every thought is taken captive to the obedience of Christ, where our minds are set “on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God,” then we might do well to dwell there, never departing . . . for the next 99 days . . . and the next 99 weeks . . . and the next 99 months . . . here in Cor Unum, the Monastery of the Heart.



Catherine of Sienna
Manetti, public domain