St. Catherine's Dialogue: Divine Providence

In all things, God’s providence for humankind never fails anyone who is willing to receive it.

The "Dialogue" treats of the whole spiritual life of man, in the form of a series of colloquies between the Eternal Father and the human soul (represented by Catherine herself).

In this post, I will be extracting and organizing what God the Father has told St. Catherine regarding His Divine Providence for mankind. My hopes in sharing this is to impel the reader to consider the many gifts that God gives, and to excite him to profound gratitude for these gifts.

"God, in His providence, watches over and governs all the things that He made, reaching from end to end with might and disposing all things with gentleness."
- First Vatican Council (1869-1870)

“My providence has ordained and provided in all things with great wisdom. I have given because I am rich, and I was and am able to give, and My wealth is infinite.

Everything was made by Me, and without Me nothing can exist. Therefore, if it is beauty you want, I am beauty. If you want goodness, I am goodness, for I am supremely good. I am wisdom. I am kind; I am compassionate; I am the just and merciful God.

I am generous, not miserly. I give to those who ask of Me, open to those who knock in truth, and answer those who call out to Me. I am not ungrateful but grateful, and mindful to reward those who will toil for Me, for the glory and praise of My name.

I am joyful, and I keep the soul who clothes herself in My will in supreme joy.

I am that supreme providence who never betrays my servants' hope in Me.”

How God Provides for All of Mankind in General

1. Creation.
   
   “I want to be merciful to the world and provide for my reasoning creatures' every need. I always provide, and I want you to know that what I have given humankind is supreme providence. It was with providence that I created you, and when I contemplated my creature in myself, I fell in love with the beauty of my creation. It pleased me to create you in my image and likeness with great providence.
   
   In my mercy, I made the heavens and the earth, the sea and the vault of the sky to move above you, the air so that you might breathe, fire and water each to temper the other, and the sun so that you would not be left in darkness. All these I made and put in order to serve the needs of humankind. The sky adorned with birds, the earth bringing forth its fruits, the many animals all for the life of humankind, the sea adorned with fish - everything I made with the greatest order and providence. After I had made everything good and perfect, I created the rational creatures in my own image and likeness, and I put them in this garden.
   
   But because of Adam's sin the garden where first there were fragrant flowers, innocently pure and so very sweet, brought forth thorns. Everything had been obedient to Adam, but because of his sin of disobedience, he found rebellion in himself and in all creatures. The world and humankind became wild — another world. But by sending into the world my Truth, the incarnate Word, I saw to it that he should take away the wildness and uproot the thorns of original sin.”
   

2. Faculties.
   
   "I provided you with the gift of memory so that you might hold fast my benefits and be made a sharer in my own, the eternal Father's power. I gave you understanding so that in the wisdom of my only-begotten Son you might comprehend and know what I the eternal Father want, I who gave you graces with such burning love. I gave you a will to love, making you a sharer in the Holy Spirit's mercy, so that you might love what your understanding sees and knows. All this my gentle providence did, only that you might be capable of understanding and enjoying me and rejoicing in my goodness by seeing me eternally.”
   

3. Redemption.
   
   "Heaven had been closed because of Adam's sin. He did not know his own dignity, considering.
   
   I, God your Father, the eternal Trinity, in my infinite eternal providence, saw to it that humankind was reclothed when you had lost the garment of innocence and were stripped of all virtue and perishing from hunger and dying from the cold in this life of pilgrimage. You were subjected to every kind of misery. The gate of heaven had been locked and you had lost all hope of attaining it.
   
   Humankind was neither loyal nor faithful to me. They violated the obedience I had imposed on them and so fell into death. But I was faithful to them, keeping for them that for which I had created them because I wanted to give them the supreme eternal Good. And to fulfill this my truth, I joined my Godhead, the highest of heights, with the lowliness of their humanity, so that they were redeemed and restored to grace through the blood of my only begotten Son.”
   
   

4. The Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
   
   ”I, supreme providence, saw to this need of yours. Constrained not by any justice or virtue of yours but by my own goodness, I clothed you anew in the person of this gentle loving Word, my only-begotten Son. He, by stripping himself of life, clothed you anew in innocence and grace. You receive this innocence and grace in holy baptism by the power of the blood that washes away the stain of original sin in which you were conceived, which you contracted from your father and your mother My providence provides for this not with bodily pain as was the custom in Old Testament circumcision, but with the gentleness of holy baptism. Thus have you been clothed anew. I made you warm again when my only-begotten Son revealed to you through his pierced body the fire of my charity hidden under the ashes of your humanity. And would this not warm the frozen human heart? Yes, unless it is so obstinate and blinded by selfishness that it does not see how unspeakably much I love you.”
   
   

5. The Eucharist.
   
   ”My providence has given you food to strengthen you while you are pilgrim travelers in this life. And I have so weakened your enemies that no one but you yourself can harm you. The road is cemented with the blood of my Truth so that you may reach the end for which I created you. And what food is this? It is the body and blood of Christ crucified, wholly God, wholly human, the food of angels and the food of life. It is a food that satisfies the hungry soul who finds joy in this bread, but not those who are not hungry, for it is a food that must be taken with the mouth of holy desire and tasted in love. So you see how I have provided for your strengthening.”

“With my wisdom I have organized, and I govern all the world, with such order that nothing is lacking and nothing could be added to it. Everything is provided for in soul and body.”

God Provides for the Imperfect and Perfect alike:

True and perfect hope is more or less perfect in proportion to the soul's love for me, and thus she experiences my providence more or less perfectly. Those who serve me in the simple hope of pleasing me, receive and enjoy it more perfectly than those who serve in hope of reward or pleasure.

The former are those in the final spiritual stage, whose perfection I have described for you. The others are those of the second and third stages, whose hope is set on pleasure and reward.

But in no way will my providence ever fail either the perfect or the imperfect, so long as they do not become presumptuous or put their trust in themselves. And because none of you are stable in this life but are continually changing until you reach your final stable state, I am constantly providing for what you need at any given time.

God Provides Through Trials. For the just, their virtue is tested through trial; for the sinner, trials awaken them to reality:

”In my providence I give to each of you, in particular, the manner of life and death I choose. Hunger, thirst, loss of worldly position, nakedness, cold, heat, insults, abuse, slander—all these things I allow people to say and do to you. Not that I am the source of the malice and ill will of those who do these evil and harmful things; I only grant them their existence and time. I did not give them existence to sin against me and their neighbors, but so that they might serve me and others with loving charity. But I permit these actions either to test the virtue of patience in the soul who is their object, or to make the sinners aware of what they are doing.”

God Provides for Sinners:

Sinners are blinded by their selfish self-centeredness, taking scandal with great impatience. These people judge as bad and hateful and for their harm and destruction what I do in love for their own good, to deliver them from eternal suffering and to win for them and give them eternal life. Why then do they complain about me? Because they put their hope not in me but in themselves. So they hate what they ought to hold in rev-erence. And proud as they are they want to pass judgment on my hidden judgments, all of which are righteous. But they act like the blind who, by the touch of the hand or the taste of the tongue or the sound of the voice, would judge whether something is good or bad, according to their scant, base, sick knowledge. They do not want to keep to my ways, though I am the true Light and the one who nourishes them spiritually and physically, and without me they can have nothing.

I, in my goodness, do not cease to provide for them.

Sinners, despite refusing to acknowledge God and His laws, owe their existence to God’s Providence.

“And if anyone serves me, it is I who have given that person the will and the inclination, the power and the knowledge to be able to do it. Yet like fools they want to walk by feeling about with their hands, though their touch is deceptive because it has no light to discern color. This is how they act: as if they were blind, because they have lost the light of reason. What she hears is her own selfishness, which seems to her to sound sweet. Why so? Because she is chasing after the love of her selfish sensuality and does not see that she is being deceived by its sound, and so she runs on after it with inordinate pleasure and finds herself led into the ditch, bound with the chains of guilt, betrayed into the hands of her enemies—all because she was blinded by selfish love and the trust she had put in herself and her own knowledge, not keeping close to me, her way and her guide. This way was made by the Word, my Son. He said that he is Way, Truth, and Life. And he is Light, so that those who walk with him cannot be deceived or walk in darkness. And no one can come to me except through him, for he is one thing with me. I have already told you that I have made him a bridge for you so that all of you would be able to reach your goal. But in spite of all this, these people do not trust me, though I want nothing other than their sanctification. It is to this end, with great love, that I give and permit everything.

How can people see me feeding and nurturing the worm within the dry wood, pasturing the brute beasts, nourishing the fish in the sea, all the animals on the earth and the birds in the air, commanding the sun to shine on the plants and the dew to fertilize the soil, and not believe that I nourish them as well, my creatures made in my image and likeness? As a matter of fact, all this is done by my goodness to serve them. No matter where they turn, spiritually and materially they will find nothing but my deep burning charity and the greatest, gentle, true, perfect providence. But they do not see it, because they have let go of the light and do not let themselves see.

God continues to love and extend His mercy to Sinners as long as they are alive:

“Despite their great impatience, hatred, complaining, and infidelity, God supports and bears with them in great patience because He loves them without their ever loving Him. He grants all this to provide for their salvation.”

“Endless are the ways of my providence toward sinners to draw them out of the guilt of deadly sin.”

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God Provides for the Imperfect (those who do love God, but do so imperfectly)

Trials of Aridity to Increase Virtue:

Do you know, dearest daughter, how I raise the soul out of her I imperfection? Sometimes I vex her with evil thoughts and a sterile mind. It will seem to her that I have left her completely, without any feeling whatsoever. She does not seem to be in the world, because he is in fact not there; nor does she seem to be in me,because she has no feeling at all other than that her will does not want to sin. I do not allow enemies to open this gate of the will (which is the main gate guarding the city of the soul), which is free. The guard that stands at this gate, free choice, I have made free to say yes or no as he pleases.

Thus, I let understanding be battered by spiritual darkness, and memory seem to be bereft of any thought of me. And sometimes it will seem that all the body's other senses are being besieged in different ways. Though they are seeing and touching and hearing and smelling and walking in holy things, everything will seem to be a source of inconstancy, dishonor, and corruption.

But all this is not meant to be deadly. I do not will the soul's death so long as she is not so stupid as to open the gate of her will. I let her enemies stand outside, but I do not allow them to enter. They cannot enter unless her own will chooses to let them in.

And why do I keep this soul, surrounded by so many enemies, in such pain and distress? Not for her to be captured and lose the wealth of grace, but to show her my providence, so that she will trust not in herself but in me. Then she will rise up from her carelessness and her concern will make her run for protection to me her defender, her kind Father, the provider of her salvation. I want her to be humble, to see that of herself she is nothing and to recognize that her existence and every gift beyond that comes from me, that I am her life. She will recognize this life and my providence when she is liberated through these struggles, for I do not let these things last forever. They come and go as I see necessary for her. Sometimes she will think she is in hell, and then, through no effort of her own, she will be relieved and will have a taste of eternal life.

Why, when she was faithful to prayer and other necessary things, did I not relieve her with light and take away the darkness? Since she was still imperfect, I did not want her taking credit for what was not hers.

So you see how the imperfect soul comes to perfection by fighting these battles, because there she experiences my divine providence whereas before this she only believed in it. I have now guaranteed it to her through experience, and she has conceived perfect love because she has come to know my goodness in my divine providence and has thus risen above her imperfect love.

I even make use of a holy trick, just to raise her up from imperfec-tion: I make her conceive a special love for certain people, beyond a general spiritual love. In this way she practices virtue, lets go of her imperfection, strips her heart of every other sensual love for creatures even any selfish passion for her father and mother, sisters and brothers—and she loves them for my sake. And with this well-ordered love I have given her she chases out the disordered love with which she had loved creatures in the beginning. So you see how she dispels this imperfection.

“I have permitted the struggles and the special love and everything else to bring her to the light of perfection. This is how I employ my providence with the imperfect.”

God Provides for the Perfect through Purification (Pruning)

Now I will tell you about the perfect, how I provide for them to preserve them, to prove their perfection, and to make them keep growing. For there is no one in this life, no matter how per-fect, who cannot grow to greater perfection. So among other things I use the way my Truth described when he said, "I am the true vine, my Father is the vinedresser, and you are the branches. "46 He is the true vine because he proceeds from me, the Father, and whoever remains in him by following his teaching will bear fruit. And so that your fruit may grow and be perfect, I prune you by means of trials: disgrace, in-sults, mockery, abuse, and reproach, with hunger and thirst, by words and actions, as it pleases my goodness to grant to each of you as you are able to endure. For trial is a sign that shows whether the soul's charity is perfect or imperfect.

Patience is proved in the assaults and weariness I allow my ser-vants, and the fire of charity grows in the soul who has compassion for the soul of her abuser. For she grieves more over the offense done to me and the harm done to the other than over her own hurt. This is how those behave who are very perfect, and so they grow. And this is why I permit all these things. I grant them a stinging hunger for the salvation of souls so that they knock day and night at the door of my mercy, so much so that they forget themselves (as I described for you in the state of the perfect47). And the more they abandon themselves, the more they find me.

And where do they seek me? In my Truth, by walking perfectly along the way of his gentle teaching. They have read this gentle glorious book, and as they have read they have learned how, because he wanted to obey me completely and show how much he loved me and the human race, he ran through pain and shame to the table of the most holy cross. There in his suffering he ate as his food the human race.

Thus, by suffering and in a human fashion he showed me how much he loved my honor.

I tell you, these beloved children of mine who have attained the highest perfection through perseverance and watching and constant humble prayer show me that they love me in truth and that they have learned well by following this holy teaching of my Truth in their suffering and in the burdens they bear for their neighbors' salvation.

They have found no other way than this to show their love for me. In-deed, any other way there may be to show their love is based on this principal way, for every good work is done through your neighbors. For no good can be done except in charity for me and your neighbors; if it is not done in this charity it cannot be good even though the action in itself may be virtuous.In the same way evil is done for want of charity. So you see how through this means that I have established for you these souls show their perfection and the genuineness of their love for me by constantly winning their salvation by the sufferings they endure. Then I purify them so their trials will make them produce better and sweeter fruit, and their patience sends up a great fragrance to me.

Aridity:

Sometimes I resort to a pleasant trick with them to keep them humble. I make their feelings fall asleep so that it seems to them they feel nothing either in their will or their emotions, as if they were asleep though not, I say, dead. For the sensual emotions slumber in the perfect soul but they do not die. My providence does this to make them grow and go down into the valley of humility. For then they will wisely rise up above themselves and not be lost. Therefore let no one, however perfect, trust [their feelings.] It is essential to remain in holy fear of Me, for many, who would otherwise not have fallen, have fallen miserably in this way.

Opportunity for Merit:

Sometimes my providence leaves my great servants a pricking, as I did to my gentle apostle Paul, my chosen vessel. After he had received my Truth's teaching in the depths of me the eternal Father, I still left him the pricking and resistance of his flesh.

Could I and can I not make it otherwise for Paul and the others in whom I leave this or that sort of pricking? Yes. Then why does my providence do this? To give them opportunity for merit, to keep them in the self-knowledge whence they draw true humility, to make them compassionate instead of cruel toward their neighbors so that they will sympathize with them in their labors. For those who suffer themselves are far more compassionate to the suffering than are those who have not suffered. They grow to greater love and run to me all anointed with humility and ablaze in the furnace of my charity. And through these means and endless others they attain perfect union- such union and knowledge of my goodness that while they are still in their mortal bodies, they taste the reward of the immortals, though they are still imprisoned in their bodies it seems to them they are outside. And because they have come to know so much of Me, they love Me much. And whoever loves much will have great sorrow; therefore those whose love grows will know more sorrow.

What is the ‘sorrow’ of the souls who love God perfectly?

It is not sorrow from any assault to themselves, nor from bodily suffering, nor from the vexations of the devil, nor from any other painful thing that could happen directly to themselves…. Their sorrow is: They grieve only for offenses committed against Me, for they see how deserving I am of love and service. And they grieve for the harm that comes to souls when they see them walking so blindly through the world's darkness. For in their loving union with me they have contemplated and known how ineffably I love my creatures, seeing how they reflect my likeness, and they have fallen in love with my creatures' beauty for love of me. Therefore they feel unbearable sorrow when they see [souls] straying from my goodness. These sufferings are so great that they make every other suffering diminish in them until they regard nothing as being done to themselves.

I provide for them. How? By revealing myself to them, letting them see in me, with great bitterness, the wickedness and wretchedness of the world and the damnation of souls individually and collectively, as it pleases my goodness to make them grow in love and sorrow. Then, prodded by burning desire they cry out to me in firm hope and with the light of most holy faith, asking my help in such great need. Thus my divine providence sees at one and the same time to the help of the world by letting myself be constrained by my servants' sorrowful tender restless longing, and to their own nurturing and growth in this way to greater and more perfect knowledge and union with me.

The perfect come to such a deep and intense knowledge and love of God, that their wills become one with God’s will. In this way, they are able to love other people the way that God loves them, and they grieve over lost sinners the way that God does. They are pained by what offends God and are sorrowful for souls who go to hell. This love of God and love of souls prompts them to cry out to God for mercy– they become prayerful and penitent, wishing to save souls for love of God. God sees this pure longing of their heart and pours His mercy out.

God has provided for the perfect through purification, purging them of their selfish love, and pruning them so that they may produce and bear fruit:

You see then in how many different ways I provide for these perfect ones, for as long as you are alive you can still grow in perfection and merit. This is why I purge them of every selfish and disordered love, whether temporal or spiritual, and prune them by means of many trials so that they may produce more and better fruit. And because of the great suffering they endure when they see me offended and souls deprived of grace, every lesser emotion of theirs is quelled, until they consider any burden they could bear in this life to be less than nothing.

This is why they care equally about trial and consolation, because they are not seeking their own consolation. They do not love me with a mercenary love for their own selfish pleasure; rather, it is the honor, glory and praise of my name they seek.

“I have also given you the solace of hope, if only you will contemplate in the light of most holy faith the price of the blood that has been paid for you and that gives you firm hope and assurance of salvation. This is the gift of my providence, which has seen to your need for salvation in so many different ways from the beginning of the world until today, and will continue to do so right up to the end. I, the true and just doctor, give you whatever I see your weakness needs to make you perfectly healthy and to keep you healthy. My providence will never fail those who want to receive it. My providence will not fail those who truly hope in me, but it will fail those who hope not in me but in themselves.”

Summary of Divine Providence:

Now have told you just a little bit about my providence for all manner of folk. I showed you how I have done, and do all I do, in providence for your salvation, from the beginning (when I created the first world and then the second, my human creation, giving you existence and creating you in my image and likeness) right up to the end. Everything you have received since you began to be I have given for this purpose (your salvation).

The wicked people of the world who have thrown away the light do not see this. I have told you how they are scandalized at me because they have no knowledge. Yet I bear with them patiently, waiting for them right up to the end, providing for their needs (although they are sinners) in temporal and spiritual things, just as I do for the just.