Saint Laurence, Deacon and Martyr (10 August) ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

About this sermon

On August 10, the Church celebrates the glorious feast of Saint Laurence (St. Lawrence), Deacon and Martyr of Rome—one of the most renowned martyrs of the early Church. Rome honored Laurence as one of her greatest champions. His name entered the Canon of the Mass, churches arose in his honor throughout Christendom, and the Basilica of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls became one of Rome’s great basilicas. But the glory of Saint Laurence was not founded merely upon the terrible suffering of his martyrdom. His life had already become an offering to God. Sacred Scripture proclaimed on his feast gives us the key: “God loveth a cheerful giver.” As deacon, Laurence faithfully administered the treasures entrusted to the Church and served Christ in His poor. Dom Guéranger presents his glorious martyrdom as the flowering of a life already marked by generosity, courage, simplicity, devotion, and self-forgetfulness. The Gospel for the feast takes us still deeper into the mystery of Christian martyrdom: Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Saint Augustine applies this mystery to Saint Laurence. The martyr becomes a grain sown in the earth whose sacrifice produces a spiritual harvest throughout the Church. Saint Laurence followed Christ as His minister—first in service at the altar, and finally in sacrifice. His feast therefore calls every Catholic to examine his own life. Are we generous with what God has entrusted to us? Do we serve Christ cheerfully? Are we willing to die to ourselves? Do we possess the courage to remain faithful when discipleship becomes costly? Saint Laurence, Deacon and Martyr, pray for us. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 — Saint Laurence, Deacon and Martyr 00:18 — Rome and the Victory of Saint Laurence 01:04 — Prudentius and the Ancient Tradition 01:28 — St. Ambrose, St. Damasus & Laurence’s Martyrdom 01:45 — Rome Honors Her Great Martyr 02:18 — Churches Dedicated to Saint Laurence 02:26 — Basilica of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls 03:07 — Laurence, the Honor of the World 03:38 — His Martyrdom and the Defeat of Paganism 04:58 — Devotion to Saint Laurence Throughout the World 05:33 — Honoring the Martyr’s Birth into Heaven 06:15 — The Mass of Saint Laurence 07:10 — Introit: Praise, Beauty, Holiness & Majesty 07:49 — The Spiritual Lesson of the Flames 08:04 — Collect: Prudence and Courage 08:23 — Epistle: God Loveth a Cheerful Giver 09:13 — Saint Laurence and Charity to the Poor 10:17 — The Supernatural Economy of Grace 10:42 — The Character of Saint Laurence 11:45 — Gradual and Alleluia 12:24 — Gospel: The Grain of Wheat 13:00 — Saint Augustine on Saint Laurence 13:32 — The Harvest of the Martyrs 14:06 — Now Is the Time to Choose 14:52 — Laurence Loses His Life to Find It 15:00 — The Deacon as Minister of Christ 15:31 — Gratitude Toward the Holy Deacon 15:46 — The Offertory 16:20 — Saint Laurence at the Altar 16:44 — The Faithful Minister Receives His Reward 17:07 — Final Prayer and Intercession of Saint Laurence ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🙏 PRAYER Saint Laurence, glorious Deacon and Martyr of Christ, obtain for us a generous heart, courage in temptation, charity toward the poor, fidelity in our duties, and perseverance in the Catholic Faith. Teach us to give ourselves cheerfully to God and to follow Christ faithfully through every trial, so that having served Him on earth, we may rejoice with Him eternally in Heaven. Saint Laurence, pray for us ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✝️ Saint Laurence, pray for us. #SaintLaurence #SaintLawrence #CatholicSaints #Catholic #CatholicFaith #CatholicChurch #CatholicTradition #TraditionalCatholic #CatholicMartyrs #ChristianMartyrs #DomProsperGueranger #TheLiturgicalYear #LivesOfTheSaints #August10 #RomanMartyrs https://sensusfidelium.com/the-liturgical-year-dom-prosper-gueranger/august/august-10-saint-laurence-deacon-and-martyr/ 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 ✝️ SUPPORT THE MISSION 🙏 Donate https://sensusfidelium.com/donate-support/ 📬 Free Catholic Newsletter https://sensusfidelium.com/newsletter/ 📰 Read on Substack https://sensusfidelium.substack.com/ ──────────────────── 📺 WATCH & READ 📺 Sensus Fidelium App https://sensusfidelium.tv/ 📚 Sensus Fidelium Press https://sensusfideliumpress.com/ 👕 Official Merchandise https://sensusfidelium.com/merchandise/ ──────────────────── 🤝 PARTNER WITH US 📣 Advertise on Sensus Fidelium https://sensusfidelium.com/advertise-with-sensus-fidelium/ 🎤 Invite Steve Cunningham to Speak https://sensusfidelium.com/speaking/ ⛪ Parish Formation & Consultation https://sensusfidelium.com/for-parishes/ ──────────────────── 🌎 CATHOLIC COMMUNITY ✝️ Trusted Catholic Businesses https://sensusfidelium.com/catholic-businesses/ 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴

Topics

• Suffering & Trials
• Leadership
• Service & Ministry