1. I also see proceeding from that divine love toward the soul certain rays and fiery flashes, so penetrating and powerful that it seems they must annihilate not only the body but even the soul itself, were it possible.
2. These rays perform two operations: by the first they purify, by the second they annihilate.
3. Look at gold: the more you melt it, the better it becomes, and you could melt it so much that you would annihilate every imperfection in it. This effect fire produces in material things; but the soul cannot be annihilated in God, but rather in itself: and the more you purify it, the more you annihilate it in itself, and in the end it remains purified in God.
4. When gold has been purified even to twenty-four carats, it can no longer be consumed, whatever fire you may give it; for nothing can be consumed but its imperfection. So does the divine fire act in the soul. God holds it in the fire until He has consumed every imperfection in it, and brings it to the perfection of twenty-four carats (each one, however, in its own degree): and when it is purified, it remains wholly in God, without anything in itself of its own, and its being is God.
5. And when He has brought the soul thus purified to Himself, then the soul remains impassible, because nothing more remains in it to be consumed. And if, thus purified, it were still held in the fire, it would not be painful to it; rather it would be to it a fire of divine love, as in eternal life, without any contrariety.
About this translation
This English translation from the Italian was drafted with AI assistance using SWE-2 Max and prepared as a reading edition for this library. Review has included source provenance, section structure, and selected source comparisons and corrections. It has not included a complete independent, sentence-by-sentence translation audit.
Catherine’s teaching was transmitted by her disciples and first printed in 1551. This translation follows the supplied Italian transcription; the introductory note is editorial.
This is a reading copy, not a critical edition. No professional translation certification or ecclesiastical approval is claimed for this modern edition.
No general reuse licence is specified for this modern translation or its source transcription. The age of the original work does not by itself establish their reuse terms.
Remember Eternity · remembereternity.org. AI-assisted English translation drafted with SWE-2 Max from the Italian; selected source comparisons and corrections only. No complete independent translation audit or ecclesiastical approval is claimed. Catherine’s teaching was transmitted by her disciples and first printed in 1551. This translation follows the supplied Italian transcription; the introductory note is editorial. No general reuse licence is specified for this modern translation or its source transcription.