St. Laurence, MARTYR, A.D. 258.
by VP
Posted on Thursday July 10, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
O Glorious Saint Lawrence, Martyr and Deacon, who, being subjected to the most bitter torments, didst not lose thy faith nor thy constancy in confessing Jesus Christ, obtain in like manner for us such an active and solid faith, that we shall never be ashamed to be true followers of Jesus Christ, and fervent Christians in word and in deed.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
V. Pray for us, O holy Lawrence,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, the grace to quench the flames of our vices, Thou who didst enable blessed Lawrence to overcome his fiery torments. Through Christ our Lord Amen. The Raccolta, 1957
"St. Lawrence was a holy deacon at Rome; who, envying the glory of the martyrs, desired to lay down his life for Christ. Pray for this spirit, and beg of God that in all your troubles you may suffer with the patience of a martyr. He was seized by the persecutors, and after many torments, his torn body was laid on a gridiron, where he expired, giving praise and thanks to God. Pray for the love of God, which sweetened all the torments of this martyr. It is for want of this, that your troubles banish all content from your breast. Pray for remedy.
The spirit of this holy deacon is no where more manifest than in the address which he made to the holy Pope St. Xystus, who was going to martyrdom. He had often assisted him at the altar, as his deacon; and seeing him led by the executioners to give his life for Christ, he hastily made up to him with this complaint: "Father, whither art thou going without thy son? Whither goest thou, O holy priest, without thy deacon? Thou wert never wont to offer sacrifice without me thy minister. Wherein have I now displeased thee? Hast thou found me wanting to my duty? Try me now and see, whether thou hast made choice of an unfit minister for dispensing the blood of our Lord." This was his complaint to his bishop going to suffer without him. And who cannot imagine here the spirit, that moved him to this complaint? To see himself at liberty, and desire to be in chains; to see himself at liberty, and importune for the rack and the axe; to judge himself ill-treated, because he is not to die with his bishop: whence can all this proceed, but from the love of God, and the earnest desire to be with Christ? For this, he contemned liberty and life; for this, he thought of no other honor, but that of suffering for his Lord; for this, he reputed the world to be nothing, and that his happiness was in leaving it, that so he might come to the enjoyment of his God. How much do we see here to raise our admiration, and oblige us to praise the goodness of God, who in so weak vessels shewed the wonderful power of his grace? And how much do we see here to reproach ourselves with the perverse indispositions of our own hearts, who place all our comforts in the things of this life; who think nothing honorable, but what carries with it the applause of this world; and who are so far from desiring to suffer, that we dread it as a misfortune, and then only think ourselves unhappy, when we are under the trials of divine appointment? O God, what can we do, but humble ourselves at the consideration of this our misery, beg for thy mercy, and beseech thee to mould over again this unhappy clay, and quicken it with a more lively faith, and a more perfect love of thee!
It is for want of this faith and love, that we are thus miserable: for did we truly believe, as we profess, that the next life is eternal, that the goods of it are unspeakable, that the evils of this life bear no proportion with them, and that it is by patience and humility under these evils that we are to come to the possession of those eternal goods; this faith would change all the sentiments of our soul, and oblige us to frame our judgments of all the things of this world, not from their agreeableness to sense or inclination, but only from the consideration of their being helpful or prejudicial in regard of our future happiness. And, therefore, though the judgment of persecution, violent death, and all manner of troubles, as it is framed from their disagreeableness to sense, and the aversion which nature has to them, has something terrible in it, and condemns them all as real evils, which are to be avoided; yet when faith comes in and assures us, that going through all these evils is the way to eternal happiness, and the most effectual means of obtaining it, this shews their value, and that to the spiritual and Christian man, they are not evils, but real and desirable goods." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
THE TREASURES OF THE CHURCH. The holy Pope Sixtus was being dragged to martyrdom; Lawrence, his disciple and friend, the first of the Seven Deacons of Rome, followed him with streaming eyes. "Whither art thou going, O my father," he said, "whither without thy son? Priest of God, wherefore dost thou abandon thy deacon?" "Take heart, my son!" replied the martyr, "thou art reserved for a still greater combat, yet three days and thou shalt follow me." The emperor, having imagined that the Christians had amassed great treasures, despatched the Prefect of Rome with orders to take possession of them. “We have indeed great treasures!" said Lawrence to him; " but allow me sufficient time to get them together." On the following day he showed to the prefect all the suffering and infirm poor, the orphans and old people whom the Church maintained by means of alms. "Behold!" he said, " our treasures; take them into your keeping." The prefect, deeply enraged, caused his body to be lacerated by scourgings with rods and with hooks of iron, and then to be stretched on live coals. The face of the martyr was all radiant with happiness and joy. In the midst of his torture he said to his executioners, "Now turn me to the other side!" He expired, while praying for Rome, on the 10th August, 258.
MORAL REFLECTION.-“ Religion clean and undefiled is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." -(Jas. i. 27.) Pictorial Half Hours with the Saints, by Abbe Lacanu
Saint Lawrence, Martyr
By Parochial hymn book, 1881 Hymn 482
Holy Deacon! By the yearning
For the Martyr’s glorious crowns;
By thy tortures, by they burning,
By thy death of bright renown;
When the world and flesh and devil
Tempt our souls to sin and evil,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By the love that thou didst ever
To thy Pontiff-Father bear,
Pray that no base act may sever
Us from Peter’s loving care!
But when men would once more lead us
Into bonds from which Christ freed us,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By the Pontiff’s words of warning,
Bidding all thy sorrows cease,
Words foretelling bitter mourning
Leading unto lasting peace!
That to Jesus in our sadness
We may look for help and gladness,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By thy love, which knew no measure,
For the needy and the old,
Giving them the Church’s treasure -
Teaching us that alms well given
Are but treasures stored in heaven,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!
By thy fervent love for Jesus,
By thy strong and constant faith,
Or our sinful burdens ease us!
Help us at the hour of death!
When the fears of death confound us,
When the cleansing fires surround us,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us.
#24 Acts of Adoration Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in reparation for all the offenses committed against Him by mankind [Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament]
by VP
Posted on Thursday July 10, 2025 at 12:00AM in Thursday Reparation
24. We adore Thee, Son of the ever-glorious Virgin! And to make a general reparation, as much as lies in our power, for all the indignities Thou hast suffered from men, since the institution of this Adorable Mystery, we have recourse to Thy Holy Mother, looking upon her, as, under Thee, the greatest and most secure refuge of sinners. Eternal praise and thanksgiving be to the Most Holy and Most Divine Sacrament.
O Queen of heaven and earth, hope of mankind, who adores thy Divine Son incessantly! We entreat thee, that, since we have the honor to be of the number of thy children, thou would interest thyself in our behalf and make satisfaction for us, and in our name, to our Eternal Judge, by rendering to Him the duties which we ourselves are incapable of performing. Amen.
CAPGSt. Cyril, Bishop and Martyr, A.D. 200
by VP
Posted on Wednesday July 09, 2025 at 12:00AM in Poetry
"He was bishop of Gortina in Candia. He had faithfully observed the divine law from his childhood, and governed the church of Gortina fifty-four years. Not content with preserving those of his flock in the purity of their faith, he laboured so effectually to increase the fold, that he converted a great number of pagans, and at the end of his life had the consolation to see almost the whole city submit to the true religion. He was apprehended at the age of eighty-eight, and upon his refusal to sacrifice to idols, was threatened with death, and exhorted to have pity on his venerable old age. "Do not regard my old age," he replied: "the God whom I serve has promised to renew my youth as that of an eagle.” The judge seeing him resolute, condemned him to the fire. This sentence filled the holy prelate with joy. Being cast into the flames, they left him untouched, and upon the surprise of the miracle, he was set at liberty. But the governor, being again provoked by new information of his zeal in the conversion of heathens, ordered him to die by the sword.
It is an ill sign, if you find all in peace about you. For the malice of the devil is so great against those, who live up to their duty, and give example of good to all who are witnesses of their conversation, that he seldom fails of giving those disturbance by an inward war, or by raising enemies against them. If you experience this his perverseness; to be dejected with the thoughts of your being unhappy, or to be impatient under the trouble, is that which will give him matter of triumph. For it is a part of his victory, to cast those into discouragement, whom he cannot draw into sin. But if you can keep up your spirits in the midst of his attempts, and learn to rejoice in what you suffer in the cause of virtue, and for being faithful to your God, the victory
will be yours, and though encompassed with flames, you will escape
without hurt. Therefore never yield to dejection, if you desire to
overcome." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
St. Elizabeth Queen of Portugal, Widow, A.D. 1336
by VP
Posted on Tuesday July 08, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"THIS saint was queen of Portugal; and in the several states of virgin, wife, and widow, was a religious example of humility, charity, piety, and mortification. She was of a most sweet and mild disposition; and from her tender years had no relish for anything, but what was conducive to piety and devotion. Esteeming virtue her only advantage and delight, she abhorred romances and idle entertainments, and was an enemy to all the vanities of the world. Being married to the king of Portugal, she found no temptation to pride in the dazzling splendour of a crown. She was abstemious in her diet, mean in her attire, humble, meek, affable in conversation, and wholly bent upon the service of God in all her actions. Charity to the poor was a distinguishing part of her character. She visited the sick, served them, and dressed their most loathsome sores. She made it her principal study to pay to her husband the most dutiful respect, love, and obedience; and bore his injuries with invincible meekness and patience. After his death, St. Elizabeth consecrated herself to the divine service in the third order of St. Francis; and continued to support a great number of poor people by her alms and protection. In her last sickness, she received the Holy Viaticum on her knees, and shortly after, Extreme Unction; from which time she continued in fervent prayer, often invoking the Blessed Virgin. She appeared overflowing with heavenly joy, and gave up her happy soul to God in the year 1336, of her age sixty-five.
Consider her life, and you will find it the reproach of your own. If you cannot submit to those humiliations which she sought; if you think happiness to be in such vanities as she despised; if you spend in these, what she distributed to the poor;
if her solitude, frequent prayer and fasting seem an aggrievance; you
have reason to blush at yourself, pray for grace and amend." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
St. Pantaenus, Father of the Church
by VP
Posted on Monday July 07, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
St. Pantaenus, PD
"Philosophy and religion: St. Pantaenus, gifted with the nobles qualities of mind and heart, had devoted himself to the study and practice of the Stoic philosophy, which was held in high esteem amongst the ancients. But when he had arrived at the knowledge of Christianity, he at once understood that philosophy was as naught in comparison with the Gospel. Having become a Christian, he was charged with the direction of the school of Christian philosophy, instituted at Alexandria by the disciples of St. Mark. He was directing it with as much talent as true learning, when the bishop of Alexandria sent him to the Indies in order to combat the doctrines of the Brahmins, and revivify the faith. With the result of his labors we are unacquainted; it is only known that he returned after an interval of some years, bringing back with him a copy, in Hebrew, of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which must have been taken thither by St. Bartholomew. The illustrious St. Cyril, of Alexandria, is to be reckoned among his disciples. St. Pantaenus died the death of the saints at Alexandria about the year 215, after having taught his followers to sanctify their lives rather than to indulge in subtle discussions.
Moral Reflection: "Have a care that none lead you astray by a vain philosophy," says the Apostle; for philosophy, indeed, apart from religion, is a vain thing. ( Colos. 2. 8.) Pictorial half hours with the saints By Abbe Auguste François Lecanu 1865
Saint Goar, Priest.
by VP
Posted on Sunday July 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
For Zealous Priests
Sanctify to Thyself, O my Lord, the
hearts of Thy priests, that, by the merits of Thy sacred humanity, they
may become living images of Thee, children of Mary, and full of the fire
of the Holy Ghost, that they may guard Thy house, and defend Thy glory,
and that through their ministry the face of the earth may be renewed,
and they may save those souls which have costs Thee all Thy blood. Amen
Queen of the Apostles, pray thy Son, the Lord of the Harvest, to send laborers into His harvest, and to spare His people.
The Prayer Book. Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch
Archbishop of Chicago, May 10, 1954.
Refusing to Share in the Priesthood of Christ
by VP
Posted on Sunday July 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Quotes
Source: The Priest in Union with Christ, Father Reginal Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
Saint Maria Goretti
by VP
Posted on Sunday July 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Prayers
"Venerable brethren and beloved children. Through a loving design of Divine Providence the supreme exaltation of a humble daughter of the people has been celebrated in this shining eventide with a Solemnity unequaled and in a form up to now unique in the annals of the Church.
It has been celebrated In the vastness and majesty of this place of mystery, become a sacred temple towards which is turned the firmament which chants the glories of the Most High—a temple desired by you rather than provided by Us and filled with an unnumbered amount of faithful such as other canonizations have never seen. Above all, it is a temple almost, as it were, required by the dazzling brilliance and intoxicating fragrance of this lily cloaked in purple whom We this moment with intimate joy have inscribed in the album of Saints: the tiny and sweet martyr of purity, Maria Goretti.
Why have you come in such huge numbers, beloved children, to her glorification? Why have you been softened even to tears at hearing or reading the account of her short life so like a Gospel story for its simplicity of line, the color of its environment, the very flashing violence of its death? Why has Maria Goretti so quickly captured your hearts even to becoming their darling and their favorite?
There is then in this world, apparently turned upside down and immersed in hedonism, not just a thin rank of settled elect of Heaven and the pure air, but a throng, immense multitudes on whom the supernatural perfume of Christian purity exerts an irresistible and promising fascination: promising yes, and reassuring. If it is true that in the martyrdom of Maria Goretti purity shone forth above all; nevertheless in and with it other Christian virtues also triumphed. In her purity there was the most elementary and significant affirmation of perfect mastery by the spiritual over the material. In her supreme heroism, which is not improvised, there was a tender, docile love, obedient and active, towards parents. There was sacrifice in harsh daily labor, poverty accepted in a Gospel manner and sustained by Faith in a celestial providence. There was religion intently embraced and its understanding always more desired, made ever more the treasure of life and nourished by the flame of prayer. There was a burning desire for the Eucharistic Jesus, and finally, there was the crown of charity, the heroic pardon granted to her murderer. All this made up the garland of country flowers, rustic but so dear to God, which adorned the white veil of her First Communion and shortly afterwards, that of her martyrdom.
Thus this sacred ceremony develops spontaneously into a popular assembly for purity. In the light of every martyrdom there is always a bitter contrast, the stain of some iniquity. Behind that of Maria Goretti is a scandal which at the beginning of this century seemed unheard-of. At a distance of almost 50 years, amidst the often insufficient reaction of those who are good, the conspiracy of immorality—availing itself of books, illustrations, the theater, radio programs, fashions, resorts and associations — attempts to undermine in the bosom of society and the family those who are the natural custodians of virtue, to the harm principally of those in their tenderest childhood.
Oh young people, beloved boys and girls, apples of the eyes of Jesus and of Our own — speak out! Are you resolved firmly to resist any attempt whatever that others may dare to make against your purity?
And you, fathers and mothers, in the sight of this multitude, before the image of this adolescent virgin who with her spotless purity has stolen your hearts, in the presence of her mother who having educated her to martyrdom and while living in its harrowing wake does not mourn her death and who now kneels overcome to pray to her —speak! Are you ready to assume the solemn pledge of watching over your sons and daughters, so far as in you lies, in order to preserve and defend them against such great dangers as surround them and to keep them ever away from places that prepare the way for impiety and moral perversion?
And now, oh all you who hear Us, lift up your hearts. Above the foul marshes and mud of the world there stretches a heaven of beauty. It is the heaven which drew little Maria, the heaven to which she wished to rise by the only way that leads to it: Religion, love of Christ, heroic observance of His commandments.
Hail, oh sweet and lovable Saint! Martyr on earth and angel in heaven, from your glory turn your gaze on this throng that loves you, venerates you, glorifies and exalts you. On your brow you wear clear and shining the victorious name of Christ. On your virgin countenance is the strength of love, the constancy of fidelity to your Divine Spouse. You are the spouse of blood through tracing upon yourself His image.
To you, powerful with the Lamb of God, we entrust these Our sons and daughters here present and all others spiritually united with Us. They admire your heroism but even more they wish to be your imitators in fervor of faith and incorruptible stainlessness of morals. To you fathers and mothers run that you may help them with their training mission. In you through Our hands all childhood and youth find refuge that they may be protected from every contamination and enter upon the path of life in the serenity and joy of the pure of heart. Amen."
May we preserve without stain our white baptismal robe of innocence. May we who have lost this innocence kneel humbly in Holy Penance, and with the absolution of the priest, may the torrent of Christ's precious Blood flow into our souls and give us a new courage to carry the burning light of God's love through the dangerous highways of this life until Christ our king shall call us to the courts of Heaven. Amen."
HEARING MASS.
by VP
Posted on Sunday July 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
The Catholic Mass Fyodor Bronnikov 1869
Yet Mass on Sunday is something we should set apart as of the gravest obligation all the year round. Of course there are reasons which excuse, but they must be serious ones. For the Sacrifice of the Mass is not only to be assisted at by a strict law of the Church, but it is the greatest act of our religion. It is Christ on Calvary, and nothing less. What if Calvary be so many thousands of miles distant from your church-does that make any difference to God? God is equally present in every part of the world. Does it even make any difference to you? Is your love for some dear relation or friend any different whether you are in the same quarter of the world with him or not? Some places are more sacred to you than others, to be sure, and so are they to God; but distance, although it divides loving hearts, does not divide their love. So our Lord is present, really and personally, in His humanity and in His divinity, on this altar, just as truly as He was on Calvary. Nor does the lapse of time alter the case. Christ our Lord died for you just as well as for any of the Jews or Gentiles of His own day. A thousand years are to God but as a day that is passed, yea or even a million of years passed or yet to come; for to the eternal God there is no passage of time, but only an everlasting present.
The difference of time and place, therefore, has little to do with the identity of the act, for the spirit of man is superior to both, and the power and love of God are supremely so. It is the identity of the great Act of Redemption and its perpetuity and its universality which bring us to our Lord's cross in Holy Mass. Here, upon our altars, that atonement for our sins is continually renewed, that divine merit is continually made our own.
It was first done with pain and in sorrow; it is now perpetuated with joy. It was for once and for all the literal shedding of blood in mortal agony; it is now the mystical pouring forth of all the treasures of grace purchased by that loving sacrifice. The man-God who died on Calvary is the same who comes down upon our altars; He comes with the very same intention; He appeases the very same divine justice for the very same culprits as on the first Good Friday.
In wishing you, therefore, all the relaxation of the pleasant summer weather, I also insist that you shall enjoy it in union with our Lord, and if Sunday shall be the chief day of rest for your body, I sincerely trust that it shall not the less be your soul's day of purification. There is no tree in all the woods whose shade is so grateful as that of the cross, under which your soul rests at Holy Mass. Of all the cool streams in which you may bathe and cleanse your body there is none to compare, for the welfare of either soul or body, with those copious floods of happiness which flow into the four quarters of the world from Calvary. There is no true joy with a bad conscience, and the Sunday on which you hurry off to your pleasure without attending at Mass cannot be really happy. ( Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year, 4th Sunday after Pentecost, 1893)
Five-minute Sermons: How to Pray
by VP
Posted on Sunday July 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sermons
"Launch out into the deep."—St. Luke v. 6.
IN this account of the miraculous draught of fishes which we have just heard in the Gospel we see a striking illustration of what real prayer should be, and how it is rewarded. Suppose we devote these few moments this morning to the subject of Prayer.
We know that prayer is an absolute necessity of the spiritual life. We are strictly bound to pray, if we would save our souls. The manner and the matter of our prayers are, within certain limits, left to our own judgment. There are no conditions of length or place or time. Long prayers are not necessarily the best ones; on the contrary, the Publican said only seven words, and the Penitent Thief nine; and we have yet to hear of prayers more promptly efficacious. We need not come to church in order to have our prayers heard; God will hear us anywhere and any time—as He heard Jeremias in the mire, Ezechias on his bed of death, Daniel in the den of lions, the Three Children in the fiery furnace, Peter and Paul in prison...
Note that our Lord first desired Peter to "thrust out a little from the land," and afterwards to 'launch out into the deep." So with our prayers. We must thrust out a little from the land—that is, from attachments and affections of earth, before we can fully launch ourselves into the deep of perfect spiritual union with God.
Do we "thrust out from the land" when we pray? And have we Jesus Christ in the vessel of our heart when we make the launch? Our prayers, to be good for anything, should have four characteristics: they should be recollected, detached, definite, and persevering.
1. Before we begin to pray, we must place ourselves in God's presence. We must collect all the powers of our minds and hearts, and set them on the one supreme object. The Memory must be called away from every-day affairs, and used to furnish food for our meditation; the Understanding summoned from its ordinary musings on worldly things, to reason and reflect on what we pray for, and Whom we pray to; the Will steadily fixed on God--striving to conform itself to the divine will, producing affections and forming resolutions suitable to our present needs.
2. Without detachment there can be no recollection. We must thrust out from the land." And how can we do this if the vessel of our soul is moored to the shore by a thousand and one little cords of earthly desire, and worry and care, and anxiety and passion? All these cords must be cut away, and we must "launch out into the deep," if we would pray aright and have God's blessing in ourselves.
3. Let us have a clear, definite idea of what we are going to pray for. Vague, meaningless generalities are out of place in such a serious business. Let us make up our minds beforehand about what we want, and then pray for that. It will not profit us much to ask for all the Cardinal Virtues and allthe Gifts of the Holy Ghost at one time. It will be quite sufficient, and decidedly more profitable, to single out some one virtue of which we stand in special need, and make that the particular burden of our prayers and thoughts and efforts for weeks, and months and years, if necessary, until we gain it.
4. And this, after all, is the true test of a genuine prayer-perseverance. 'We have labored all the night, and have taken nothing; but at Thy word I will let down the net." "Never despair" is the Christian's motto. Never mind how long we may have labored and prayed in vain; never mind how weary the spirit, or how weak the flesh; never mind how little seems our progress and how far away the "mark of the prize of our supernal vocation." God will, as He has promised, finally and gloriously reward our perseverance. Him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of My God." Five minute Sermons for Sunday by the Paulist Fathers, 4th Sunday after Pentecost
