It’s the Feast of Feria / S Catherine of Ricci, 4th Class, with the color of Violet. In this episode: the meditation: “Receptivity to the Word of God”, today’s news from the Church: “Communiqué From the General House: Meeting in Rome”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop.

• “Receptivity to the Word of God” – From Epiphany to Lent
  • https://angeluspress.org/products/epiphany-to-lent
  
  

• https://fsspx.news/en/news/communique-general-house-meeting-rome-57196

• https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop

Saint Catherine of Ricci was a mystic whose hidden life behind convent walls radiated spiritual intensity far beyond her cloister. Born in 1522 in Florence as Alessandra Lucrezia Romola de’ Ricci, she lost her mother at an early age and grew up in a household connected to noble circles. Yet from childhood she showed little interest in society or display. She longed for prayer, silence, and union with Christ. Against obstacles and concerns about her health, she entered the Dominican convent of San Vincenzo in Prato at the age of thirteen, taking the name Catherine.

Her religious life was marked almost immediately by extraordinary mystical experiences. At a time when the Church was carefully discerning claims of visions and spiritual phenomena, Catherine’s experiences were both intense and prolonged. Beginning in her late teens, she entered into weekly ecstasies in which she relived the Passion of Christ with vivid clarity. For twelve years, each Thursday and Friday she was seen absorbed in contemplation of the suffering of the Lord, her body bearing signs of interior participation in His agony. Witnesses, including clergy and superiors, carefully documented these events. Catherine herself never sought them and often asked that they cease, fearing pride or misunderstanding. What grounded her mysticism was not spectacle, but obedience and humility.

Beyond these experiences, Catherine proved a capable and balanced leader. She was elected prioress while still young and governed her community with firmness and compassion. She insisted on regular observance, charity among sisters, and fidelity to Dominican spirituality rooted in truth and contemplation. Her letters reveal a woman deeply practical, offering counsel to laypeople and clergy alike, including encouragement to reformers and even correspondence with figures such as Saint Philip Neri. She understood mystical union not as escape from responsibility, but as fuel for it.

Catherine’s life was also marked by long illness, which she bore without complaint. The extraordinary did not remove the ordinary cross. Instead, her suffering became another form of union with Christ. She died in 1590, revered locally as a saint even before official recognition. The Church later canonized her, acknowledging that her mystical life was inseparable from humility, discipline, and service.

Traditions surrounding Saint Catherine of Ricci remain strongest within the Dominican family. Her feast on February 13 is associated with meditation on the Passion and with prayers for discernment in mystical matters. She is invoked by those seeking deeper contemplative life without abandoning practical responsibility.

Saint Catherine of Ricci teaches that true mysticism does not separate us from the Cross, but unites us to it more completely.

Saint Catherine of Ricci, bride of Christ and witness of His Passion, pray for us.

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