The Eucharist, Miracle of Love

After the noise and confusion of Siena last week’s revelry, on this one, I came out with an opposite yet exhilarating experience. Siena is also home of a so called Eucharistic miracle (giving in the fact that the Eucharist is a miracle in itself). The Basilica of Saint Francis custodies 140 hosts which were consecrated in a Mass on August 14, 1730. After 281 years, these hosts remain as fresh as they were made today.  (See a summary of the complete story below).

The belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is very challenging for Catholics. It is difficult to admit the fact of transubstantiation, because bread and wine retain their appearances after the prayer of consecration. One day, back in Ituango, I had a discussion with a dear nun friend about the lack of preservation of consecrated hosts. She complained that there were no reasons to consume and rotate consecrated hosts kept for a long time in the tabernacle. Why? because they should not spoil since they contain the body of Christ. I said, well that’s a very good point, let me chew that one. And I chew and chew it and trying not to give into doubt I finally concluded: the appearance of bread remains and so the material aspect of it. Therefore it is subject to time as anything on earth is.

I don’t mean here to engage into a theological apology about the Eucharistic presence, but to reflect on our intake of it, as believers. I would like to quote again St Thomas Aquinas Eucharistic hymn Pange Lingua. The last verse of the Tantum ergo stanza, says: praestet fides supplementum sensuum defectui, which translates: “Let faith supplies when our human senses fail.” My great teacher and hero professor in the seminary, Fr. Bob Barron explains it asking: how many times our senses deceive us? The Eucharist is not the only situation when our senses deceive us.

When we stare on the dark sky in a clear night, we say there are the stars because we see them. In fact they are not there, what we see is an illusion of what was there before. Who tells us that? A higher authority in the field, a scientist.  Or in the psychological level, when we see a person for the first time that made a bad impression on us we say, he is a jerk. But later a friend, who knows him well, will come up and tells us, no he is a very kind, generous person. An appearance just can prompt us to make a bad statement on someone before knowing him. But an authority on knowing the person, a friend, tells us the true about him.

Or Diego the explorer in Siena. I was walking by a busy narrow street and saw, outside a restaurant, a table with plates of pieces of ham and different cheeses. There were no chairs and many people were there standing around. It seemed to me like a sample’s stand. So I stopped, approached the table and took a piece of cheese. What seemed to be a degustation station (like in Costco) was in fact a real table for a big party of people on the restaurant. Who told me that? The everybody’s stare on me as I took the cheese and a waiter who saw me passing by; real authorities in the truth of the situation. (I apologized, of course; and embarrassed explained what I thought it to be. All laughed and they invited me to their party).   In the Eucharist, there we see bread and wine when in fact there are the body and blood of Christ. Who tells us that? But the highest authority of all, Jesus Christ himself.

Why it is still the most difficult belief of our faith? I asked that question in prayer before the miraculous hosts in St Francis. Why the miracle of each consecration is not enough to change us? After a while of pondering, I came up with an answer close to last’s week post. It demands accountability. My proclamation and acknowledgement of the mystery of our faith make me a subject of it, what else should I be? It is the Lord! God humiliated to the state of grain and grapes. It embarrasses one who does not want to believe. And if one does, then the Eucharist as the true, real presence of Christ; as a miracle of love invites me to comfort my life to him. Before whom I am accountable to for the love I give.

Exterior of the Basilica of Saint Francis in Siena

Main Altar of the Basilica

Tabernacle Altar where the miracle hosts are kept

Monstrance with the miracuolose hosts

 Story of the Eucharistic Miracle the Siena

(from Eucharistic Miracles by Joan Carroll Cruz):

On August 14, 1730 most of the Sienese population and clergy were attending the devotions of the vigil of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Cathedral. Taking advantage of this, thieves entered the church of Saint Francis and carried away a golden ciborium containing consecrated hosts. Nothing was known until the next morning when the priest opened the tabernacle at the Communion of the Mass. The suspicion of a sacrilege was confirmed when later a parishioner found the lid of the ciborium lying in the street.

Two days later, on August 17, while praying in the Church of St. Mary of Provenzano, a priest's found 348 hosts in the offering box. The Hosts were compared with some unconsecrated ones used in the Church of St. Francis, and proved to be exactly the same size and to have the same mark of the irons upon which they were baked. The number of Hosts corresponded exactly to the number the Franciscan friars had estimated were in the ciborium.

Since the offering box was opened but once a year, the Hosts were covered with the dust and debris that had collected there. After being carefully cleaned by the priests, they were enclosed in a ciborium and placed inside the tabernacle of the main altar of the Church of St. Mary and later were taking back to the Church of St. Francis.

During the two centuries that followed it has sometimes been wondered why the Hosts were not consumed by a priest during Mass, which would have been the ordinary procedure in such a case. While there is no definite answer, there are two theories. One explanation is that crowds of people from both Sienna and neighboring cities gathered in the church to offer prayers of reparation before the sacred particles, forcing the priests to conserve them for a time. The other reason the priests did not consume them might well have been because of their soiled condition. While the Hosts were superficially cleaned after their discovery, they still retained a great deal of dirt. In such cases it is not necessary to consume consecrated Hosts, but it is permitted to allow them to deteriorate naturally.

The truth is that these hosts never have deteriorated. With the passage of time, the Conventual Franciscans became convinced that they were witnessing a continuing miracle of preservation. Many investigations and examinations have been made at intervals over the years. The final statement of sciences has been that the holy Particles of unleavened bread represent an example of perfect preservation ... a singular phenomenon that inverts the natural law of the conservation of organic material. It is a fact unique in the annals of science.

The miraculous Hosts have been cherished and venerated in the Basilica of St. Francis in Siena for over 250 years.

Popular Religiosity and Secular Festivity

Siena has gone nuts this week. One must forget about Italian classes or any regular activity you pretend to do here. The town is shut down. Monday the 15th of August was a national holiday and Tuesday the 16th a Siena’s extension of it. There was impossible to have any human interaction outside the context of the events. People’s minds were in the piazza; the solution, to join them. So, I have witnessed the festivities of il Palio, which are a combination of Super Bowl, Mardi Gras, and World War III. It was a glimpse on a medieval spectacle, with all of the pageantry and the generally harmless chaos.

Contrary to what many people think, the palio is actually a banner cherished by the winner of a competition. In this case, it is a horserace which is run to celebrate the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Siena. It was first run on August 16, 1656 and then in 1701 in honor of the “Madonna dell’ Assunta” the patroness and advocate of Siena.

"Piazza del Campo" is still used today for the horse race. The whole square is amazingly fit for such manifestation because its shape is that of a medieval Roman amphitheater closed at the base by the straight line of the Palazzo Pubblico. Besides being semi-circular this peculiar square is also funnel-shaped like the theatres of the imperial age. The preparations for the parades and the race itself are slow and methodic like a liturgical procedure. Four days before the day of the Palio trials take place in the "Campo." Along with the preparations, there were neighborhood’s street parties which are a welcoming blend of street fair, frat party, and Fellini movie. There one finds free-flowing wine mixing with rock bands, gossiping elders, carnival booths and family parties. Rumors of drugged horses, mugged riders, and general thuggish behavior colored the events.
On Sunday 14th, I saw in a poster the invitation to pray in the evening the first vespers in the Cathedral. Additionally, prior to the prayer, there was a procession with the Palio, (the trophy for the winner of the race) which featured an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So I thought it was going to be a good thing to see as well. I went to the procession which obviously was crowed. Each neighborhood had a group of children bringing candle offerings to Mary. What I did not know was that the procession was a closed local event. If you are not part of a neighborhood, you don’t have anything to do there. This confirmed the fact that somehow this 700-year-old horse race is both the most touristy and the most local event in Italy.

I was trying to get a good picture of the procession until I was interrupted by an Italian mama who asked me something I couldn’t understand. The only word that sounded familiar was genitore. In the 2 seconds that this interaction lasted, I had to figure out the question and of course my answer. The first thing I thought, judging by the word I understood, was a reference to Thomas Aquinas Eucharistic hymn Pange Lingua where the last verse starts with the words Genitori Genitoque … (To the everlasting Father and the Son). Judging by the context, a procession, and the reference, I only could think on the Eucharist. My easy and fast answer was Si certamente (Yes, indeed). Then, this lady pushed me into the procession!
Suddenly, I wasn’t a spectator anymore, but part of the procession leading to the Duomo.

Only the idea of getting inside the Doumo was very thrilling. After a while, I finally figured out what that lady asked me. She said: are you one of the children’s parent (genitore) in the procession? I got embarrassed, and tried to get out of there. But it was too late. The procession already had reached its destination and nobody could get in or out. But my sense of guilt for an innocent incorrect answer, which I did not mean, was overcome by the splendor of the cathedral inside. I never had felt beauty in that way before. It was what Dr Dennis McNamara, in Mundelein seminary, means about a church building: a true attempt to represent heaven on earth! The sense of transcendence and flotation that gothic architecture gives us is so powerful in this place. I forgot for some time what I was doing there, what was going on. The cacophony of drums sounds, people talking among themselves, children screaming and the archbishop giving a speech nobody seemed to care were secondary in the scene. My whole being only could marvel on the beauty of the place, which brought up my nothingness and my need to worship.

When I came back to my senses, I saw the people around me making the sign of cross. The archbishop gave a final blessing. Then I remembered that the point for the people to come in procession was prayer and to make the candle offerings. But what kind of prayer was it? Silence was only obvious by its total absence. The dilemma of popular religiosity and right worship came up in my analytical mind.
It is a fact that the festivities were to honor the Assumption of Mary to heaven. However, the formal liturgical celebration is so out of people’s priorities. After everybody left the cathedral, I stayed for a little longer and then I witnessed the archbishop presiding on solemn vespers over a small group of faithful. Was not everybody else aware of the Mystery they were celebrating? I should be careful this time to answer that question. Il Palio of Siena is a secular feast with religious connotations. That is a fairer way to say it. It is almost close to what Christmas is becoming in America. Again, does it mean people neglect the Mystery? I would say no, it does not.

People in a secular society, even here in Italy I would say it is a secular society, are very much aware of the existence of the transcendent, the reality of God and the mystery that God is. The gospel is so in our midst. The majority, a great majority of us, just chooses not to confront our individual existences with the mystery of God. Because to acknowledge it formally is compelling and demands accountability to Him and to what we really are. It seems like it is better and easy to live in denial. The gospel, certainly, calls us out of the world and set us up apart in the liturgy where we face and take the deepest and most honest true of our existence: children of God destined to worship Him in heaven. This is what Mary is doing right now. The solemnity of her Assumption into heaven in body and soul is the mirroring of the mystery of Christ resurrection and the assurance of our hope to get into the same state. It is the solemnity of the restoration and elevation of the material.

All of what happened before the horserace is but a prelude, a time of anxiety and expectation. When at last the horses appeared and the race started, the crowd became delirious. The jockeys goaded their horses round the square three times and the people shout as if the town were about to fall. It only lasted 90 seconds. Then the winners run to the cathedral with the jockey on their shoulders to give thanks to their Lord and their Madonna. They celebrated the solemnity of the elevation of the material and with their hearts enhanced somehow acknowledged their final destiny. Simply they just resist embracing it once and for all.





Ceremony of the assignation of horses.

in the assignation of the horses, conspiracy theories are common

In order to get a place on the bleacher seats, one must have the time, money and negotiating skills



So, because I lacked of the above requirements I joined the masses in the center of the square for the race. From the center of the square, the race does not make much sense. It is over in less than 2 minutes, but who cares? I was part of the scene!



Children of the procession with the candles

I must respond to the Italian lady: No signora, I am not a genitore.

To seat there costs between 200 and 300 euros. Horses getting ready to start.

the weather? Splendid sunny warm summer afternoon

Stain glass in the Duomo

Cealing of the cathedral

Yes, the archbishop is talking. I must take this picture. I don't understand what he is saying anyway.



and finally, this is the PALIO, just freshly blessed.



Oh Perfume of Freedom!

“Diego you need a cell phone. Next time when you come abroad, make sure you have a cell phone.” It was the statement of the week, made by one German classmate in broken Italian, obviously.  Really? Was the only thing I could think. I just nod like approving the sentence and to end the discussion. However, what my classmate did not is that I completely disagree with her.  It has been three weeks without a cell phone and I love it! I don’t think I will make an effort on having one here. It is real, pure and sophisticated freedom what I am experiencing without one; sweet smell of detachment.

What prompted the statement was the difficulty that, apparently, a group of students will have on finding me among the crowds in Piazza del Campo. The plan was to be together and enjoy the festivities of Il Palio di Siena over the long weekend ahead of us. Siena is in festa,  the Assumption of Mary is the excuse and there are not classes on Monday. Things have worked out well so far without a cell phone. It has made me more punctual and organized with time and plans. Nevertheless, I asked to myself questions like: How was life before cell phones?   How did people get together before and find each other? How one did pick up someone at the airport without a cell phone?  What did you do if you got a flat tire on the road? Those are just funny questions. Funny because we all know that we did not need cell phones to live and the questions sound like if we depend on cell phones for living. But it seems like we do. In fact, a full charged battery is one considerably increasing basic human need today, almost close to water.

But don’t get me wrong. I recognize that I have not established a social life, relationships or work here yet that will demand the “need” of a cell phone. Also I recognize, of course, the advantages of cell phones today and how easy life is because of the service they give us. With all technology and sciences, we should marvel on our capacity to invent things for the benefit of humanity. So, the point being here is to evaluate our use of cell phones, rather than to condemn them.

First of all, let’s define what a cell phone is and what it does. A cell phone is a device of instant communication among people. It gives us the convenience of getting quick and prompt answers to our questions or requests. We love them because instantaneity is the best thing we ever can experience.   Therefore, cell phones also carry out our emotions faster. Just think on the last time you stared at your phone full of frustration because the other doesn’t answer, or doesn’t call you back, or simple doesn’t reply to your text message. What about the phantom ringing or vibration. How many times have you heard your phone ringing or feel its vibration when in fact it did not? These are experiences that go beyond the basic service of the phone: to shorter distances for people to have a conversation about an important issue to be resolved at the moment.  

There is a need of connection among us, that’s true. The Lord wants us together and connected to Him and to each other. But the connection that cell phones give us involves certain addictive symptoms. Although we are still far away for the medical sciences to officially define addiction to cell phones, the characteristics of the behaviors we adopt when we are far away or with no access to the phone, are very similar to those of any recognized addictions. There is anxiety and nervousness. There is fear and loss of control. There is frustration even to the point of depression. That’s how the enemy takes advantage of us with something useful bringing us to a point of destruction. The addiction per se is not to the device itself but to what it does to me. It makes me feel important and popular. It develops stronger in me the illusion that the whole world should care about me. Also I dare to say that a ringing phone in Mass is the devil among us. There, the enemy accomplishes what he loves the best: to interrupt our prayer and break our connection to God.

A cell phone is a very useful thing, yes indeed! Yet, it is not essential for living. No having one here has made me appreciate more my only and true dependence on God alone. It is real, pure, sophisticated freedom; freedom from one less attachment. By going to celebrate Mass at the Sanctuary of Saint Catherine of Siena, I have felt how much her testimony has challenged me in a great deal. I feel so far away from my goal. But it is through little things like detachment from a cell phone how we get trained for heaven. We only can see the face of God when we have a free and total, undivided, whole heart for Him. But, it feels too much else in my heart still.

Fabulus view from the bench in the park where I sit in the afternoons to repeat Italian words like a parrot.

Front of the Society Dante Aligheri, the Italian language school

Inner court yard of the school.

Piazza del Campo is getting ready for the festivities of Il Palio this weekend. Barracaides, benches and the race track have been temporaly built.

A good street view, coming back from school to my room

This is Via della Sapienza, where we live in Siena

Friday's full moon night in Piazza del Campo

Siena is a flawless gift of the Middle Ages to the modern imagination.  It is a town frozen in time. Medieval streets, walls and buildings make of it a magical place. But my fascination with the scenery is eclipsed with a certain shadow of unconformity. Yes, I am out of my comfort zone again, yet familiar experiences and feelings come back from one hour to the next.  Learning a new language is a painful experience that magnifies. Behold the heart of the contrast and paradox.

We arrived on the early evening of Sunday and settled down on a small apart studio with a kitchenette that the school arranged for us. After closing our mouths in awe with the town, the first thing to do was to look for the grocery store. Luckily enough it is just one block away around our building.  For those of you who have experienced Europe, you probably know this: you got to pay for the plastic bags in which to pack your groceries. So we learned to save and reuse them and to go with our backpacks to the supermarket.

The funny thing was that I saw behind the entrance of the supermarket the window of our room. So we decided to go back through a set of stairs down the supermarket. According to my calculations, those stairs should take us back to the street we needed to go avoiding going back around the block as we came. The steps indeed took us back to the street behind and beyond! We found ourselves in the street behind the apartment with no way to enter the building from there. Siena’s streets are a real challenge. It is a labyrinth. Well, it was a bad idea to take a shortcut with our hands busy with heavy grocery bags. We did not only have to go back to the apartment but to do so by climbing back 100 stairs.

We should pay close attention to the kind of shortcuts we try to take on our way back home, heaven, our true home. In that, we always run the risk of getting lost or encountering unnecessary complications and trials in addition to the normal ones that we encounter due to the disciplining of the senses. I felt so out of place in school this week and I have to learn a big lesson of humility. I do not speak Italian and can’t pretend otherwise. The temptation is to run away. Why not? I like being a parish priest and I don’t have one here. But I am being obedient to God’s will and I am a strong believer that the Lord never takes us to where we won’t be protected by his grace.

How is God working through these personal trials to continue forming me into his priest, specifically for this particular moment in the life of the Church in the United States of America? Precisely through humility. And I don’t see it is a  mere coincidence that the house in Rome is in via dell’ Umiltá (humility street) and that the patroness of the North American college in Rome is Our Lady of Humility. I may re do Peter’s question in the gospel today. Lord, if it is you, let me speak Italian and get through this! I just have to keep focus on Him and not look around on the waves and get distracted by the winds. Otherwise, I will sink like Peter. Yet, I always need to cry out “Lord, save me!”

But the Lord gave me a consolation. I was welcomed by the Dominican sisters who staff the Sanctuary of St Catherine of Siena. There is the house where the town’s saint lived around six centuries ago. In the complex, there is the chapel of the Crucifix, where I have joined their chaplain in concelebrating daily Mass. The chapel is a treasure in itself that guards an important relic of St Catherine’s. The crucifix in the main altar is the same one before which St Catherine got the stigmata in the 14^th century. It has been a place for me to pray and I just wish I could be so united to our Lord as Saint Catherine was when she lived here.

God bless you all!

Now enjoy some pics:

This is the "Doumo" or Siena's cathedral and Santa Maria della Scala. A marvelous accomplishment of architecture.

The "Doumo" dominates Siena's skyline

The facade of the Cathedral is rich and made of the best materials. it is a true testimony to the towns great devotion to our Lady. Now they are praying a solemn novena in preparation for the solemnity of the Assumption, the extravagant Siena's patroness feast.

Today's sunset in Siena. This is the basilica of San Dominico. A church from the 13th Century. there is kept the uncorropted head of Saint Catherine. The apartment where we live is across the street of San Dominico's. The building below-right of the church is the Sanctuary house of Saint Catherine.

Another view of the house of Saint Catherine in the end of the street. The flags are Siena's and people display them in their houses in preparation for the feast on the 15th-16th of August.

This is the interior of the Chapel of the Crucifix, the main altar and the crucifix before which Saint Catherine had the stigmata. Here is where I say Mass every day.

Palazzo Pubblico and Torre del Mangia dominate Piazza del Campo, Siena's main plaza.

Another view of Piazza del Campo full of locals and visitors. The piazza is turned into a horse race track for "Il Palio" a horse race in honor of our Lady on August 15-16.

It has been a delight just to sit down in the Piazza enjoying the scenery.

Piazza del Campo is also a great spot for eating