The Dialogue takes the form of a conversation between God and Saint Catherine of Siena covering four subjects. The treatise on divine providence explains the connection between love and suffering, emphasizing that God wants only our love and the service we give to our neighbors. The treatise on discretion introduces the metaphor of the Bridge from earth to heaven. The treatise on prayer gives instructions for the progress from vocal to mental prayer, and describes the higher degrees of prayer. The treatise on obedience covers the necessity and rewards of obedience. Catherine of Siena was a third order Dominican in fourteenth-century Tuscany. As a young adult, she devoted herself to prayer, fasting, and mortifications. After this period of solitude, with its accompanying ecstatic visions, she went out into the world to care for the sick and the poor. Catherine also worked to bring peace and unity among Christians. She was canonized by Pope Pius II and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.

Professing Darkness confirms the centrality of Catholic thought, imagery, and sacrament to the spiritual and ethical outlook of the work of Cormac McCarthy and, more specifically, its consistent assessment of Enlightenment values and their often-catastrophic realization in American history. D. Marcel DeCoste surveys McCarthy’s fiction from both his Tennessee and Southwest periods, with chapters devoted to eight of his published novels—from Outer Dark to The Road—and a conclusion that examines the writer’s screenplay for The Counselor and the duology of The Passenger and Stella Maris. DeCoste’s attentive, wide-ranging interpretations demonstrate that McCarthy’s work mounts a sustained critique of core Enlightenment ideals and their devastating results in the American context, especially for Indigenous peoples, the environment, the viability of community, and the integrity of a self irreducible to the status of a commodity. Professing Darkness shows that Roman Catholic understandings of Penance and Eucharist, along with specific Catholic teachings—such as those regarding the goodness of Creation, the nature of evil, the insufficiency of the self, and the radical invitation to conversion—enable McCarthy’s revelatory engagement with American Enlightenment. An important contribution to the ever-expanding critical literature on a towering contemporary author, Professing Darkness offers an innovative reading of both the spiritual and political valences of McCarthy’s writing.

The future welfare of both Church and state depends chiefly on the manner in which the rising generation is brought up, for if all parents were to give their children a good religious training, the future prosperity of both Church and state would be assured, because a good religious training will make children good Christians, and, as experience proves, good Christians are always good citizens. In our "Popular Instructions on Marriage" we have briefly outlined the duties of parents in the bringing up of their children. In this little work we enter more fully into details, and clearly point out, almost step by step, the manner in which Christian parents should bring up their children from birth to the time when they embrace that state of life for which God has destined them may this little book prove useful in directing and assisting parents in the proper performance of the noble but difficult task of making their children exemplary Christians and virtuous citizens!

The Dialog of Catherine of Siena is a practical and compelling work of Christian mysticism. St. Catherine of Siena, a Dominican Tertiary, wrote it "during a state of ecstasy while in dialogue with God the Father." The book contains a dialog between the "Eternal Father" (God the Father) and "a human soul" (St. Catherine). In it, the Eternal Father describes, through many different analogies, allegories, and metaphors, the spiritual life of humankind. In his description, the Eternal Father emphasizes the importance of cultivating virtue, continually praying, and the need for obedience. Written at a time of spiritual and political upheaval, the Dialog of Catherine of Siena remains relevant even to the present day, and any reader will profit from the sound advice throughout this dialogue. Instructive and profound, the Dialog of Catherine of Siena inspires with a revelation from God.

THE DIALOGUE OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENAA TREATISE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCEHow a soul, elevated by desire of the honor of God, and of the salvation of her neighbors, exercising herself in humble prayer, after she had seen the union of the soul, through love, with God, asked of God four requests.The soul, who is lifted by a very great and yearning desire for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, begins by exercising herself, for a certain space of time, in the ordinary virtues, remaining in the cell of self-knowledge, in order to know better the goodness of God towards her. This she does because knowledge must precede love, and only when she has attained love, can she strive to follow and to clothe herself with the truth. But, in no way, does the creature receive such a taste of the truth, or so brilliant a light therefrom, as by means of humble and continuous prayer, founded on knowledge of herself and of God; because prayer, exercising her in the above way, unites with God the soul that follows the footprints of Christ Crucified, and thus, by desire and affection, and union of love, makes her another Himself. Christ would seem to have meant this, when He said: To him who will love Me and will observe My commandment, will I manifest Myself; and he shall be one thing with Me and I with him. In several places we find similar words, by which we can see that it is, indeed, through the effect of love, that the soul becomes another Himself. That this may be seen more clearly, I will mention what I remember having heard from a handmaid of God, namely, that, when she was lifted up in prayer, with great elevation of mind, God was not wont to conceal, from the eye of her intellect, the love which He had for His servants, but rather to manifest it; and, that among other things, He used to say: “Open the eye of your intellect, and gaze into Me, and you shall see the beauty of My rational creature. And look at those creatures who, among the beauties which I have given to the soul, creating her in My image and similitude, are clothed with the nuptial garment (that is, the garment of love), adorned with many virtues, by which they are united with Me through love. And yet I tell you, if you should ask Me, who these are, I should reply” (said the sweet and amorous Word of God) “they are another Myself, inasmuch as they have lost and denied their own will, and are clothed with Mine, are united to Mine, are conformed to Mine.” It is therefore true, indeed, that the soul unites herself with God by the affection of love.So, that soul, wishing to know and follow the truth more manfully, and lifting her desires first for herself -- for she considered that a soul could not be of use, whether in doctrine, example, or prayer, to her neighbor, if she did not first profit herself, that is, if she did not acquire virtue in herself -- addressed four requests to the Supreme and Eternal Father. The first was for herself; the second for the reformation of the Holy Church; the third a general prayer for the whole world, and in particular for the peace of Christians who rebel, with much lewdness and persecution, against the Holy Church; in the fourth and last, she besought the Divine Providence to provide for things in general, and in particular, for a certain case with which she was concerned.

St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue describes the entire spiritual life through a series of conversations between God and the soul, represented by Catherine herself. Readers of The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena, will find her revelations from God as informative - and formative - as those who recognized her sanctity during her life. The universally applicable yet intimately personal messages she received from God are as much for us as they were for Catherine. We can read God's communications to his beloved daughter with detached awe or we can receive His messages to us through her writings. Do you long for certainty that Divine Providence exists in the midst of our chaotic world? Does your prayer seem too dry, or too routine? Have you sought guidance for the challenges of your life from unhelpful people or things? Or has pride kept you from humble obedience to the Church? If so, The Dialogue will provide consolation, encouragement, and hope.

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), mystic and Doctor of the Church, wrote The Dialogue, her crowning spiritual work, for "the instruction and encouragement of all those whose spiritual welfare was her concern."