From the time she was a young child, Catherine of Siena sought God ceaselessly in both contemplation and action. By the time she was twenty-one, she had experienced her mystical «marriage» to Christ, and had thrown herself tirelessly into ministering to the poor and the sick. Throughout her active ministry, Catherine pursued eternal Truth through prayer, reading, and ecstatic experiences. While in a trance, Catherine dictated The Dialogues—presented here in contemporary English. In this intense and searching work, the saint of Siena offers up petitions to God, filling her conversation with instruction on discernment, true and false spiritual emotion, obedience, and truth, and revealing her famous image of Christ as the Bridge. Catherine's brilliant insights into the nature of the spiritual life and the character of the Church will motivate contemporary Christians to unite a life of prayer with a life of action.
