- Ann
Catherine of Siena: Simplicity
The pandemic has straightened out a lot of curves in my life. Curves I thought I had to travel just to live on the planet. Turns out there’s a lot of places we don’t need to go.
Catherine (Cathy): Ann, I have been hovering in the background hoping that you might notice my presence. Thank you, Anita**, for the shout out. The idea of “simpler, deeper, finer, truer” is a concept dear to my heart.
You would think that I would have mastered this idea as a woman, if not in orders, then devoted to a stripped down spiritual journey.
I thought so too, and it has taken me quite a while to discover that I was looking in the wrong direction to achieve a simple life devoted to God.
I thought that if I cut down my pleasures, cut off the needs of my body and concentrated only on the needs of others and my role as spiritual envoy in a politically charged world, I would be living a simple life.
Wrong. Dead wrong. Literally, as I died, essentially of starvation in my early thirties. Though my connection with Spirit was true, my interpretation of the spiritual life left much to be desired. I indulged in extreme fasting not realizing that I was doing was indulging my ego, making myself holier than my fellows so that my voice could ring with gentle authority when I faced down a pope and his minions on my way to brokering peace deals in the midst of war. It seemed like a simple approach, but it was not.
Now I see what simplicity is. It’s just not complicated. It’s love in every dimension and iteration. If it does not further love, then it’s not needed. I am suiting up for a return engagement. I need a do over. I need to put into practice my evolved understanding of a simple life devoted to Spirit. That life, if I can manage it, will be simply a life with no pretense.
Sounds simple, (smiling), but I rather suspect there will be significant challenges lurking where I least expect them. I defy a human being to travel this planet without an ego. I tried to kill mine the last time around and ended up feeding it my body and blood instead.
This time I want to watch myself shuck and jive and then laugh as I try to put one over on God. I tried that last time but I never got the joke. I actually thought I could bring it off.
This time I want to travel knowing that I will trip over that ego several times a day, and I want to feed those face plants to the Holy Spirit with a joyful heart. Now that would be an exercise in simplicity and quite the accomplishment, for in such a life, I would just be a worker in the vineyard, nothing more, nothing less.
And nothing is more holy or closer to God than the soul that sees itself as a part of the whole, important, unique, yes, complicated, no, just rooted in love and growing in spirit closer to its Creator every minute of every day.
April 5, 2021
*Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), a lay member of the Dominican Order, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and the Catholic Church. Her influence with Pope Gregory XI played a role in his decision to leave Avignon for Rome. She was then sent by him to negotiate peace with Florence. She died at the age of thirty-three from complications of extreme fasting.
**Anita Sacco. See "Recommended Channelers" under "Resources" tab. Anita can be contacted for purchase of obtaining the recipe for her protection spray or readings at https://www.etsy.com/shop/FairyTaleEnd.