Catherine of Siena Quotes

“The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.”
― St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena

“the soul always fears until she arrives at true love.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“Love follows knowledge.”
― St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena

“You know that every evil is founded in self-love, and that self-love is a cloud that takes away the light of reason, which reason holds in itself the light of faith, and one is not lost without the other.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“Otherwise you fall into contempt of your neighbor, if you judge his evil will towards you, instead of My will acting in him.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“I had not been able to show, by finite things, because My love was infinite, how much more love I had, I wished you to see the secret of the Heart,”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“The Devil, dearest daughter, is the instrument of My Justice to torment the souls who have miserably offended Me. And I have set him in this life to tempt and molest My creatures, not for My creatures to be conquered, but that they may conquer, proving their virtue, and receive from Me the glory of victory. And no one should fear any battle or temptation of the Devil that may come to him, because I have made My creatures strong, and have given them strength of will, fortified in the Blood of my Son, which will, neither Devil nor creature can move, because it is yours, given by Me.”
― Catherine of Siena, Dialog of Catherine of Siena - Enhanced Version

“The sign that you have this virtue is patience, and impatience the sign that you have it not, and you will find that this is indeed so, when I speak to you further concerning this virtue.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“So you see that the eye of the intellect has received supernatural light, infused by grace, by which the doctors and saints knew light in darkness, and of darkness made light.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“say, you are all obliged to help one another by word and doctrine, and the example of good works, and in every other respect in which your neighbor may be seen to be in need; counseling him exactly as you would yourselves,”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“Suffering and sorrow increase in proportion to love: When love grows, so does sorrow.”
― Catherine of Siena, Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue

“Penance should be but the means to increase virtue according to the needs of the individual, and according to what the soul sees she can do in the measure of her own possibility.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“I also wish you to look at the Bridge of My only-begotten Son, and see the greatness thereof, for it reaches from Heaven to earth, that is, that the earth of your humanity is joined to the greatness of the Deity thereby.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“Then the soul will inflame herself in this knowledge of Me with an ineffable love, through which love she continues in constant pain; not, however, a pain which afflicts or dries up the soul, but one which rather fattens her; for since she has known My truth, and her own faults, and the ingratitude of men, she endures intolerable suffering, grieving because she loves Me; for, if she did not love Me, she would not be obliged to do so; whence it follows immediately, that it is right for you, and My other servants who have learned My truth in this way, to sustain, even unto death, many tribulations and injuries and insults in word and deed, for the glory and praise of My Name; thus will you endure and suffer pains.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena: A Revised Translation

“humility proceeds from self-knowledge.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (with Supplemental Reading: Catholic Prayers) [Illustrated]

“Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own sins, which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the other way, through her sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit against Me.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena: A Revised Translation

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
― St. Catherine of Siena, Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue

“You, oh Lord, call me, and I come to You, not through my merits, but through Your mercy alone, which I ask of You, in virtue of Your Blood!” and many times she called out: “Blood, Blood!” Finally, after the example of the Savior, she said: “Father, into Your Hands I commend my soul and my spirit,” and thus sweetly, with a face all shining and angelical, she bent her head, and gave up the ghost.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“the soul cannot be satiated in Your abyss, for she continually hungers after You, the eternal Trinity, desiring to see You with light in Your light.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“Among the others he possessed patience, which is the marrow of obedience, and a demonstrative sign, whether a soul be in a state of grace and truly love or not. Wherefore charity, the mother of patience, has given her as a sister to obedience, and so closely united them together that one cannot be lost without the other.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“Look at the first man and you will see the cause which destroyed the obedience imposed on him by Me, the Eternal Father. It was pride, which was produced by self-love, and desire to please his companion.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“You made Yourself low and small to make man great. On whichever side I turn I find nothing but the abyss and fire of Your charity.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“there is no pleasure and nothing but intolerable suffering in it. One who despairs despises My mercy, making his sin to be greater than mercy and goodness. Wherefore, if a man fall into this sin, he does not repent, and does not truly grieve for his offense against Me as he should, grieving indeed for his own loss, but not for the offense done to Me, and therefore he receives eternal damnation. See, therefore, that this sin alone leads him to hell, where he is punished for this and all the other sins which he has committed; whereas had he grieved and repented for the offense done to Me, and hoped in My mercy, he would have found mercy, for, as I have said to you, My mercy is greater without any comparison than all the sins which any creature can commit;”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“And not only in the case of good, but even when he sees something evidently sinful, he does not fall into judgment, but rather into true and holy compassion, interceding with Me for sinners and saying, with perfect humility: ‘To-day it is your turn, and tomorrow it will be mine unless the Divine Grace preserve me.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“They say, cheating themselves with the delusion of their own self-will, which I have already called their spiritual self-will, ‘I wish to have that consolation, and not these battles, or these temptations of the Devil, not, indeed, for my own pleasure, but in order to please God the more, and in order to retain Him the more in my soul through grace; because it seems to me that I should possess Him more, and serve Him better in that way than in this.’ And this is the way the soul often fails into trouble, and becomes tedious and insupportable to herself; thus injuring her own perfection; yet she does not perceive it, nor that, within her, lurks the stench of pride, and there she lies.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena

“has three steps, of which two were made with the wood of the most Holy Cross, and the third still retains the great bitterness He tasted, when He was given gall and vinegar to drink. In these three steps you will recognize three states of the soul, which I will explain to thee below. The feet of the soul, signifying her affection, are the first step, for the feet carry the body as the affection carries the soul. Wherefore these pierced Feet are steps by which thou canst arrive at His Side, which manifests to thee the secret of His Heart, because the soul, rising on the steps of her affection, commences to taste the love of His Heart, gazing into that open Heart of My Son, with the eye of the intellect, and finds It consumed with ineffable love. I say consumed, because He does not love you for His own profit, because you can be of no profit to Him, He being one and the same substance with Me. Then the soul is filled with love, seeing herself so much loved. Having passed the second step, the soul reaches out to the third—that is—to the Mouth, where she finds peace from the terrible war she has been waging with her sin. On the first step, then, lifting her feet from the affections of the earth, the soul strips herself of vice; on the second she fills herself with love and virtue; and on the third she tastes peace.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (with Supplemental Reading: Catholic Prayers) [Illustrated]

“Quien ofende a Dios, se daña a sí mismo y daña al prójimo Quiero hacerte saber cómo toda virtud y todo defecto repercuten en el prójimo. Quien vive en odio y enemistad conmigo, no sólo se daña a sí mismo, sino que daña a su prójimo. Le causa daño porque estáis obligados a amar al prójimo como a vosotros mismos, ya sea ayudándole espiritualmente con la oración, aconsejándole de palabra o socorriéndole espiritual y materialmente, según sea su necesidad. Quien no me ama a mí, no ama al prójimo; al no amarlo, no lo socorre. Se daña a sí mismo, privándose de la gracia, y causa daño al prójimo, porque toda ayuda que le ofrezca no puede provenir más que del afecto que le tiene por amor a mí. No hay pecado que no alcance al prójimo. Al no amarme a mí, tampoco lo quiere a él.”
― Catherine of Siena, El Diálogo

“that the endurance of suffering alone, without desire, was not sufficient to punish a fault.”
― Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena