Poet's Corner |
The following poems are written in the style of the love poetry of the book,
Songs of Songs, in the Old Testament.
They are contemplative however in that they celebrate the advent of
God’s presence at our center and still point.
Following the poems is an article on contemplative prayer and its path.
Robert Trabold
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Catherine of Siena
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RUSSIAN ICON
Soft touch – gentle head
bows – touches baby’s face.
Mother’s eyes – deeply mysterious –
looking into eternity.
Baby looking up – holding on to mom –
mother’s head – covered with black shawl –
dropping down – golden background –
light from heaven – shot through with divinity!
I am touched – feel quiet beauty
wrapping around me –
washing me in mystery –
touches of the divine –
the Beloved!
Mother’s eyes reach me –
conclude me in her meditation.
She wants me to stay quiet –
not run away.
Mother loves me too – taking me
by the hand - leads me to her son.
I feel delirious – ecstasy in my eyes.
Mystery overwhelms me – radiance
of Russian icon tells me –
“You are loved!” – “do not worry!”
Mystery of the mother is beyond
me – but her eyes watch me –
holding me – taking me by the hand –
until my journey ends.
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Catherine of Siena
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CATHERINE OF SIENA
Mystic and Social Activist
Robert Trabold
The author, Don Brophy, of a new biography of Catherine of Siena gave a lecture on the life and work of this great woman and mystic. The title of the book is Catherine of Siena: A Passionate Life and is to be published this summer. She left a legacy in Christian history of a woman who reached the heights of mystical prayer but also very involved in the world of her time trying to bring peace to her country and Europe torn by wars and violence. She was born in 1346 in the city of Siena in a time of transition; the Middle Ages with their culture were on the wane and soon the Renaissance would break upon Europe. Catherine had her foot in both worlds; she did support the political and ecclesiastic structures of the Middle Ages but lived her life as an individual and not as society would dictate to her to do. Her father was a tradesman and Catherine was born into a family of 26 children. She never went to school and was illiterate as was common for women of that time. Despite that, she dictated a 400 page book on mystical prayer based on her experience and dictated an enormous amount of letters – 400 are still existent. She had a profound religious experience at the age of 6–7 and that urged her on to resist the plans of her family to marry her off which was the usual custom for girls. She went on to create herself in her uniqueness and became a teacher, preacher, political force, spiritual director, wisdom thinker and an advisor to kings and popes.
Catherine was born into the 14th century which was a time of great turmoil. There was the One Hundred Years War between France and England. The church was very corrupt and there were at times 2-3 popes each claiming to be the legitimate one. The bubonic plague broke out in 1348 just after her birth. She was born into these chaotic times and tried to make a contribution in creating more peace and justice. She had a magnetic and charismatic personality and bands of people followed her. They called her ‘moma’ and she gave them advice on how to live. She traveled around Tuscany and Europe working for a reform of the church and society. She spoke bluntly and openly about the world that needed change and people came to see her as the voice of God. She walked to Avignon, France and had a meeting with the pope. She told the pontiff that he should return to Rome where he belonged and so free himself of excessive French influence. After meeting with Catherine, the pope did return to Rome and continued to rely on her advice because many cardinals of the Curia were under the influence of the French king and not in agreement with this move.
Early in life, she entered into the Third Order of the Dominicans as a way to keep her family at bay who wanted to marry her off. With this status as a Third Order religious, she went on missions around Siena and Tuscany preaching her message of church and social reform. She had deep religious convictions and her involvement in social and religious change issues was based on these. At the age of 7-8, she saw Jesus in the sky looking at her and blessing her. She was touched by this and felt that she was chosen to do a specific work and not to become the married woman that society expected her to be.
She had a very intense spiritual and prayer life. When she prayed, she fell into a trance with her body stiff. She claimed that she was visited by Jesus and the saints in these prayer sessions and in the privacy of her room, Jesus and Catherine used to recite the psalms together. She believed that she was married to him and he slipped a ring on her finger. She knew what was happening to her and that she had a real encounter with the divine. At one point, due to her intense spiritual life, she became a hermit for three years and stayed in her room. She fasted extensively and then believed that she did this excessively and regretted it. She counseled people not to follow her example.
Also in this intense spiritual and prayer life, she became a stigmatic and had the wounds of Jesus on her body. She asked Jesus that these remain invisible so that she would not have any pride about this but she did experience the pain of them nevertheless.
Catherine did not remain a hermit because she realized that it was not her vocation and that she should be out in the world to make it a better place. She returned to be a peace maker trying to resolve the many struggles in her native Tuscany and within the city of Siena. She went to Rome in order to resolve the conflicts between the various contending popes. Ultimately she died in Rome at the age of 33. She was a remarkable person who did not want to follow the role that society had for women at the time, being property and belonging to their husbands. She had the ideal of following Mary Magdalene and wanted to be an apostle. In terms of social reform, she preformed many corporal works of mercy for sick and poor people. In terms of her peace making, she was constantly writing letters and visiting government officials, princes, etc, in order to bring reconciliation between warring factions. At first she supported the Crusades, but then backed off and saw them as fruitless.
For us today active in the Centering Prayer and John Main Contemplative Prayer Movements, Catherine was a woman who reached the heights of contemplative prayer and had a mystical marriage with Jesus – highest level of union and intimacy with God for humans on earth. On the other hand, she followed the call to be a social activists working for more justice and peace in her war torn world and had an impact in these struggles. Her charismatic personality and vocation had her break with the traditional roles of women of being married, having children and being the property of their husbands, and she went on to be an apostle for Jesus. People flocked to follow and hear her and she had an impact for the better on her times.
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