Welcome to our daily rosary meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

Today is the feast of Catherine of Siena. She is a doctor of the church, which means what she has to teach is for

everyone. Now, Catherine was born on March 15th in the year 1347 obviously in Siena, Italy.

At 16, moved by a vision of St. Dominic, she decided to become a third-order Dominican.

That means she would remain a layperson the rest of her life,

but she would be dedicated to prayer, to penance, and to caring for the physical

and spiritual needs of the people around her.

Her main work, however, was to give spiritual direction and counsel to all categories of people.

Noblemen, politicians, ordinary people, artists, priests,

religious, bishops, and even Pope Gregory the 11th.

And they all called her mama, because she cared for them as her spiritual children.

Now her confessor, Saint Raymond of Capua, wrote her biography,

but I also really like the biography written by Seagrid Unset because it weaves together

both Raymond's work and Catherine's own letters. So you really get a profound insight to her, not only her life, but her soul.

And you can find her spiritual teaching in a work that was dictated to her by Christ, called

the Dialogue of divine providence. In 1970 Pope Paul the 6 made her a doctor of the

church, but I think what I like best about Catherine is that she experienced her first vision of Christ when she was six.

And right at that moment she dedicated her life to him.

I think Charles Dayfulcald, St Charles Dayfulcald,

captures her sentiment at that moment perfectly when he writes,

As soon as I knew God was real, I had to live for him alone.

...