St. Catherine of Siena

“You must be thirsty, then, and you must gather together, as he said, either two or three or more. Why did he say ‘two or three’? Because there are not two without three nor three without two… Those who are wrapped up in selfish love of themselves are alone, mere nothings, because they are cut off from [God’s] grace and from charity for their neighbors.”

Source: St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Paulist Press, 1980

The Dialogue was dictated by Catherine over a period of five days. Three scribes worked to keep up with Catherine as she related a conversation she was having with God the Father in a vision. Catherine was the 25th child of her parents, and being a typical woman in the 1300’s, she was uneducated. It is miraculous that an uneducated woman could write a book as sophisticated and brilliant as the Dialogue over just five days, when she didn’t even have the ability to write.