"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."
—St. Catherine of Sienna
Catherine Benincasa— later known as St. Catherine of Sienna— was born in 1347 in Siena, Italy. At the age of six, at sunset, as she gazed upon a church on the hills of Campporeggi, she saw Jesus and three of His apostles. Jesus smiled at her and raised His hand in a blessing.
She was mesmerized by the vision and from then on devoted her life to finding God through solitude, fasting and prayer. At the age of seven, Catherine consumed with getting closer to God, went into a cave where she planned to fast. During deep meditation, her body went numb, and she heard a Divine voice say “How brave you are my child, but let our wedding be later.”
She next found herself in her bed at home, no one having noticed her disappearance. Yet she knew what she experienced, so she asked her brother to go into the cave and retrieve the loaf of bread she brought into the cave with her. Not only did he find the bread, he also found a cross she made by tying two sticks together with the string from the hem of her skirt.
Clearly she had a very special devotion and love for God.
One of her poems, though written in the 14th century, is still pertinent today, centuries later. In light of today’s culture where we seem to be obsessed with cosmetic procedures and surgeries, this poem is quite relevant. As we can see, this exterior obsession of ours is not new.
Your Hair, Your Face
What is it
You want to change?
Your hair, your face, your body?
Why?
For God is
In love with all those things
And He might weep
When they are
Gone.
—St. Catherine of Sienna
What an inspirational woman! Thank you for sharing this! I wrote down the quote at the beginning of the post, and how perfect is that poem and it being written so long ago and being so prominent now. Fabulous post sweet friend!
ReplyDeletePS - I AM IN LOVE with your New Blog Header. Absolutely LOVE it.
ReplyDeleteKristina- Thank you kind friend for the feed-back and wonderful comments!- Ella
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