April 2024 WATERritual: ‘Set the World on Fire’ like Catherine of Siena – WATER – Womens Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual

April 2024 WATERritual

‘Set the World on Fire’ like Catherine of Siena

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

By Diann L. Neu and WATER Staff

Watch the WATERritual here on YouTube.

Preparation: Have near you a candle, a rock, bread, and drink.

Welcome and Call to Gather

We gather to honor St. Catherine of Siena for her feast day, April 29th, which marks her death in 1380 at the age of thirty-three. We come together to be challenged by Catherine to “set the world on fire.”

In 1970, Pope Paul VI proclaimed St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa of Avila the first women Doctors of the Church. This means Catherine is among the thirty-six major theologians recognized by the Church, and her writings are approved teachings for the whole Church for all time. Today, we lift up this amazing woman who challenges us to share in her wisdom, knowledge, and love.

St. Catherine of Siena was born March 25, 1347, and died on April 29, 1380. She cared for the sick, wrote letters to popes, and counseled kings, queens, and her own mother. Filled with joy, compassion, and charm, she attracted disciples, who called her “Mama.”

Catherine’s works are written in the beautiful Tuscan dialect of her time and rank among the classics of the Italian language. We use her words and works in this liturgy to tell the story of how she “set the world on fire.”

What word comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “Set the world on fire.” Let’s speak our one word aloud now. Sharing.

Song: “As a Fire Is Meant for Burning,” text by Ruth Duck (The Faith We Sing, GIA Publications, 1992)

As a fire is meant for burning with a bright and warming flame,
So a church is meant for healing, giving glory to God’s name.
Not to preach mere creed or custom, but to prove God’s longing care,
We join hands across the nations, finding neighbors everywhere.

As a green bud in the springtime is the sign of life renewed,
may we grow as signs of oneness ’mid Earth’s peoples, many-hued.
As a rainbow lights the heavens when a storm is past and gone,
may our lives reflect the radiance of God’s new and glorious dawn.

We are learners; we are teachers; we are pilgrims on the way.
We are bearers of the gospel; we are children of the day.
By our gentle, loving actions, we would show that Christ is light.
In a humble, listening Spirit, we would live to God’s delight.

Catherine the Mystic

From an early age, Catherine experienced visions, ecstasies, and spiritual struggles. She wrote The Dialogue, an imagined conversation between God and herself. Its central message is the unifying power of love through the personal Christ who cares for all.

Listen to Catherine
“I have told you this, my dearest daughter, to let you know the perfection of this unitive state in which souls are carried off by the fire of my charity. In that charity they receive supernatural light, and in that light they love me. For love follows upon understanding. The more they know, the more they love, and the more they love, the more they know. Thus each nourishes the other. By this light they reach that eternal vision of me in which they see and taste me in truth when soul is separated from body.”

–“Dialogue 85,” excerpt from Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, trans. and introduced by Suzanne Noffke, OP

Pray with Catherine
“In your nature, eternal Godhead, I shall come to know my nature.
And what is my nature, boundless love?
It is fire, because you are nothing but a fire of love.
And you have given humankind a share in this nature,
for by the fire of love you created us.
And so with all other people and every created thing;
you made them out of love.”

–“Prayer 12,” from The Prayers of Catherine of Siena

Response: Let us light a candle.

Ubi caritas et amor. Ubi caritas; Deus ibi est.
Live in charity and steadfast love. Live in charity; God will dwell with you.

Catherine the Prophet

Catherine was a public voice in the political and ecclesiastical affairs of her time. She advised Pope Urban VI on the reunification of the Church during the Great Schism, when two popes claimed legitimacy. She encouraged Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome in 1377 after seventy years in France, confronting the clergy for their avarice and urging them toward greater holiness. And he did. Though she had public relationships with popes and other national leaders, like other women of the fourteenth century, Catherine experienced sexism.

Listen to Catherine
“My very sex, as I need not tell you, puts many obstacles in the way.”
–From Raymond of Capua’s “Legenda major 1.3,” in The Life of Catherine of Siena, trans. Conleth Kearns

“Does it not depend on my own will where I shall pour out my grace? With me, there is no longer male and female, nor lower and upper class. All stand equal in my sight.”
–“Dialogue 60,” from The Prayers of Catherine of Siena

Pray with Catherine
“Eternal goodness, you want me to gaze into you and see that you love me,
To see that you love me gratuitously so that I may love everyone with the very same love.
You want me, then, to love and serve my neighbors gratuitously,
by helping them spiritually and materially as much as I can . . .
God, come to our assistance!”
–“Prayer 12,” from The Prayers of Catherine of Siena

Response: Hold your candle as we sing.

Song: “Ubi Caritas,” by Taizé

Catherine the Activist

Catherine was bold and fearless. After her early visions, she left her solitary life to minister and comfort those with disease, the dying, and those in prison. She did what many others avoided, including digging graves for the deceased with her bare hands and attending to those with aggressive cancers that the doctors would not treat. She exemplified selflessness, mercy, and love. Catherine challenges us to comfort those who are suffering and to act justly.

Listen to Catherine
“I pray you then, you and me and every other servant of God, that we devote ourselves to understanding ourselves perfectly, in order that we may more perfectly recognize the goodwill of God, so that enlightened, we may abandon judging our neighbor, and acquire true compassion.”

–“Letters 66, Letter to Sister Daniella of Orvieto,” in Medieval Women’s Visionary Literature, ed. Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff

Pray with Catherine
“O dearest daughter, this patience is a queen who stands guard upon the rock of courage. She is an invincible victor. She does not stand along, but with perseverance as her companion.”

–“Dialogue 95,” from The Prayers of Catherine of Siena

Response: Take a rock. Hold this rock of courage as we sing.

Song: “Ubi Caritas,” by Taizé

Reflection | Sharing
Think about what you have heard Catherine of Siena say and pray.
How are you called to “set the word on fire?”

Catherine and the Eucharist

The Eucharist was central to Catherine’s spirituality. She believed the Eucharist calls us to action, to take responsibility, to apply our faith in all the events of daily life. She explicitly disapproved of priests who believed they controlled the Eucharist and thus denied it to those who crave it. She was vocal about her belief in the unifying power of the Eucharist for all those who crave it.

Listen to Catherine
Hold your bread and drink, and listen to Catherine’s words as our Eucharistic prayer.

“Contemplate the marvelous state of the soul who receives this bread of life, this food of angels…When she receives this sacrament she lives in me and I in her… Grace lives in such a soul because, having received this bread of life in grace, she lives in grace. When this appearance of bread has been consumed, I leave behind the imprint of my grace, just as a seal that is pressed into warm wax leaves its imprint when it is lifted off. Thus does the power of the sacrament remain there in the soul; that is, the warmth of my divine charity, the mercy of the Holy Spirit, remains there.”

–“Dialogue 112,” from The Prayers of Catherine of Siena

Pray with Catherine
Catherine’s prayer reflects that the Eucharist expresses God’s continuing presence among us and strengthens us for our life’s journey.

“O boundless charity! Just as you gave us yourself, wholly God and wholly human,
so you left us all of yourself as food so that while we are pilgrims in this life
we might not collapse in our weariness but be strengthened by you, heavenly food.”

–“Prayers 10:24-45,” from The Prayers of Catherine of Siena

Response: Let us eat and drink remembering love and mercy.

Take Action
Let us put our prayers into action. On April 29, the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena, focus on love and do something to honor Catherine of Siena.

Read about Catherine of Siena. Use the resources listed below or go online to read more.
Visit someone who is sick. Comfort a child.
Talk with your local officials and conversation partners about how hard lines can divide us, but working together and in compromise we heal and advance forward.
Challenge your church leadership to speak up about and take action on social justice issues.
Call your elected officials and remind them that they took office to care for the community, not to impose medieval and draconian laws on modern society.

Sending Forth
Like Catherine, we are called to be mystics, prophets, and activists who love and serve our neighbors, advocate for justice, challenge abuse of power by church authorities, and work for reform, reconciliation, and healing.

Let us send one another forth with the words of Catherine of Siena, “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”

Song: “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys

Learn More from these Resources

Catherine’s Writings

Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue. Trans. Suzanne Noffke. New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1980.
The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena. Vol. 1. Trans. Suzanne Noffke. Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1988.
The Prayers of Catherine of Siena. 2nd edition. Trans. and ed. Suzanne Noffke. San Jose, CA: Authors Choice Press, 2001.

Books about Catherine

Dreyer, Elizabeth A. A Retreat with Catherine of Siena: Living the Truth of Love. Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1999.
King, Ursula. Christian Mystics: The Spiritual Heart of the Christian Tradition. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Editions, 1998.
Madigan, Shawn, C.S.J, editor. Mystics, Visionaries & Prophets: A Historical Anthology of Women’s Spiritual Writings. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
Meehan, Bridget Mary. “St. Catherine of Siena: ‘Cry [out] as if you have a million voices, it is silence that kills the world.” Bridget Mary’s Blog. February 9, 2017. bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2017/02/st-catherine-of-siena-cry-out-as-if-you.
Noffke, Suzanne. Catherine of Siena: Vision Through a Distant Eye. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996.