"loves him as much as she detests the sensual part of her being. The love of God, naturally engenders a hatred of sin, and when the soul discovers that the germ of sin is in her senses, and that in them it takes its root, she cannot avoid hating her senses, and endeavoring, not indeed to destroy them, but to annihilate the vice that is in them, and she cannot attain to this but by great and continued efforts: the root of faults will indeed always exist; for according to St. John. "if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John i. 8)
"O eternal bounty of God !" exclaimed Catherine, "what have you done? From faults spring virtue, from offence pardon, and in contempt love puts forth its blossoms. O then, my children, endeavor to possess that holy hatred of self, it renders you humble, it will give you patience in tribulations, moderation in prosperity, restraint in your deportment, and you will become agreeable to God and man." And she added: "Woe, woe to the soul which has not this holy hatred, for where it does not exist, self-love must reign, and self-love is the cause of all sin, and the root of all vices."
The same doctrine is found in the words that the Apostle heard in Heaven, when he prayed for deliverance from temptation: "Strength is perfected in weakness; " and he added, "I glory in my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell in me." We may, therefore, conclude that the doctrine of Catherine had for its foundation the firm rock of virtue which is Jesus Christ.
