Divine Love
April 29, 2025
Hello! How is each and every one? What a providential time for this post today after Divine Mercy Sunday. Deus caritas est! God is Love and His love is shown in His Mercy. Jesus, I trust in You! Jesus died that each one of us may be saved. He loved each one of us even when you and I are sinners. Greater love than His no one has! And yet He is the one deserving of all love. May you and I learn to love and to be merciful as He is and you and I witness this in our own personal life. Let us make time and provide occasions to make acts of faith, hope and love many times during the day. Lord, I believe, increase my faith; I trust, strengthen my trust; I love, let me love you more and more each day!
Indeed! It is providential that today, April 29, the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Catherine of Sienna, who refers to God as her mad lover.
29 April
St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
The value Catherine makes central in her short life and which sounds clearly and consistently through her experience is complete surrender to Christ. What is most impressive about her is that she learns to view her surrender to her Lord as a goal to be reached through time.
She was the 23rd child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa and grew up as an intelligent, cheerful and intensely religious person. Catherine disappointed her mother by cutting off her hair as a protest against being overly encouraged to improve her appearance in order to attract a husband. Her father ordered her to be left in peace and she was given a room of her own for prayer and meditation.
She entered the Dominican Third Order at 18 and spent the next three years in seclusion, prayer and austerity. Gradually a group of followers gathered around her - men and women, priests and religious. An active public apostolate grew out of her contemplative life. Her letters, mostly for spiritual instruction and encouragement of her followers, began to take more and more note of public affairs. Opposition and slander resulted from her mixing fearlessly with the world and speaking with the candor and authority of one completely committed to Christ. She was cleared of all charges at the Dominican General Chapter of 1374.
Her public influence reached great heights because of her evident holiness, her membership in the Dominican Third Order, and the deep impression she made on the Pope. She worked tirelessly for the crusade against the Turks and for peace between Florence and the Pope.
In 1378, the Great Schism began, splitting the allegiance of Christendom between two, then three, Popes and putting even saints on opposing sides. Catherine spent the last two years of her life in Rome, in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Urban VI and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim for the Church in its agony. She died surrounded by her "children."
Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church. In 1939, she and Francis of Assisi were declared co-patrons of Italy. Paul VI named her and Teresa of Avila doctors of the Church in 1970. Her spiritual testament is found in The Dialogue.
Quote:
Catherine's book Dialogue contains four treatises - her testament of faith to the spiritual world. She wrote, "No one should judge that he has greater perfection because he performs great penances and gives himself in excess to the staying of the body than he who does less, inasmuch as neither virtue nor merit consists therein; for otherwise he would be an evil case, who for some legitimate reason was unable to do actual penance. Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored with the light of true discretion without which the soul is worth nothing".
Finally, we have reached the last chapter on what we have been talking about and preparing ourselves for and that is, the love of God (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 11).
Approaching Divinity: The Ladder of Divine Love
Draw near to God in confidence, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction.—St. John of the Cross, Saying of Light and Love, no. 63
The Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross compared the process of divinization to the ladder a lover leans against his beloved’s window on the night of their elopement. He called this the “ladder of divine love.”
The Mystic Ladder of Divine Love by St. John of the Cross
St. John of the Cross, drawing from the
insights of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Thomas Aquinas, describes the
spiritual journey toward divine union as an ascent on the “mystic ladder of
divine love.” This ladder, also called “the ladder of contemplative purgation,”
symbolizes the soul’s progressive purification and deepening love for God
through infused contemplation. St. John begins by defining contemplation as
“the science of love, which is an infused loving knowledge of God, and which enlightens
the soul and at the same time kindles within it the fire of love till it shall
ascend upwards step by step unto God its Creator; for it is love only that
unites the soul and God” (433). He likens love to fire, which “ever ascends,
hastening to be absorbed in the centre of its sphere” (440).
St. John delineates ten steps on this mystical ladder, detailing the signs and effects of each stage to guide those enduring the dark nights and seeking to discern their progress in divine love.
The Ten Steps of the Mystic Ladder
1. Love Causes the Soul to Languish for
God
In the first step, love detaches the
soul from earthly desires, making it languish with longing for God. The soul
begins to experience a profound disinterest in worldly pleasures, focusing entirely
on God. St. John references the Song of Songs: “I adjure you, O
daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Him that I languish with love”
(Song 5:8).
2. Love Inspires a Constant Search for God
The soul becomes consumed with seeking
the Beloved in all things—thoughts, words, and actions. This search is
unceasing, as exemplified in Scripture: “I will rise; I will seek Him whom my
soul loveth” (Song 3:1–2) and “Seek His face always” (Ps 104:4).
3. Love Gives the Soul Fervor in Its Work
Love fills the soul with fervor,
enabling it to labor tirelessly for God’s glory. The soul desires to die a
thousand deaths to compensate for its perceived insufficiencies in serving Him.
St. John quotes, “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, he shall delight
exceedingly in His commandments” (Ps 111:1) and “They seemed but a few days
because of the greatness of his love” (Gen 29:20).
4. Love Strengthens the Soul to Suffer Boldly for God
At this stage, love emboldens the soul
to endure suffering for God’s sake without seeking gain for itself. The soul’s
sole desire is to please God at any cost. St. Augustine observes, “Love makes
all that is grievous and heavy to be light as nothing.”
5. Love Creates an Impatient Longing for God
The soul, now filled with divine love,
longs for God with such intensity that it becomes impatient for union. As the
psalmist expresses, “My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord”
(Ps 83:2).
6. Love Propels the Soul Swiftly Toward God
In this step, love accelerates the
soul’s movement toward God, carrying it with strength and urgency. Scripture
conveys this dynamic movement: “They that hope in the Lord shall renew their
strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint” (Is 40:31) and “As the hart panteth after the
fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God” (Ps 41:1).
7. Love Makes the Soul Bold in Prayer
Love gives the soul boldness to ask God
for what it desires, trusting that its prayers will be answered. St. John
reflects on the boldness of love: “Love… believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things” (1 Cor 13:7) and “Delight in the Lord, and He will
give thee the requests of thy heart” (Ps 36:4).
8. Love Enables the Soul to Hold Fast to God
Having found the Beloved, the soul
clings tightly to Him, refusing to let go. St. John recalls the words of the
Bride in the Song of Songs: “I found Him whom my heart and soul
love; I held Him and I will not let Him go” (Song 3:4).
9. Love Fills the Soul with Sweetness from the Holy Spirit
At this stage, the soul experiences an
intense sweetness from the Holy Spirit, who bestows upon it indescribable
riches and blessings. St. Gregory comments that the Apostles “burned interiorly
with love sweetly, when the Holy Ghost descended upon them.”
10. Love Perfects the Soul in Union with God
In the final step, the soul is wholly
assimilated to God, achieving perfect union through the clear and immediate
vision of Him. This stage is characterized by the soul’s complete
transformation into the divine. St. John draws on the beatitudes: “Blessed are
the clean in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8) and “We know that, when
He shall appear, we shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1
John 3:2).
Conclusion: The Ladder as a Journey to
Divine Union
The mystic ladder of divine love
outlined by St. John of the Cross is a vivid representation of the soul’s
ascent toward union with God. Each step signifies a deepening purification and
intensification of love, drawing the soul closer to its Creator. St. John’s
reflections provide invaluable guidance for those navigating the dark nights,
emphasizing that love is both the means and the end of the spiritual journey.
As he affirms, “it is love only that unites the soul and God” (433). Through
this transformative process, the soul becomes increasingly conformed to God’s
image, culminating in the beatific vision and eternal communion with Him.
Although climbing the ladder takes real effort, it isn’t a task to be taken up grudgingly. We’re not planning to paint the side of the house! We’re eloping with our beloved! With each step we are falling more and more deeply in love with God, who is our beginning, middle, and end. With each step, we become a little more amazed by how wonderful our God is, and a little more astonished at the incredible works he is doing in our lives, often without our even realizing it.
Falling in love with God is like falling in love with the man or woman of our dreams, only it’s a million times better. There is nothing boring or dutiful about falling in love. It is a source of endless fascination, exploration, transformation, and joy. Our union with God, the completion of our divinization, is not merely some self-improvement project, a duty that demands to be met, or a job that needs to be completed. It is our joyful participation in the greatest love story ever told.
Climbing the Ladder of divine Love
In the first stage of divinization—known as the purgative way—we begin to climb the ladder of divine love by learning to (as Augustine put it) “trample our vices underfoot.”
Higher up the ladder—on the illuminative way—we climb more confidently, using the sturdier rungs made of the divine longings of the human heart. At this second stage, we no longer experience our desires as a distraction. Instead, we undergo a total reorientation of our desire, enabling us to single-mindedly focus on drawing closer to God and fulfilling his mission in our lives. As we respond more perfectly to each of our seven divine longings, we don’t just draw closer to our true selves; we also draw closer to God. The increased sense of abundance, dignity, justice, peace, trust, well-being, and communion that we receive as gifts from God are really an experience of a deeper participation in the life of God as we climb the ladder of divine love.
Nearing the top of St. John of the Cross’s ladder, we enter the unitive way and the final stages of our divine transformation. Finally, we are ready to fall into the arms of our betrothed, the God whom St. Catherine of Sienna called her “mad lover.”
There you have it all to bring into your quiet moments of
conversation with the Lord. The saints
are witnesses to Divine Love. You and I need to experience what they shared; to
encounter the Divine Lover along the path, journey or ladder of faith, hope and
love. Let’s ask them to intercede for us
and accompany us on our way to Divine Love and Life.
See
you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may
you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care;
‘til He brings us together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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