A Day in Siena with My Brothers

Location: Siena

Hello to all our friends, family, and generous benefactors of Mundelein! Luke Lato here! I’m a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Chicago. 

To start off, I just would like to thank all of you for your continuous prayers for us as we follow in the footsteps of so many of our ancestors in faith. We greatly appreciate all of your love and support for us and our vocations. We could not do this without you. Please be assured of our continuous prayers for you as well.

Today was an incredible day! We woke up in the beautiful hills of Assisi, where we spent a couple days in silence and prayer contemplating the immense number of graces the Lord has been pouring out to us. We left Assisi shortly after breakfast and began our journey to Siena. 

Siena has become a special place for me. My younger sister Mary, who is one of the closest people in my life, studied in Siena for a summer. While she was there, I visited her to celebrate her birthday, and she introduced me to one of the greatest cities I’ve been to. 

We started the journey by going to the Basilica of St. Catherine and St. Dominic. At this basilica, they had several relics of St. Catherine. The greatest of the relics is her head. As you can see, she is one of the few saints whose body is incorrupt. They have her head on display as a witness to her holiness. We also prayed before the stairs that she commonly prayed before and received several visions of Jesus. One of these paintings depicts a vision she had where she longed to receive the Holy Eucharist, but there was no priest available, so the Lord appeared and celebrated the Mass for her and fed her his own body.

After this, we ventured to the house where she grew up. They have renovated it into a sanctuary with a couple of beautiful chapels. They also preserved her tiny bedroom, where she also received incredible locutions of Jesus. It was in her bedroom that Jesus held out his heart to St. Catherine and gave it to her.

One of these most beautiful paintings was this one. It portrays another vision Catherine had where the Lord placed a ring upon her right ring finger. He intentionally placed the ring there because he wanted to show her that it wasn’t a corporeal union but a spiritual one. This really moved my heart, especially as I approach ordination. My brethren and I are on the way, following in her footsteps and entering into the spiritual union with Jesus by giving our lives entirely to him and his Church.

Following her house, we walked around Siena and took in the beauty of the city. We went to the Cathedral, which is arguably one of the greatest churches in Italy. It’s of course dedicated to Our Lady. One of the defining features is the floor. Throughout the entire cathedral are huge marble carve-outs of pagan philosophers or mystics who tried to discover truth. The floors ultimately lead you to the Altar, who is Christ, who is Truth. It’s incredibly enlightening and spiritually enriching.

Then, our tour guide heard our stomachs growling and let us loose to eat lunch! I love food, so I would be remiss if I did not share about my incredible lunch. We had the famous Sienese pici noodle, which is a thicker noodle. It was mixed in an infamous Cacio e Pepe sauce. Next, we split a mouthwatering Florentine steak. It was a very nice treat.

Once we finished our meal, we returned to the Basilica of St. Catherine and St. Dominic and celebrated the Holy Mass. It was a special privilege we were allowed to celebrate the Mass at the main altar. Some of our brothers are incredibly gifted in chant, so the chant and acoustics of the Basilica beautifully elevated our liturgy.

Lastly, after receiving our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and entering into his Holy Communion with one another, I led the group to the Basilica of St. Francis, where a Eucharistic miracle is reserved. This miracle is very unique. It’s not a singular host that went from possessing the accidents of bread to possessing the accidents of heart flesh. Instead, about a few hundred years ago, someone broke into the church and stole the ciborium in the tabernacle. They went to a neighboring church and dumped all the consecrated hosts into the donation box. Once the hosts were found and accounted for, they realized that there was no damage done to them at all. Not even dust was on them. So, they reserved them in a special monstrance where to this day they remain completely intact as if they were made and consecrated yesterday. It was an absolute gift to bring my brothers to this special place. The Lord truly has blessed us tremendously; it’s all him and his grace.

Now, we sit on a bus to Siena’s arch-nemesis… Florence! Florence will be a beautiful time, but I have to say, I’m definitely team Siena! 

Peace,
Luke Lato , Archdiocese of Chicago