The Feast of St. Lawrence!

Saint Lawrence and the means of his death

As a Laura, the feast day of St. Lawrence is special to me. In honor of this mighty saint, below are three things to know about him.

1. He is known for his charity. Specifically, for his understanding of the centrality of the poor in the life, mission, and purpose of the Church, and for knowing and living what “treasure” really is. The most famous story of his charity, and the event which led to his martyrdom, is this:

A well-known legend has persisted from earliest times. As deacon in Rome, Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the material goods of the Church, and the distribution of alms to the poor. When Lawrence knew he would be arrested like the pope, he sought out the poor, widows, and orphans of Rome and gave them all the money he had on hand, selling even the sacred vessels of the altar to increase the sum. When the prefect of Rome heard of this, he imagined that the Christians must have considerable treasure. He sent for Lawrence and said, “You Christians say we are cruel to you, but that is not what I have in mind. I am told that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services. Now, your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his. Bring these treasures—the emperor needs them to maintain his forces. God does not cause money to be counted: He brought none of it into the world with him—only words. Give me the money, therefore, and be rich in words.”

Lawrence replied that the Church was indeed rich. “I will show you a valuable part. But give me time to set everything in order and make an inventory.” After three days he gathered a great number of blind, lame, maimed, leprous, orphaned, and widowed persons and put them in rows. When the prefect arrived, Lawrence simply said, “These are the treasure of the Church.”

1. He died a martyr. See above. The method of his martyrdom was to be roasted alive on a spit. For the reason, he is known as the patron of barbecuing!

2. He is also known as a patron of jokes and good humor, as legend has it that while roasting over the fire he joked to his murderers, “I’m well done on this side, turn me over!”

I love barbecuing and jokes, so that fits. Now I can work on my love for the poor. St. Lawrence, pray for us!

Audio of this morning's interview on personal prayer

It was great to start the day speaking with John Morales about personal prayer, based on my latest article, For Whom Should We Pray? Part 2. You can catch the recording of that conversation here, with my part starting at 7:50.

One thing we discussed a few times was “orientation” to entering prayer. The advice is the same probably no matter who you ask: creating a space conducive to prayer - with quiet, candles, devotionals, sacred images, a comfortable chair, and so on - is an important first step to having productive prayer time.

Afterwards, I was thinking about something else, which is that we focus on the in-the-moment prayer prep, but in reality, the way you spend your time outside of prayer will also make a difference.

For example, we are surrounded by noise on a constant basis. I don’t mean literal noise, either, though that is a main culprit. The mental noise of doomscrolling; the noise of the short attention span caused by constantly checking notifications; the noise of busy-ness. We have become afraid of silence, probably because it means we must look at ourselves and that is uncomfortable. But giving up the crutch of noise will be a game changer in your life.

So, reducing your screen time - phone, social media, computer, TV, mindless TV, grating music - and centering more silence in your life will benefit you from a daily peace-of-mind perspective, but also when it comes time to sit down and listen. No need to make it harder than it already is, by filling your mind and soul with noise that blocks out the voice of God.

Cardinal Sarah has a whole book about this: The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. I do recommend it.

So yes, make your immediate prayer space quiet. But also cultivate quietness in other parts of your life so that there is nothing in the way of your ability to be present with God.

I’ll be back on Morning Air in a couple weeks to talk about For Whom Should I Pray? Part 1, about the necessity of praying for the world! The world needs your prayers. You are the body of Christ, doing his work in this world.

Two new articles and a radio conversation tomorrow

Greetings, folks! I have two new articles up at Catholic Stand:

For Whom Should I Pray? Part 1: about how to pray for the world.

For Whom Should I Pray? Part 2?: about how to pray interiorly, for oneself - not for your needs, but to grow closer in relationship to God.

And, tomorrow morning at 7:10 am, I will be joining John and Glen on Morning Air to discuss part 2, how to pray for oneself. You can find it on your local radio station, or listen on their live player here.

I was inspired to write these by the knowledge that a lot of Catholics just don’t pray. I can’t remember what my prayer life was like before the experience of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius - probably mostly the rosary. And perhaps you, too, default to the “devotions” rather than going into personal, deeply explorative and truthful prayer. But the time is now! Prayer is the time to meet God, and ourselves. It is the time to learn of our own attachments and false beliefs about God and self, and throw them off. This is the work of a lifetime, and it is utterly necessary to do. Prayer is not an option. So get your hiney in the chair!

See you on the radio!