Be What You Ought to Be — Catherine of Siena

A Prayer of Holy Desire

Be What You Ought to Be

Catherine of Siena · 1347–1380

Catherine's love of God drove her from hidden prayer into the world. Pray for holy desire — to become fully what God made you to be — and let that fire spill into your corner of the world.

Sound

Catherine's words to Stefano Maconi were “set fire to all Italy”; “the world” is the familiar later paraphrase.

St Catherine of Siena — Letter 368 to Stefano Maconi. (“set the world on fire” is the common paraphrase of “set fire to all Italy.”)