Living Lutheran shared a little thing written about Catherine of Siena whose feast my field site commemorated (very briefly) yesterday. I really don’t know much about the women mystics of the middle ages (even though I have read some of their work) but, what follows, struck me.
Unlike many of the other female mystics of the medieval period, like Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena didn’t live a cloistered life. She was part of a monastic tradition, but she returned to live with her family so that she could live among them and continue to reject them, a much tougher spiritual task. While doing that, she gave away food and clothing, to the detriment of the family wealth. She didn’t care.
I don’t mean to too my own horn but the part I bolded, that was meant to a T while I was a teenager. I should have used “well, Catherine of Siena did it” as an excuse during those years. Though, yes, I did not give food away, or clothing, or even go to church; details, man, details.