Hello everybody:

The Sacred Order of Friars Preachers observes on the 30th of April the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena as a Totum Duplex of the First Class (or at least they would this year, were it not for the Paschal Octave, which will cause the Office to be transferred next week), having commemorated her Sacred Stigmata on 1 April with a Duplex Office.

The proper Office and Mass that the Seraphic Virgin enjoys in her Order's Breviary and Missal are very beautiful, and I am sorry that the paucity of time and exigencies of present circuмstance forbid me to offer you more than the following Alleluiac versicle that occurs in the Mass:

Alleluia, alleluia. V. More refulgent than all the stars is Catherine: and, moreover, she is an eternal ornament unto Virgins. Alleluia.

Oh, at the Invitatory at Matins, the Dominicans cry forth:

Let us humbly adore Christ the King of kings: * Who hath endowed Catherine the Sienese Virgin with immortal glory, Alleluia.

This great Saint gives us an example that is particularly relevant to our age. Her Dialogue is absolutely beautiful and rich in that profound theology that one can only attain by the infused contemplation of the mysteries of the faith.