UNITED BENETTON of COLORS

28 August, 2007

For other uses of Saint Lawrence, see Saint Lawrence (disambiguation)

Saint Lawrence (c. 225 – 258) (Latin: Laurentius - "laurelled") was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome who were martyred under the persecution of Roman Emperor Valerian in the year 258.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
* 2 Lawrence and the Holy Chalice
* 3 The jewels of St Lawrence
* 4 Martyrdom
* 5 Sources
* 6 Veneration
* 7 Other
* 8 Notes
* 9 See also
* 10 External links

[edit] History

The Acts of Lawrence were lost by the time of Augustine, one of whose sermons on Saint Lawrence (Sermo 302, de Sancto Laurent.) admits that his narration was gained from tradition instead of reciting the Acts as was his preferred custom. [4] Such early legends made Lawrence a native of Huesca (Roman Osca) in Hispania Tarraconensis who had received religious instruction from Archdeacon Sixtus in Rome. When Sixtus became Bishop of Rome in 257, Lawrence was ordained a deacon and was placed in charge of the administration of Church goods and care for the poor. For this duty, he is regarded as one of the first archivists and treasurers of the Church and was made the patron of librarians.

In the persecutions under Valerian in 258, numerous priests and bishops were put to death, while Christians belonging to the nobility or the Roman Senate were deprived of their goods and exiled. Pope St Sixtus II was one of the first victims of this persecution, being beheaded on August 6. A legend cited by St Ambrose of Milan says that Lawrence met the Pope on his way to his execution, where he is reported to have said, "Where are you going, my dear father, without your son? Where are you hurrying off to, holy priest, without your deacon? Before you never mounted the altar of sacrifice without your servant, and now you wish to do it without me?" The Pope is reported to have prophesied that "after three days you will follow me". Modern scholars tend to read this moving encounter as a literary invention.

Lawrence is said to have been martyred on an iron outdoor stove. During his torture Lawrence cried out "I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other."

Cyprian, the contemporary bishop of Carthage mentions the directive of Valerian that Christian bishops, presbyters, and deacons should forthwith be punished, and records the martyrdom of Xystus bishop of Rome, in accordance with it on August 6 (Wace).[5]

[edit] Lawrence and the Holy Chalice

According to lore, among the treasure of the Roman church entrusted to Lawrence for safe-keeping was the Holy Chalice, the cup from which Jesus and the Apostles drank at the Last Supper. Lawrence was able to spirit this away to Huesca with a letter and a supposed inventory, where it lay hidden and unregarded for centuries. When Augustine connects Lawrence with a chalice, it is the chalice of the Mass:

"For in that Church, you see, as you have regularly been told, he performed the office of deacon; it was there that he administered the sacred chalice of Christ’s blood"."[6]

According to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail is a relic that was sent by St. Lawrence to his parents in Spain. He entrusted this sacred chalice to a friend who he knew would travel back to Spain, his home country. While the Holy Chalice's exact journey through the centuries is disputed, it is generally accepted by Catholics that the Chalice was sent by his family to a monastery for preservation and veneration. Historical records indicate that this chalice has been venerated and preserved by a number of monks and monasteries through the ages. Today the Holy Grail is venerated in a special chapel in the Catholic Cathedral of Valencia, Spain, in the region of St. Lawrence's birth and early life.

[edit] The jewels of St Lawrence

After the death of Sixtus, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church. Ambrose is the earliest source for the tale that Lawrence asked for three days to gather together the wealth.[7] Lawrence worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the poor as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to give up the treasures of the Church, he presented the poor, the crippled, the blind and the suffering, and said that these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, "The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor." This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom.

This can be compared to the parallel Roman tale of the jewels of Cornelia.

[edit] Martyrdom
The shrine in Rome containing the gridiron said to have been used to grill Saint Lawrence to death
The shrine in Rome containing the gridiron said to have been used to grill Saint Lawrence to death

Henry Wace stated, "Few martyrdoms of the first three centuries are better attested than this one."[citation needed] It is said that Lawrence was burned or "grilled" to death. Legend says that he was so strong-willed that instead of giving in to the Romans and releasing information about the Church, at the point of death he exclaimed "I am done on this side! Turn me over and eat."

By tradition, Lawrence was sentenced at San Lorenzo in Miranda, martyred at San Lorenzo in Panisperna, and buried in the Via Tiburtina in the Catacomb of Cyriaca by Hippolytus and Justinus, a presbyter. Constantine I is said to have built a small oratory in honour of the martyr, which was a station on the itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs by the 7th century.
The stone on which Saint Lawrence's body was laid after his death, in San Lorenzo fuori le mura
The stone on which Saint Lawrence's body was laid after his death, in San Lorenzo fuori le mura

Pope Damasus I rebuilt or repaired the church, now known as San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, while the minor basilica of San Lorenzo in Panisperna was built over the place of his martyrdom. The gridiron of the martyrdom was placed by Pope Paschal II in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina.
[edit] Sources

One of the early sources for the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence was the description by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in his Peristephanon, Hymn II.

[edit] Veneration

Lawrence is one of the most widely venerated saints of the Catholic Church. Lawrence is also venerated in the Anglo-Catholic tradition; a major church in the City of Sydney, Australia, situated in the civil (land division) parish of St Lawrence adopted St Laurence as patron notwithstanding its primary dedication as 'Christ Church', and there was an Anglican order in Melbourne Victoria Australia, the order does not exist as such anymore but they founded the organisation known as the Brotherhood of St Laurence that still bears this name. Devotion to him was widespread by the 4th century. As his martyrdom occurred very early in Church history, many other Christians honor him as well.

Lawrence is especially honored in the city of Rome, where he is one of the city's patrons. There are several churches in Rome dedicated to him, including San Lorenzo in Panisperma, traditionally identified as the place of his execution. He is invoked by librarians, cooks, and tanners as their patron. His celebration on August 10 has the rank of feast throughout the Catholic world.[8] On this day, the reliquary containing his burnt head is displayed in the Vatican for veneration.

The Divine Office accords this special prayer to him on his feast day (from the translation in Christian Prayer):

"Father, you called Saint Lawrence to serve you by love and crowned his life with glorious martyrdom. Help us to be like him in loving you and doing your work. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

There is furthermore an alleged miraculous event that has been witnessed each year on August 10, the Saint's feast day, in The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta in San Gimignano, where some of the Saint's blood is believed to be preserved in a vial. The blood, now centuries old, begins to liquefy on the vigil of his feast, becoming entirely liquid by the start of the feast day. The blood then re-hardens after the day is concluded. This is attested to by the local residents and parishioners. They attribute this miracle to the intercession of the Saint, who gives this reminder of his martyrdom, intercession for the faithful, and proof of the truth of the Catholic Faith. The miracle of his blood can allegedly be witnessed by any individual at the stated times. The vial in which the blood is contained is supposedly not touched or in any way influenced by human means. [citation needed]

[edit] Other

Saint Lawrence is referenced in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron in tale 6.10, where the veneration of the saint is used by a friar to escape an embarrassing situation.[9]

Posted by THE SAINT :: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
Images of Saint Lawrence

Posted by THE SAINT :: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
Saint Lawrence in detail

Also known as
Laurence; Laurent; Laurentius; Lawrence of Rome; Lorenzo
Memorial
10 August
Profile
Third-century archdeacon of Rome, distributor of alms, and "keeper of the treasures of the church" in a time when Christianity was outlawed. On 6 August 258, by decree of Emperor Valerian, Pope Saint Sixtus II and six deacons were beheaded, leaving Lawrence as the ranking Church official in Rome.

While in prison awaiting execution Sixtus reassured Lawrence that he was not being left behind; they would be reunited in four days. Lawrence saw this time as an opportunity to disperse the material wealth of the church before the Roman authorities could lay their hands on it. On 10 August Lawrence was commanded to appear for his execution, and to bring along the treasure with which he had been entrusted by the pope. When he arrived, the archdeacon was accompanied by a multitude of Rome's crippled, blind, sick, and indigent. He announced that these were the true treasures of the Church. Martyr.

Lawrence's care for the poor, the ill, the neglected have led to his patronage of them. His work to save the material wealth of the Church, including its documents, brought librarians and those in related fields to see him as a patron, and to ask for his intercession. And his incredible strength and courage when being grilled to death led to his patronage of cooks and those who work in or supply things to the kitchen. The meteor shower that follows the passage of the Swift-Tuttle comet was known in the middle ages as the "burning tears of Saint Lawrence" because they appear at the same time as Lawrence's feast.
Born
at Huesca, Spain
Died
10 August 258; cooked to death on a gridiron; buried in the cemetery of Saint Cyriaca on the road to Tivoli; tomb was opened by Pelagius to inter the body of Saint Stephen the Martyr; his mummified head removed to the Quirinal Chapel; the gridiron believed to have been his deathbed is in San Lorenzo in Lucina; garments in Our Lady's Chapel in the Lateran Palace

Posted by THE SAINT :: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
St. Lawrence

Martyr; died 10 August, 258.

St. Lawrence, one of the deacons of the Roman Church, was one of the victims of the persecution of Valerian in 258, like Pope Sixtus II and many other members of the Roman clergy. At the beginning of the month of August, 258, the emperor issued an edict, commanding that all bishops, priests, and deacons should immediately be put to death ("episcopi et presbyteriet diacones incontinenti animadvertantur" -- Cyprian, Epist. lxxx, 1). This imperial command was immediately carried out in Rome. On 6 August Pope Sixtus II was apprehended in one of the catacombs, and executed forthwith ("Xistum in cimiterio animadversum sciatis VIII id. Augusti et cum eo diacones quattuor." Cyprian, ep. lxxx, 1). Two other deacons, Felicissimus and Agapitus, were put to death the same day. In the Roman Calendar of feasts of the fourth century their feast day is on the same date. Four days later, on the 10th of August of that same year, Lawrence, the last of the seven deacons, also suffered a martyr's death. The anniversary of this holy martyr falls on that day, according to the Almanac of Philocalus for the year 354, the inventory of which contains the principal feasts of the Roman martyrs of the middle of the fourth century; it also mentions the street where his grave is to be found, the Via Tiburtina ("III id. Aug. Laurentii in Tibertina"; Ruinart, "Acta sincera", Ratisbon, 1859, 632). The itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs, as given in the seventh century, mention the burial-place of this celebrated martyr in the Catacomb of Cyriaca in agro Verano (De Rossi, "Roma Sott.", I, 178).

Since the fourth century St. Lawrence has been one of the most honoured martyrs of the Roman Church. Constantine the Great was the first to erect a little oratory over his burial-place, which was enlarged and beautified by Pope Pelagius II (579-90). Pope Sixtus III (432-40) built a large basilica with three naves, the apse leaning against the older church, on the summit of the hill where he was buried. In the thirteenth century Honorius III made the two buildings into one, and so the basilica of San Lorenzo remains to this day. Pope St. Damasus (366-84) wrote a panegyric in verse, which was engraved in marble and placed over his tomb. Two contemporaries of the last-named pope, St. Ambrose of Milan and the poet Prudentius, give particular details about St. Lawrence's death. Ambrose relates (De officiis min. xxviii) that when St. Lawrence was asked for the treasures of the Church he brought forward the poor, among whom he had divided the treasure, in place of alms; also that when Pope Sixtus II was led away to his death he comforted Lawrence, who wished to share his martyrdom, by saying that he would follow him in three days. The saintly Bishop of Milan also states that St. Lawrence was burned to death on a grid-iron (De offic., xli). In like manner, but with more poetical detail, Prudentius describes the martyrdom of the Roman deacon in his hymn on St. Lawrence ("Peristephanon", Hymnus II).

The meeting between St. Lawrence and Pope Sixtus II, when the latter was being led to execution, related by St. Ambrose, is not compatible with the contemporaneous reports about the persecution of Velarian. The manner of his execution--burning on a red-hot gridiron--also gives rise to grave doubts. The narrations of Ambrose and Prudentius are founded rather on oral tradition than on written accounts. It is quite possible that between the year 258 and the end of the fourth century popular legends may have grown up about this highly venerated Roman deacon, and some of these legends have been preserved by these two authors. We have, in any case, no means of verifying from earlier sources the details derived from St. Ambrose and Prudentius, or of ascertaining to what extent such details are supported by earlier historical tradition. Fuller accounts of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence were composed, probably, early in the sixth century, and in these narratives a number of the martyrs of the Via Tiburtina and of the two Catacombs of St. Cyriaca in agro Verano and St. Hippolytius were connected in a romantic and wholly legendary fashion. The details given in these Acts concerning the martyrdom of St. Lawrence and his activity before his death cannot claim any credibility. However, in spite of this criticism of the later accounts of the martyrdom, there can be no question that St. Lawrence was a real historical personage, nor any doubt as to the martyrdom of that venerated Roman deacon, the place of its occurrence, and the date of his burial. Pope Damasus built a basilica in Rome which he dedicated to St. Lawrence; this is the church now known as that of San Lorenzo in Damaso. The church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, also dedicated to this saint, still exists. The feast day of St. Lawrence is kept on 10 August. He is pictured in art with the gridiron on which he is supposed to have been roasted to death.

Posted by THE SAINT :: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
22 August, 2007 Drink More Water

Introduction

Did you know that your body can survive for over ninety days without food, but four days without water? Our bodies are 70% water and in order to function properly, it is essential to receive the proper amount of water each day to stay hydrated and healthy.

The health benefits of drinking enough water are numerous and many cases, simply drinking more water is a better cure than any prescription drug!

So what's holding you back? Drink more water!

Health Benefits

The benefits to drinking enough water are countless. In fact, before rushing out to get a prescription for the newest advertised drug, take a close look at your daily water intake. Simply drinking enough water could save you hundreds of dollars per year on expensive medications! Specifically, water assist your body with the following areas:

Arthritis

Arthritis can affect people young and old alike. In ages though, arthritis is a sign of lack of water in the painful joint.

Back/Neck

Having back or neck pain? Even though you might have perfect posture, your back may still ache due to lack of water in your spinal disks.

Diabetes

Adult-onset diabetes is the body's response to severe dehydration. Consuming a proper amount of water and salt during the early stages of adult-onset diabetes may be able to reverse the process before it becomes an autoimmune disease.

Headaches

Headaches are a sign that the blood vessels in your head are dialated more greater than normal. This dialation of the blood vessels can be caused by stress, hangovers, or allegic/dietary triggers. The severity of all these agents is increased by a lack of hydration.

Resources:

http://www.curezone.com/foods/waterpage.asp

Cure # 1: Water prevents and cures heartburn.

Heartburn is a signal of water shortage in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a major thirst signal of the human body. The use of antacids or tablet medications in the treatment of this pain does not correct dehydration, and the body continues to suffer as a result of its water shortage.

Tragedy: Not recognizing heartburn as a sign of dehydration and treating it with antacids and pill medications will, in time, produce inflammation of the stomach and duodenum, hiatal hernia, ulceration, and eventually cancers in the gastrointestinal tract, including the liver and pancreas.

Cure # 2: Water prevents and cures arthritis.

Rheumatoid joint pain - arthritis - is a signal of water shortage in the painful joint. It can affect the young as well as the old. The use of pain-killers does not cure the problem, but exposes the person to further damage from pain medications. Intake of water and small amounts of salt will cure this problem.

Cure # 3: Water prevents and cures back pain.

Low back pain and ankylosing arthritis of the spine are signs of water shortage in the spinal column and discs - the water cushions that support the weight of the body. These conditions should be treated with increased water intake - not a commercial treatment, but a very effective one.

Tragedy: Not recognizing arthritis and low back pain as signs of dehydration in the joint cavities and treating them with pain-killers, manipulation, acupuncture, and eventually surgery will, in time, produce osteoarthritis when the cartilage cells in the joints have eventually all died. It will produce deformity of the spine. It will produce crippling deformities of the limbs. Pain medications have their own life-threatening complications.

Cure # 4: Water prevents and cures angina.
Heart pain - angina - is a sign of water shortage in the heart/lung axis. It should be treated with increased water intake until the patient is free of pain and independent of medications. Medical supervision is prudent. However, increased water intake is angina's cure.

Cure # 5: Water prevents and cures migraines.
Migraine headache is a sign of water need by the brain and the eyes. It will totally clear up if dehydration is prevented from establishing in the body. The type of dehydration that causes migraine might eventually cause inflammation of the back of the eye and possibly loss of eye sight.

Cure #6: Water prevents and cures colitis.
Colitis pain is a signal of water shortage in the large gut. It is associated with constipation because the large intestine constricts to squeeze the last drop of water from the excrements - thus the lack of water lubrication.

Tragedy: Not recognizing colitis pain as a sign of dehydration will cause persistent constipation. Later in life, it will cause fecal impacting: it can cause diverticulitis, hemorrhoids and polyps, and appreciably increases the possibility of developing cancer of the colon and rectum.

Cure # 7: Water and salt prevent and cure asthma.
Asthma, which also affects 14 million children and kills several thousand of them every year, is a complication of dehydration in the body. It is caused by the drought management programs of the body. In asthma free passage of air is obstructed so that water does not leave the body in the form of vapor - the winter steam. Increased water intake will prevent asthma attacks. Asthmatics need also to take more salt to break the mucus plugs in the lungs that obstruct the free flow of air in and out of the air sacs.

Tragedy: Not recognizing asthma as the indicator of dehydration in the body of a growing child not only will sentence many thousands of children to die every year, but will permit irreversible genetic damage to establish in the remaining 14 million asthmatic children.

Cure # 8: Water prevents and cures high blood pressure.
Hypertension is a state of adaptation of the body to a generalized drought, when there is not enough water to fill all the blood vessels that diffuse water into vital cells. As part of the mechanism of reverse osmosis, when water from the blood serum is filtered and injected into important cells through minute holes in their membranes, extra pressure is needed for the "injection process." Just as we inject I.V. "water" in hospitals, so the body injects water into tens of trillions of cells all at the same time. Water and some salt intake will bring blood pressure back to normal!

Tragedy: Not recognizing hypertension as one of the major indicators of dehydration in the human body, and treating it with diuretics that further dehydrate the body will, in time, cause blockage by cholesterol of the heart arteries and the arteries that go to the brain. It will cause heart attacks and small or massive strokes that paralyze. It will eventually cause kidney disease. It will cause brain damage and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Cure # 9: Water prevents and cures early adult-onset diabetes.
Adult-onset diabetes is another adaptive state to severe dehydration of the human body. To have adequate water in circulation and for the brain's priority water needs, the release of insulin is inhibited to prevent insulin from pushing water into all body cells. In diabetes, only some cells get survival rations of water. Water and some salt will reverse adult-onset diabetes in its early stages.

Tragedy: Not recognizing adult-onset diabetes as a complication of dehydration will, in time, cause massive damage to the blood vessels all over the body. It will cause eventual loss of the toes, feet and legs from gangrene. It will cause eye damage, even blindness.

Cure # 10: Water lowers blood cholesterol.
High cholesterol levels are an indicator of early drought management by the body. Cholesterol is a clay-like material that is poured in the gaps of some cell membranes to safeguard them against losing their vital water content to the osmotically more powerful blood circulating in their vicinity. Cholesterol, apart from being used to manufacture nerve cell membranes and hormones, is also used as a "shield" against water taxation of other vital cells that would normally exchange water through their cell membranes.

Cure # 11: Water cures depression, loss of libido, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy.
These conditions are caused by prolonged chronic dehydration. They will clear up once the body becomes well and regularly hydrated. In these conditions, exercising one's muscles should be part of the treatment program.

So, Start drinking more water from today onwards...

Posted by THE SAINT :: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
20 August, 2007 Church Signs

Funny Church Signs

1. There was a church that had problems with outsiders
parking in its parking lots, so they put up a sign:

CHURCH CAR PARK - FOR MEMBERS ONLY,
TRESPASSERS WILL BE BAPTIZED!
That took care of the problem!

2. "No God - No Peace? Know God - Know Peace."

3. "Free Trip to heaven. Details Inside!"

4. "Try our Sundays. They are better than Baskin-Robbins."

5. "Searching for a new look? Have your faith lifted here!"

6. An ad for one Church has a picture of two hands holding stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments are inscribed and a headline that reads:
"For fast, fast, fast relief, take two tablets."

7. When the restaurant next to another Church put out a sign with big red letters that said, "Open Sundays," the church reciprocated with its own message: "We are open on Sundays, too."

8. "People are like tea bags - you have to put them in hot water before you know how strong they are."

9. "Fight truth decay - study the Bible daily."

10. "How will you spend eternity - Smoking or Non-smoking?"

11. "Dusty Bibles lead to Dirty Lives"

12. "Come work for the Lord. The work is hard, the hours are long and the pay is low. But the retirement benefits are out of this world."

13. "It is unlikely there'll be a reduction in the wages of sin."

14. "Do not wait for the hearse to take you to church."

15. "If you're headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns."

16. "If you don't like the way you were born, try being born again."

17. "Looking at the way some people live, they ought to obtain eternal fire insurance soon."

18. "This is a ch_ _ ch. What is missing?" ----- (U R)

19. "In the dark? Follow the Son."

20. "Running low on faith? Step in for a fill-up."

21. "If you can't sleep, don't count sheep. Talk to the Shepherd."

Posted by THE SAINT :: Monday, August 20, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
16 August, 2007 My New Office w/Dimas and Patrick

Posted by THE SAINT :: Thursday, August 16, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) Pledge

We,the passengers of MRT
poised ourselves as one kan cheong people
regardless of old folks,kids or pregnant women
to rush for unoccupied seats
based on pushing and shoving so as to achieve rest
slumber and sleep for our comfort.
Follow this rules sure u get sits @ MRT.

Posted by THE SAINT :: Thursday, August 16, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
LOVE ME FOR WHATEVER IT MAY BE

Love me in the Springtime, when all is green and new,
Love me in the Summer, when the sky is oh so blue,
Love me in the Autumn, when the leaves are turning brown,
Love me in the Winter, when the snow is falling down.

Love me when I'm happy, and even when I'm sad,
Love me when I'm good, or when I'm oh sobad,
Love me when I'm pretty, or if my face is plain,
Love me when I'm feeling good, or when I'm feeling pain.

Love me always darlin', in the rain or shining sun,
Love me always darlin', after all is said and done,
Love me always darlin', until all our life is through,
Love me always darlin', for I'll belovin' you

Posted by THE SAINT :: Thursday, August 16, 2007 :: ---------------oOo---------------
10 August, 2007 Brown Recluse Spider Bite

This is so gross but everyone needs to see it and needs to be very careful.......

It's summertime & cleanup is going on. Be careful where you put your hands. They like dark spaces & woodpiles.
Also cool areas in the attic,closets,or basement.

This guy was bitten by a Brown Recluse spider.

Day 3

The following illustrates the progression
of a brown recluse spider bite.
The affected skin actually dies on his body.

Day 5

Some of the pictures towards the end are pretty nasty,
but take a look at the last one -- it is a picture of the spider itself.

Day 6

The Brown Recluse Spider is the most
dangerous spider that we have here in the USA

Day 9

A person can die from it's bite. We all should know what th! e spide r looks like .

Day 10

Send this around to people you love, because it is almost summertime.

People will be digging around, doing yard work, spring cleaning,
and sometimes in their attics.