This is the presentation of the Saint of the day for March 24, Saint Catherine of Sweden by Catholic Lectionary.
Who is Saint Catherine of Sweden
O Christian Soul, only a holy parent can raise a holy child. The lives of Saints John Bosco, John Vianney, Therese of Child Jesus, Rita of Cascia, Augustine, Bernadette, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, John Paul II, and many other saints will testify to that.
The above mentioned saints were all raised by holy parents. Catherine of Sweden was the fourth child of the great St Bridget of Sweden.
She is also known as Catherine Vadstena. At the age of seven, Catherine was sent to the Abbess of the Convent of Riseberg to be educated; and soon, she showed a desire for a life of self-mortification and devotion to spiritual things, just like her mother.
At the age of 13, she married Lord Eggert van Kyren, a very religious young nobleman and they loved each other deeply. She persuaded her husband and they took a vow of absolute chastity, and both lived in a state of virginity.
In 1349, Catherine accompanied her mother to Rome and soon after their arrival, she received the news of the death of her husband in Sweden. She was grieved. She wrote a book called ‘Consolation of a soul’.
Reflect on your Life
Is it possible that a rightfully wedded husband and wife would live together under the same roof without any conjugal union? Just living like brother and sister?
Are they not humans, flesh and blood? Or do they not want to have children which many couples are crazy about? After their wedding, St Louise Martin and his wife Zelie lived for 10 good months without touching each other.
It was their spiritual director who came into the picture and said to them, “What are you doing? Don’t you want to bear children?” And when they did bear children, they had five holy daughters – St Therese of Child Jesus and the other four.
After the death of their only child, St Isidore the Farmer and his wife vowed to live in chastity, which they did till death. These saints mentioned above are not super human, they only practiced the virtue of ‘Continence’ – When married couples agree to deny themselves their conjugal union for the sake of God.
I also call it ‘Self-Control in marriage.’ The reason why we are different from the saints is that they are very creative in finding ways of doing penance for the sake of God.
If Jesus could deny Himself His heavenly throne and comfort just to come down to this wretched world and suffer for man who is absolutely nothing, what can we not deny ourselves for Him?
That was why St Teresa of Calcutta vowed not to deny God anything. If there were to be but a little self-control in marriages today, there wouldn’t be so many divorce cases, and there wouldn’t be so many abortion of babies inside marriages, and there wouldn’t be so many cases of the use of contraceptives disapproved by the Church.
We are too far away from where the saints are, and we can’t enter heaven with this kind of ungodly lifestyle. Or is it possible that we are no longer interested in going to heaven?
Who else has the word of eternal life but that Man who is in heaven? Oh! Oh! Things are really going bad in so many marriages! God have mercy on us.
Call to Meditation
‘A ray of light enables us to see the dust that is in the air. In the same way, the lives of the Saints show us our defects. If we fail to see our faults, it is because we have not looked at the lives of holy men and women’ [St Anthony of Padua].
This day, my most Chaste Jesus, help me to tread that path which the Saints trod and got to where You are. Amen.
Having gone through this piece about saint of the day for March 24, make effort Oh Christian soul to amend your life. Peace of Christ be with you.
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