Letter of Saint Catherine of Siena to Brother William and to Messer Matteo of the Misericordia and to Brother Santi and to her other Sons
Letter of Saint Catherine of Siena to Brother William and to Messer Matteo of the Misericordia and to Brother Santi and to her other Sons
Bands of Charity
Ἀ
Dearest sons in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood, with desire to see you bound in the bands of charity, for I consider that without this bond we cannot please God. This is the sweet sign by which the servants and sons of Christ are recognized. But think, my sons, that this bond must be clean, and not spotted by self-love. If thou lovest thy Creator, love and serve Him in so far as He is highest and eternal good, worthy of being loved, and not for thine own profit, for that would be a mercenary love, like a miser who loves money because of his avarice.
Ὠ
In this letter Saint Catherine speaks of a gift given to all sons of Christ - the bands of charity, by which the children of God are drawn into and remain united in love to Him and, to one another. In the same breath however, Catherine gives caution. For even bound up in such love, the bands themselves can be dirtied in the vanity of self-love, the love of God for His gifts, rather than in the worthiness that His Highest and Eternal Good truly deserves.
No soul abandons the pit of self-love unless drawn by a love greater than its own. Thus, does the Lord not wait for the impossibility of the soul’s self-perfection. Rather, He descends to our imperfection, drawing the soul beyond its self-love into something greater - the perfect love of God, which alone frees it from the stain of self-love.
For the soul that has truly tasted the selfless love of Christ finds within itself a growing desire to forsake the love of self for the love of Him. Saint Catherine is not demanding her brothers and sons in Christ love the Lord for she knows this is already so. She is drawing them away from the mercenary love of God based only on His gifts - to be bound up in the perfect charity we have already received as sinners, and are now called to give unto others, as brothers.
Supportive Scripture - Douay Rheims Challoner Bible
Romans 5:8-9 But God commendeth his charity towards us: because when as yet we were sinners according to the time Christ died for us.
The bands of charity in which Christ Crucified clothes the soul are not to be worn in pride or avarice for one's own glory. They are to be worn in the same charity they were given - not the love of self but cleanly and unspotted, in the sacrifice of self-love for the grace of others to the glory of God. For the soul reaches maturity not in loving God for the blessings He bestows, but because He is infinitely worthy of love. This is the charity no longer measured by what it receives, but by its true and participatory union with Him from whom all loves first flows.
Saint Catherine Concludes…
Ἀ
So let your love for your neighbour be clean. Love, love one another; you are neighbours one of the other. But be on your guard, for if your love where founded in your own profit or in the private affection which you might have for one another, it would not endure, but would fail, and your soul would find itself empty. The love which is founded in God must be of such a sort that it has to love with regard to virtue, and inasmuch as the friend is a creature made in the image of God. For while delight in him whom I love, or profit from him may grow less, if one abides in God love does not fail, because one loves with regard to virtue and the honour of God, and not to one's own personality.
Ὠ
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1828
The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who 'first loved us.'
Posted Jul 10, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC