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Hi, I'm Edwards 3 and welcome to all things Catholic, where real faith meets real life.

Hi and welcome to the special edition of all things Catholic.

I'm your host, Edward Sri.

Today's episode was recorded last week while I was on pilgrimage in Italy, and we are in

Sienna at the house of the great St. Catherine of Sienna, the doctor of the church.

But we're not just in her house.

We're actually standing right outside her very room, her cell, where she resided for three years in almost unbroken solitude.

This is where she had those mystical conversations with God, her famous dialogue.

So much of her writings, so much of her spiritual wisdom comes from what happened right here in this room.

And I'm going to take you there.

And we're going to get to learn from her wisdom on the spiritual life and the depth of prayer.

So here we are in Siena, and we had at our first major pilgrimage stop at the house of St.

Catholic of Siena. We are downstairs right outside the room, the small, tiny room, where

she dwelt for three years in almost unbroken solitude, having intimate conversations with God. And when we hear about

the story of Catherine and her amazing life of prayer, sometimes I think when we hear the stories of

saints, we can get a little intimidated and go, wow, they prayed for three years in silence.

I can barely pray for three minutes and not lose my attention.

We could get a little intimidated by them. But I want you to understand all the saints,

especially Catherine, they're so human. They're so human. We can relate to them if we understand

their true story, the fuller story of these saints. So let me start here and ask you this question. Does anyone here

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