All the Way to Heaven is Heaven

At the end of April, we celebrate the feast of St. Catherine of Siena. One of her many sayings is that “all the way to heaven is heaven.”  Indeed, this can sound puzzling for us who continue to endure the effects of sin in our lives, manifested in ways that aren’t “heavenly.”

The petition “Our Father, who art in heaven” sheds light on what St. Catherine meant. In the biblical sense, heaven is not a place, but a way of being.  St. Augustine says, “God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple” (see CCC 2794). Our destiny is to dwell forever in the Father’s house, as it is the true homeland toward which we are heading and to which, already, we belong (CCC 2802).

Granted, we can’t presume that we deserve to dwell there, but God is present in the humble and contrite heart (Isaiah 57:15).

The virtue of prayerfulness is one of the ways to live fully the saying of St. Catherine of Siena. It is an interior disposition of being conscious of the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity and striving to live the beatitude of the pure of heart (Matthew 5:8).

Prayerfulness is “seeing God” in each moment of our lives, and offering worship, praise and adoration to Him by our thoughts, words, and deeds. St. Catherine of Siena was a busy woman in her lifetime, and from her “interior cell” she jumped hastily to the Father’s house, gathering with her as many souls as she could.

St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us.