St. Catherine de Ricci
Posted by Terry Nelson on Feb 13th, 2008
The spiritual marriage of St. Catherine.
St. Catherine de Ricci was from an illustrious family in Florence. At fourteen years of age, she entered the Dominican monastery at Prato in Tuscany, where she died in 1589. A great mystic, her daily source of meditation was the Passion of Christ, which she mystically participated in every Thursday through Friday. St. Catherine was the counsellor of popes, and the confident of other saints, among them, St. Philip Neri, with whom she visited frequently, through the grace of bilocation.
Her feast day has traditionally been observed on February 13.
February 13th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Bilocation. Isn’t that freaky to think about? Blows me away! And I often wonder just what it means to *mystically participate* in the Passion of Christ. What does the person experience? What are they feeling? How did they get prepared for this? How did they open themselves up enough to receive this gift?
February 18th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Yes - bilocation is extraordinary. I have heard it said that the apostle Philip’s encounter with the Eunuch in Acts was bilocation.
As for mystical particiption in the Passion of Christ, I believe that would be a gift a soul would not necessrily prepare for. It would be a gift Our Lord would offer to a soul - when he wills, how he wills, and to whom he wills.
I believe that to mystically participate would mean that the soul is suffering with Christ in his passion in the same manner he did, physically, morally, spiritually, and so on. Although not to the same degree Christ suffered.
The soul would never be able to endure the exact same suffering as Christ did, because of the hypostatic union and many mystical things I do not understand. The soul’s love could never equal the divine love, nor could it fathom the divine will.
Indeed, as some saints have said, their sufferings are intense, although they cannot compare to the Son of God’s.
If it can be said they prepared for the gift, or opened themselves up to the gift, it would be through ardent love of God and their neighbor - they would be participating in the love of Christ for the Father and for souls.