Readings

September 15: [Catherine of Genoa, Mystic and Nurse, 1510]

The Collect of the Day

Catherine of Genoa

Gracious God, reveal to your church the depths of your love; that, like your servant Catherine of Genoa, we might give ourselves in loving service, knowing that we have been perfectly loved by you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Catherine of Genoa

Gracious God, reveal to thy church the depths of thy love; that, like thy servant Catherine of Genoa, we might give ourselves in loving service, knowing that we have been perfectly loved by thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Catherine of Genoa is remembered both for her ministry of nursing the sick during repeated plagues, and also for the works that she wrote recounting her mystical experiences. Her writings became widely known when they were made the subject of Baron Friedrich von Hügel's classic work The Mystical Element of Religion (1908).

Catherine was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1447, the youngest of five children. As a teenager, Catherine wanted to become a nun, but her application to the convent was denied. Instead, she was married at the age of 16 to Giuliano Adorno as part of an attempt to end the feud between their two families. The couple were initially miserable together. Giuliano was angry, unfaithful, and lost most of their money through gambling and reckless spending. Catherine spent the first ten years of her marriage in a deep depression, praying that God would strike her with a great sickness so that she could remain in bed all day.

The trajectory of her life was changed on March 22nd, 1473 when she had a sudden mystical experience. While she was in church, in the middle of making her confession to a priest, she was suddenly struck with an overpowering sense of the overwhelming love of God. She was so stunned and dazed by this experience that she walked out of the church without even completing her confession. This was the beginning of a life of profound prayer.

Catherine combined a deep and intense contemplative life with an active dedication to caring for the sick in the local hospital. In time, her husband joined her in this work, and the couple became increasingly close to one another through their shared labor for those in need. They eventually moved together into the Pannatome, a large hospital in Genoa, in order to devote themselves completely to caring for the sick there. There Catherine also dictated a number of works of mystical theology, which were published some 40 years after her death.

Catherine insisted that God should be loved only for God’s self, and not for anything that one might expect to receive from him, insisting that “Pure Love loves God without any for.” She also wrote: “All that I have said is nothing compared to what I feel within, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the soul; for when God sees the soul, as pure as it was in its origins, he tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to himself with a fiery love that by itself could annihilate the immortal soul.”

She died on September 15th, 1510 while nursing the sick, and was buried in the hospital chapel.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

3Be merciful to me, O Lord, for you are my God; *I call upon you all the day long.

4Gladden the soul of your servant, *for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

5For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, *and great is your love toward all who call upon you.

6Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, *and attend to the voice of my supplications.

7In the time of my trouble I will call upon you, *for you will answer me.

8Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, *nor anything like your works.

9All the nations you have made will come and worship you, O Lord, *and glorify your Name.

10For you are great; you do wondrous things; *and you alone are God.

11Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; *knit my heart to you that I may fear your Name.

12I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, *and glorify your Name for evermore.

Gospel

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Zephaniah 1:7–18

7 Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is at hand; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests. 8 And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice I will punish the officials and the king’s sons and all who dress themselves in foreign attire. 9 On that day I will punish all who leap over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud. 10 On that day, says the Lord, a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills. 11 The inhabitants of the Mortar wail, for all the traders have perished; all who weigh out silver are cut off. 12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.” 13 Their wealth shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them. 14 The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the warrior cries aloud there. 15 That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. 17 I will bring such distress upon people that they shall walk like the blind; because they have sinned against the Lord, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath; in the fire of his passion the whole earth shall be consumed; for a full, a terrible end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

John 15:5–17

5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.