Gathering the Harvest of Catherine’s Love and Humility

Presentation given by Mary C. Sullivan rsm on 29 September, 2013 at the Second National Symposium on Catherine McAuley, Charleville, Ireland.

Mary illustrated several instances of Catherine’s love and humility. Catherine was truly aware of the love God had for her and declared if the love of God truly reigned in our hearts, it would quickly show itself in the exterior by our having a tender esteem for others. Side by side with love she valued humility to an extraordinary degree. She was constantly aware that those ‘whom Christ has graciously permitted to assist him in the person of his suffering poor have their hearts filled with gratitude and love and placing all their confidence in Him, ever keep his unwearied patience and humility present in their minds’.

Mary questioned the process of canonization as operated today and how the holiness of a person who is so loved and venerated so widely throughout the world is required to be proven within the confines of two physical miracles. Catherine, who has special appeal from people from all walks of life, is believed and known to work all kinds of miracles - psychological, spiritual and physical, during the last ninety years and indeed since her death.