Friday, August 7, 2015

8/10/2015 – Feast Day of St Lawrence

    Lawrence was one of seven deacons that who know about who served in the Church in ancient Rome in the first half of the third century.  It was said that after the death of Pope Sixtus, whom Lawrence served, he was ordered by Roman authorities to hand over the treasures of the Church.  He distributed as much wealth he could to the poor, so when the authorities came, he presented them the poor, the blind, the suffering and the lame.  As a result, Lawrence was imprisoned and was burned to death.  Lawrence became a well-recognized martyr in the early Church, having been killed in these Valerian persecutions in the year 258.  He is honored in our Church’s liturgical calendar today.  This week, Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe, two Catholics who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in WWII, are also honored as martyrs for the faith.

         In our modern era, we hear of those in the Middle East and Africa who are persecuted for the faith, something we could not imagine just a few years ago.  Perhaps we in North America will also be face with persecutions we never dreamed as possible.  Perhaps we will be called upon to sacrifice for our faith and to witness to what we believe in extraordinary ways.  

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