St. Catherine (1347-80) is one of the most beloved spiritual teachers of all time. Born the twenty-fourth of twenty-five children, as a young girl she decided not to marry and to join the third order of Dominicans, in order to serve God. Catherine lived during the ferment of the late Middle Ages and was known both for her mystical experiences and for the way that she would sometimes instruct and even scold popes, bishops, clergy, and anyone else who may have lost sight of God alone.   These profound writings are taken from her Dialogues, which were always intended for the widest possible readership. In these intense and searching paragraphs, she offers up petitions to God, instructs on how to discern the way, discovers true and false emotions, and explores her famous image of Christ as the Bridge.