“He is light without any falsehood, and with that truth, He confounded and destroyed the lie that the Devil told to Eve, with which he broke up the road to Heaven, and the Truth brought the pieces together again, and cemented them with His blood.” ( St. Catherine of Siena,“The Dialogue”)

ST. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) is a doctor of the Catholic church. She was only six years old when she received a vision of Christ enthroned, and it was the beginning of a life of Christian devotion. She published the “Dialogue” in 1370,and was believed to be a saint in her own lifetime.

In her writing Catherine drew strong word pictures of both Jesus and His Father God, one of which is that Jesus is Truth itself, and that His very existence makes possible our forgiveness and reconciliation with God from the fall of Adam and Eve. Many of her words parallel Scripture: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12), and, I am the way, the truth and the life. . . No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). Catherine gathered Jesus’ sayings into a context that casts light on scripture without distorting it. She was mostly illiterate, and produced her book through dictation to a secretary. She lived in a turbulent time for the church and for nations, as well as from the occurrence of plague that just before her birth had taken the lives of 80,000 citizens of the city of Siena, Italy. The city never recovered, and today its population is about 53,000. Catherine was born a twin, but her twin sister did not survive.

Reading Catherine’s “Dialogue” with God is like hearing a father talk to His child about the Biblical Jesus, and the lives of those who believe in Him, as well as the lives who do not find that Truth.: “I have told thee that I have made a bridge of my Word, my only begotten Son, and this is the truth: I have created man to my own image and similitude in order that he might have Eternal Life, and might partake of Me, and taste my supreme and eternal sweetness and goodness.”

The picture of Jesus as a bridge to God seems meaningful to me. I experience the need for a bridge and it is a welcome thought that at communion we approach a Bridge which leads to God Himself. The Bridge is steady and firm and holds the promise of Eternity.

Love in Him,

Prue