Life Lessons From St. Catherine of Siena
“A true and authentic spiritual family was built up around such a strong and genuine personality … Many put themselves at Catherine’s service and above all considered it a privilege to receive spiritual guidance from her. They called her ‘mother’ because, as her spiritual children, they drew spiritual nourishment from her. Today too the Church receives great benefit from the exercise of spiritual motherhood by so many women, lay and consecrated, who nourish souls with thoughts of God, who strengthen the people’s faith and direct Christian life toward ever loftier peaks.” — Pope Benedict XVI
There are so many Catholic women coaches right now. We have many talented ones in our Catholic Women in Business community, and there are several I know personally and would recommend.
But, have you ever considered “hiring” a saint as a coach?
The latest installment of Scepter Publishers’ “Coached by the Saints” series is “Coached by Catherine of Siena: Lessons in Charity.” Reading it did feel like being coached — by a Doctor of the Church, no less. Written by Joan Watson, a speaker, author, and pilgrim formation manager with Verso Ministries, this short book packs a big punch.
A Life of Charity
St. Catherine of Siena is known for rebuking Church leaders, up to and including the pope. But everything she did was grounded in charity, “the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1822).
God the Father told St. Catherine:
I ask you to love me with the same love with which I love you. But for me you cannot do this, for I loved you without being loved. Whatever love you have for me you owe me. … This is why I have put you among your neighbors: so that you can do for them what you cannot do for me — that is, love them without any concern for thanks and without looking for any profit for yourself. And whatever you do for them I will consider done for me.
In other words, Watson writes, “Our charity toward our neighbor is actually the way we love God. Our love for our neighbor does not simply flow from our love for God; our love for our neighbor is our love for God.”
St. Catherine loved her neighbor — every person she came into contact with — unreservedly and without expecting anything in return. In fact, she often received ill treatment in return. People often spread rumors about her, causing “sufferings she endured from people who didn’t understand her and the gifts she had been given.” Her spiritual director, Raymond of Capua, said it caused her a great deal of suffering.
She suffered silently, however, viewing it “as a way to unite herself with Christ, her spouse, and to make atonement for her sins.” She continued to behave charitably to even her worst detractors. And she knew that by doing so, she was loving God.
Loving the Church
It can be easy to love God. He created us. It’s challenging to love our neighbor.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I struggle the most with loving the Church. The number of times I’ve been angry with her over the way she tells us to live is too many to count. Some of her teachings seem too difficult at times. I have to take them to prayer and sometimes Confession, but it ultimately comes down to surrender and trust. Do I believe Jesus founded the Catholic Church? Do I believe the Holy Spirit continues to guide it? At the end of the day, yes. I absolutely do.
The other difficult thing about loving the Church is scandal. What happens when scandals rock the Church? Or even smaller interpersonal difficulties come up in our own parishes? How do we love the Church then?
Watson shares insights from St. Catherine’s life and writings. “We love and respect the Church — her ministers, sacraments, and teachings — not because the members are deserving, but because God is,” Watson says. Catherine lived in a time of great upheaval, scandal, and sin among Church leaders. She challenged them to do better, yet she never wavered in the respect due to them by virtue of their position, and she always addressed them with love.
Catherine said God told her: “The Church is the universal body of all creatures who share the light of holy faith, and they can have no life if they are not obedient to my Bride.” The Bride of Christ is the Catholic Church. This phrase is not a metaphor, and the Church is not just “a hierarchical structure or institution,” Watson points out.
Love God. Love your neighbor. Love the Church. They’re not easy demands the Lord makes of us. However, as Watson shows throughout Coached by Catherine of Siena, they are possible with His help. St. Catherine was always in prayer and received the sacraments as often as she could. There’s no doubt that she received a lot of grace in this way.
God’s grace is there for us, too. We need only ask.
