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."
According to Villegas, the Dialogues are structured "as God's response to four petitions that Catherine addressed to God for herself, for reform of the Church, for the world and peace among human beings, and for the unfolding of God's providence." Villegas focuses on Catherine's so-called discernment, "a virtue based on knowledge of self acquired in prayer." Self-knowledge implies self-regulation and action in accordance with the divine will. Catherine's personal experience demonstrates that action is also implicit in self-knowledge, for behavior as action implies engagement with the world. Indeed, what is important about the Dialogues with regard to Catherine's accomplishments as a (lay) nun is that they emerged out of the interpenetration of Catherine's mystical way of life, which she never discarded, and her increasing engagement with the world. Some three years after a life of contemplative solitude, she
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