From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   August 10th - St. Laurence (or Lawrence)   
      
   St. Laurence was chief of the seven Roman deacons of Pope Sixtus II. In 258   
   Emperor Valerian increased his persecutions of the Christians. One day when   
   Pope Sixtus II was in the cemetery of St. Calistus celebrating the Holy   
   Mysteries accompanied by some members of his clergy, he was arrested.   
      
   As the soldiers took the Pontiff to be put to death, Laurence followed him   
   in anguish saying: "Where are you going, my father, without your son? Where   
   are you going, Holy Pontiff, without your deacon? Isn't it the custom to   
   offer the sacrifice with an assistant? Let me prove I am worthy of the   
   choice you made when you entrusted me with the distribution of the Blood of   
   Our Lord."   
      
   Sixtus replied: "I am not leaving you, my son. They are lenient on old men,   
   not the youth. A greater combat is reserved for you. You will follow me in   
   three days."   
      
   Thinking that the Christians had hidden great treasures, the prefect of Rome   
   called for Laurence, who as first deacon was the custodian of the Church's   
   goods. The prefect ordered Laurence to hand over all the Church's treasures.   
   Laurence answered that he would do so but first he needed to assemble them.   
   So he went out and gathered all the poor and sick people of Rome, then   
   returned and showed them to the prefect, telling him that these were the   
   sole and greatest treasure of the Church. The poor people were the gold, the   
   virgins and widows were the pearls and other precious stones. Furious, the   
   prefect condemned Laurence to die a slow and cruel death.   
      
   The saint was undressed and laid on a grill with burning coals beneath it.   
   Witnesses of the scene saw a radiant joy on the martyr's face. After a   
   certain time had passed, he addressed his torturers saying: "Turn me around,   
   because this side is already well cooked." They turned him, and after a time   
   he said: "It is done and ready to eat." Then turning his eyes to Heaven he   
   prayed to God for the conversion of Rome and expired. His body was carried   
   away by converted Roman Senators who buried him in a grotto in the Verano   
   field, near Tivoli.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)- There are   
   numerous precious data in this selection.   
      
   The first is the dialogue between St. Laurence and St. Sixtus. You know that   
   the holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the bloodless reenacting of the holy   
   sacrifice of the Cross. Now, when a martyr offers his holocaust he imitates   
   Our Lord Jesus Christ who immolated Himself. It is not the reenactment of   
   the sacrifice of the Mass, but it is analogous to it.   
      
   Therefore, one finds two correlations with the Sacrifice of Calvary in the   
   admirable dialogue between St. Sixtus and his Deacon. St. Laurence said to   
   the Pontiff: "Often have you offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with me   
   as assistant. Now at the moment you go to offer you life, would you have no   
   more need of my assistance? Are you putting me aside at this moment? Don't   
   you want my help? Let me go with you to be killed with you. Since I have   
   served you at the foot of the altar during my life, let me serve you now at   
   the feet of death."   
      
   After hearing this marvelous proposal, St. Sixtus prophesized: "I will have   
   an easy death compared to yours. You, young man, will be spared much less   
   than the old man I am. In three days you also will be killed."   
      
   Second, the fidelity of St. Laurence to St. Sixtus shows us a first spark of   
   the Middle Ages. Theirs was a relationship that was primordially   
   ecclesiastic, but it was already a feudal fidelity. This union between lord   
   and vassel in which the person who serves unites himself to the one he   
   serves is much more than a work contract; it is a link of veneration and   
   dedication, it is to offer one's life. The person who serves realizes that   
   he loses his reason to exist without his superior. In this splendid bond of   
   fidelity of St. Laurence to St. Sixtus, we see a beginning of feudalism. In   
   his turn, the superior esteems and protects the inferior. This kind of   
   relationship represented one of the glories of the Middle Ages. Its remnants   
   survived in Christendom even after the French Revolution. In its depth, what   
   the Progressivist Church does is struggle to extinguish the last vestiges of   
   this.   
      
   Third, another admirable point to consider is the episode with the prefect.   
   St. Laurence brought him all the treasures of the Church: the poor people.   
   You have to consider that for the pagan mentality, the poor were despicable.   
   The Roman of that time had an extreme repulsion for the poor. But St.   
   Laurence presented the poor to the prefect as the Church's treasure. He gave   
   the prefect an extraordinary lesson of the supernatural spirit.   
      
   Why is the poor a treasure?   
      
   There are some titles that make any baptized Catholic a treasure: he is a   
   man who is a son of the Catholic Church; he was saved by the infinitely   
   precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ; he was worthy of the supremely   
   valuable tears of Our Lady in the Passion.   
      
   But, there are other titles that specifically apply to the condition of one   
   who is poor. God loves those who suffer deprivation with resignation and in   
   union with Him. When poverty is involuntary, it should be loved by both the   
   one who is poor and by the one who is not. The latter should help the former   
   to leave the state of poverty, but both should realize that there is a real   
   merit in accepting such poverty with resignation. The same applies to   
   sickness. The Church does more than anyone to alleviate illnesses, but she   
   also loves the sick and praises the afflicted man when he bears the   
   suffering with resignation to the will of God. Therefore, one can say that   
   the poor, like the widow and orphan, is a treasure. They are truly treasures   
   within the Holy Church. St. Laurence gave an admirable lesson of the   
   supernatural spirit to the prefect of Rome.   
      
   Fourth, the last lesson St. Laurence gave us was his martyrdom. Without a   
   miracle - and a first class miracle - one cannot understand how a man   
   suffered what he did. He was slowly roasted on a grill with live coals   
   beneath it. You can imagine how painful this would be. Consider how a live   
   animal put to such torment would react: it would roar and jump trying to   
   escape the pain. In a man this torture would raise even stronger reactions,   
   because the animal doesn't have intelligence and can't understand what is   
   happening. Understanding makes the suffering still greater.   
      
   St. Laurence, however, was extremely tranquil before such suffering, with   
   his face radiating joy. When he realized that a part of his body was dead,   
   he asked to be turned over to the other side. He was turned, and then he   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)