Hi, I'm Edwards Three, and welcome to all things Catholic where real faith meets real life. Do you ever feel like God is not listening? You know you show up for prayer you're trying to cry out to God but you wonder if he's really there? Does he really hear me? I don't feel close to God.

If you've ever had these experiences in your spiritual life, know you're in great company,

because so many of the Saints have gone through these

periods of dryness and darkness including the great saint the church is

getting ready to celebrate this upcoming week and I'm so excited I want to tell you about the saint because she

offers us tremendous wisdom about those moments of difficulty what is really happening

that God is doing something beautiful in our souls when we face those dryness

times in prayer, those desert times in prayer, that God is actually doing something deep

in our souls even though we may not realize it. We may not feel it.

She also offers us good wisdom on what to do, how to respond and cooperate with God in those periods

when I sense he's so far away from me right now.

Who's the great saint I'm talking about?

It's not just any saint, she's a great doctor of the church.

She's held up as a tremendous spiritual guide for our lives.

Who am I talking about?

I'm talking about the great Saint Catherine of Siena,

the medieval mystic, and welcome to all things Catholic.

I'm your host, Edward Sree, so excited to get into the saint.

No, she's really one of my favorite saints, I have to tell you.

And it wasn't always this way.

I was aware of her growing up, but it was really in my doctoral studies, during my doctoral program, which was not in spiritual

theology, was actually in scripture and in dogmatic theology.

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