Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

National Back to School Month

Saints: Saint Lawrence, Deacon, Martyr (-258)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 57 The Artisans of the Monastery

Mass:  2 Cor 9:6-10; Resp Ps 112; Jn 12:24-26

The just one shall be in everlasting remembrance.

WHOEVER FOLLOWS ME WILL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS BUT WILL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE, SAYS THE LORD,

ALLELUIA.

(Gospel versicle, Mass)

A funny story I once heard was from a priest who was in Rome, set to meet some friends at the Church of Saint Lawrence, Chiesa de San Lorenzo. The priest hales a taxi, gets in, and asks to be taken to the Church. Unbeknownst to the priest, there are nearly ten churches dedicated to, or associated with the life of Saint Lawrence in Rome. It happened though, that through trial and error, the taxi driver managed to eventually get the priest to where he was meant to be. You know, Chiesa di San Lorenzo. 😉

So on this Feast of Saint Lawrence, we ask Saint Lawrence to intercede for us so that we sow bountifully through whatever is presented to us today, "without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor 9:7). We remember that God is able to make every grace abundant for us, so that in all things, always having what we need, we may have abundance for every good work (2 Cor 9:8). In this way, we sow so that in all things God may be glorified (Rule of Saint Benedict 57:9/1 Pet 4:11). 

Lawrence was a deacon of the Church at Rome ... in his life he loved Christ; in his death he followed in His footsteps ... 

Let us understand, then, how a Christian must follow Christ even though he does not shed his blood for Him, and his faith is not called upon to undergo the great test of the martyr's suffering ...

Christ humbled Himself . Christian, that is what you must make your own. Christ became obedient. How is it that you are proud? When this humbling experience was completed and death itself lay conquered, Christ ascended into heaven. Let us follow Him there, for we hear Paul saying: If you have been raised with Christ, you must lift your thoughts on high, where Christ now sits at the right hand of God.

(From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop, in Office of Readings, August 10)

SAINT LAWRENCE,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Sunflower with bee from d in West Linn, OR.

© Gertrude Feick 2021