Saint Catherine of Genoa
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The Way of Peace
When the good God calls us in this world, he finds us full of vices and sins, and his first work is to give us the instinct to practice virtue; then he incites us to desire perfection, and afterwards, by infused grace, he conducts us to the true self-naughting, and finally to the true transformation. This is the extraordinary road along which God conducts the soul. But when the soul is thus naughted and transformed, it no longer works, or speaks, or wills, or feels, or understands, nor has it in itself any knowledge, either of that which is internal or external, which could possibly affect it; and, in all these things God is its director and guide without the help of any creature.
In this state, the soul is in such peace and tranquillity that it seems to her that both soul and body are immersed in a sea of the profoundest peace, from which she would not issue for anything that could happen in this life. She remains immovable, imperturbable, and neither her humanity nor her spirit feels anything except the sweetest peace, of which she is so full, that if her flesh, her bones, her nerves were pressed, nothing would issue from them but peace. And all day long she sings softly to herself for joy, saying: "Shall I show thee what God is? No one finds peace apart from him."
Caterinetta Fieschi Adorna was born to a noble family in Genoa in 1447, and for many years after her marriage at sixteen she was caught between her spiritual yearnings and the demands of her marriage and her position in society. At twenty-seven she experienced a soul-shattering conversion, and from then on her life became a remarkable combination of intense devotion and practical service of the sick and destitute. Her husband was transformed by her example and joined her in her work. This translation is from G. Ripley, Life and Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa (New York: Christian Press Association Publishing Co., 1896).
