Saturday, August 6, 2011

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 14th 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

2 comments:

  1. What you share is particularly meaningful to me…. you have a beautiful gift in what you write.

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  2. Thank you for sharing your journey - good to hear from you and how you are doing -- you are in our thoughts and prayers - we appreciate and need your example of faith.

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