You are incapable of appraising human weakness, and how man lacks judgement and discernment, trusting only in himself and in his own ideas.
O foolish man! Do you not perceive that your capacity to understand comes from Me? Do you not see that it is I Who gives you knowledge and looks after your needs? Reflect on your experience: you try to do things for which you have neither the capability nor the knowledge; when you are able, you do not know, and when you know, you are not able. Sometimes you want to do something, but have no time; later, you have the time but not the desire!
All of this depends on Me, for your good. You should acknowledge that you are nothing; you should humble yourself and abandon your pride. As things do not depend on you, you only find instability and privation; My grace alone is stable and steadfast. It alone will never be taken from you or changed. You will never be lost due to sin, against your will. […]
O good and beloved daughter, humanity was disloyal and unfaithful to Me. It disobeyed My command and met with death. But I was constant in My faithfulness, and I upheld the end for which I created man, with the purpose of granting him happiness. I joined divine nature, in its perfection, to the wretchedness of human nature and redeemed humanity, restoring it to grace by the death of My Son.
Men know all of this, but they do not believe that I have the power to help them, the strength to assist and defend them from their enemies, the wisdom to illuminate their intelligence, the mercy to provide them with what is necessary for salvation, the wealth to enrich them, the beauty to adorn them, and that I possess the goods to nourish them and garments to clothe them. Their way of living declares that they do not trust in Me; if they did, their actions would be holy and honest.
St. Catherine of Siena,
“Dialogue with God the Father,” Ch. CXL
St. Catherine of Siena – Sacristy of the Convent of St. Dominic, Lima (Peru)
