Note: The exact, original words of Saint Catherine are: “If you are what you ought to be, you will set fire to all Italy, and not only yonder.” The paraphrased version in the wallpaper is technically the words of Pope St. John Paul II in a homily for the 2000 World Youth Day in Toronto. JPII was intentionally paraphrasing Saint Catherine and it preserves the full essence of her original words, so I still attribute it to her here. The original quote can be found in St. Catherine of Siena As Seen in Her Letters.
While editing the photo, I pushed some settings to their limits to create intense contrast, and I liked how the ground began to look like it was actually charred, going along with the quote. It also creates a contrast with the night sky: on the top is a cool canvas of lights, and on the bottom is a warm canvas of lights.
Fire has the ability to purify and renew. Think of various metals in a crucible smelted together under insane heat to form an alloy stronger than the individual ingredients. Saint Catherine is calling us to transform the world with a purifying fire. How? By being what God designed us to be. Fire has a lot of meaning, and I talk about that more in the Vision of Hell I experienced.
I like to ask others, “If you never had to worry about money, how would you spend your days?” A question like this moves us beyond material needs and into the realm of how to feed our spiritual hunger. It unearths the passions that we have. We have all been given gifts from our Creator, and I believe they are part of the equation in determining what role he has for each of our lives.
For me, music flows through my body. It’s a bug and I can’t shake it and don’t want to shake it. Out of fear and doubt, though, it took me till I was 18 to actually acknowledge the gift and it wasn’t till I was 26 that I seriously started to unwrap it. Even if you’ve spent years with unwrapped gifts, it’s never too late to start unpacking them. If you use that gift to serve God, you will set the world ablaze.
Need a bit of guidance knowing what your next step is? YouTube: Father Mike and Ascension Presents: What Does God Want Me to Do?
