Moving To Mexico

            I’m watching “Mexico Life” on my favorite channel, HGTV.   It’s more fun than watching Fox News!

            If Hillary becomes president, I am moving to Manzanillo, Mexico where I can buy a 1200 square foot house for less than $100K near the beach.  

            So, all the illegals from Mexico will become American citizens under Hillary, and I can become a Mexican!

Turn me over; I'm done on this side

In August of A.D. 258, the emperor Valerian ordered that all deacons, priests, and Bishops be put to death. Tradition via the Golden Legend tells us that Pope Sixtus II met with Lawrence, saying to him:

"I shall not leave thee, my son, but greater strifes and battles be due to thee for the faith of Jesu Christ. We, as old men, have taken more lighter battle, and to thee as to a young man shall remain a more glorious battle of which thou shalt triumph and have victory of the tyrant, and shalt follow me within three days."

Then he delivered to him all the treasures, commanding him that he should give them to churches and poor people. And the blessed man sought the poor people night and day, and gave to each of them that as was needful, and came to the house of an old woman, which had hid in her house many Christian men and women, and long she had had the headache, and St. Laurence laid his hand opon her head, and anon she was healed of the ache and pain.

And he washed the feet of the poor people and gave to each of them alms. The same night he went to the house of a Christian man and found therein a blind man, and gave to him his sight by the sign of the cross. And when the blessed Sixtus would not consent to Decius, ne offer to the idols, he commanded that he should be led forth and beheaded.

Pope Sixtus II's martyrdom was followed three days later by that of Lawrence, the last of the deacons of Rome to be executed. He was put to death by being roasted on a gridiron over a fire. The Golden Legend, written in A.D. 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, gives us this account:

And the ministers despoiled him, and laid him stretched out upon a gridiron of iron, and laid burning coals under, and held him with forks of iron. Then said Laurence to Valerianus: Learn, thou cursed wretch, that thy coals give to me refreshing of coldness, and make ready to thee torment perdurable, and our Lord knoweth that I, being accused, have not forsaken him, and when I was demanded I confessed him Christ, and I being roasted give thankings unto God.

And after this he said with a glad cheer unto Decius, Thou cursed wretch, thou hast roasted that one side, turn that other, and eat.

And then he, rendering thankings to our Lord, said: I thank thee, Lord Jesu Christ, for I have deserved to enter into thy gates.

St. Lawrence was buried in the Catacomb of Cyriaca, on the Via Tiburtina. Constantine the Great built a chapel there in his honor, and this chapel was built up over the years, becoming known as St. Lawrence-Outside-The-Walls (San Lorenzo fuori le Mura), one of the original seven patriarchal basilicas of Rome. Another church, San Lorenzo in Panisperna, was built at the place of his martyrdom. In this latter church, one can venerate the gridiron upon which St. Lawrence was put to death.

St. Lawrence is patron of librarians, archivists, cooks, and deacons. He is most often represented in art handing out the treasures of the Church (as above), roasting on a gridiron, or with a gridiron, the Gospels, or a bag of money for the poor.

Tonight's Drinks & Dinner Suggestions

To celebrate St. Lawrence’s Feast Day today and recall his martyrdom of being cooked alive on a grill, here are your drink and dinner suggestions.

Dinner

Host a BBQ or serve a roast.

Wine

            Saint Laurent Reserve red wine from Germany

            Sori San Lorenzo red wine from Italy

Spirits

            Canadian Whiskey because the St. Lawrence Seaway was discovered on this date in 1525, and because St. Lawrence is the patron saint of Canada.

            Scotch from the island of Islay because it has peaty overtones to evoke St. Lawrence’s smoky end (remember black humor)

If you find this morbid, remember St. Lawrence’s own black humor when he said to his killers, “Turn me over.  I’m done on this side.”

FYI, legend says that as the deacon of Rome, St. Lawrence had custody of the Holy Grail used by Our Lord at the Last Supper, and that he gave it to his parents for safe keeping before his execution.  Legend also says his parents escaped with the Holy Grail to Spain.   Could it still be there?

Two Tombs: St. Anthony & St. Dominic

Two Tombs. 

Recently, a Dominican priest from America was visiting Italy. During the course of his travels, he visited the shrine of the much beloved Franciscan, St. Anthony, in Padua. The pilgrim was very edified to see throngs of people in the church, venerating the saint’s image with much affection and praying and singing with great feeling. He was especially impressed by a large procession that formed in Anthony’s honor—a splendid, public affair, filled with spirit and emotion.

Later that day, the same friar happened to be in Bologna, at the tomb of St. Dominic. Within that church, where Dominic was finally laid to rest, only five people were present. Each was sitting alone, somewhat near the tomb, in perfect silence, studying! Those who have come to know and love Dominic can savor that scene as entirely in keeping with what he would have wanted.

Fr. Michael Monshau, OP, is a professor of Liturgy, Homiletics, and Spirituality at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome.

Dominic's Day

August 8:  Saint Dominic – Founded the Order of Preachers (O.P.) AKA: the Dominicans – the Black Friars

Born in 1170 in old Castile, Spain, he was trained for the priesthood by a priest-uncle, studied the arts and theology, and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma.

On a journey through France with his bishop, he came face to face with the then virulent Albigensian heresy at Languedoc in southern France. The Albigensians (Cathari, “the pure”) held to two principles—one good, one evil—in the world. All matter is evil—hence they denied the Incarnation and sacraments. On the same principle, they abstained from sex and took a minimum of food and drink. The inner circle led what some people regarded as a heroic life of purity and asceticism not shared by ordinary followers.

Dominic sensed the need for the Church to combat this heresy, and was commissioned to be part of the preaching crusade against it. He saw immediately why the preaching was not succeeding: the ordinary people admired and followed the ascetical heroes of the Albigenses. Understandably, they were not impressed by the Catholic preachers who traveled with horse and retinues, stayed at the best inns and had servants. Dominic therefore, with three Cistercians, began itinerant preaching according to the gospel ideal. He continued this work for 10 years, being successful with the ordinary people but not with the leaders.

His fellow preachers gradually became a community, and in 1215 he founded a religious house at Toulouse, the beginning of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans).  Dominic died in 1220 and requested that he be buried under the floor (and the feet of his brothers) of a monastery in Bologna, Italy.   He was later entombed in a chapel of the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna.

Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers and speakers.

Dominic is from the Latin and means “sacred to the Lord.”

Dominic is often depicted in his white habit with black mantle holding a lily with a dog next to him holding a torch in its mouth.

REMINDER: Drink Dominican Rum & Smoke Dominican Cigars Today!

Happy St. Dominic’s Day!   Be sure to celebrate with run and cigars from the Dominican Republic which was named for the Dominicans!

I like the Dominican vs Jesuit joke at the end . . .

Did you know that:

St. Dominic was born in Spain in 1170?

He tried to sell himself into slavery to liberate Christians held by infidel Muslims?

He formed the Order of Preachers to preach against the heresy of Albigensian which was very popular in the south of France?

Legend says the Blessed Virgin gave him the rosary.

Unlike the followers of St. Benedict who performed manual labor and lived cloistered in monasteries, the Dominicans pursued intellectual labor and preaching as their mission.

The nickname for the Dominicans is “Domini Canes” which is Latin for “House of the Lord,’ and that St. Dominic is the “Master of the Hounds.”

In England, the Dominicans were knows as the “Black Friars” after the black cape they wear over their white habits, and that Blackfriars Distillery makes a gin called Plymouth Gin which claims to be England’s oldest working gin distillery.  

The city of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, was named after St. Dominic in 1498, and the entire country was named for the Dominicans?

The Dominican Republic has three rum producers: Ron Barcelo, Bermudez, and Brugal. 

You should toast St. Dominic today by drinking rum and say, “To St. Dominic: May he help us to praise, to bless, and to preach always, sometimes using words.”

After a few shots of rum, you may want to shout out this toast, “To the Hounds of the Lord!” and then let out a dramatic howl.

You should tell this old joke today:

            A young man wondered if he should join the Dominicans or the Jesuits.  

A Dominican told him that the Dominicans were founded by St. Dominic in the 13^th Century to fight the Albigensian heresy, and that the Jesuits were founded by St. Ignatius in the 16^th Century to fight the Protestant heresy.  

The young man wanted to know which order was better. 

The Dominican replied by saying, “Well, when was the last time you met an Albigensian?”

Landslide!

Hillary Clinton has pulled campaign funds out of Colorado and Virginia because it is becoming evident that she will win easily in those states.

News reports are breaking that Hillary will most likely win in a landslide thanks to the Marxist Media’s increasing attacks on an arrogant and incompetent Donald Trump.

Ted Cruz is already working on his 2020 campaign for US President where his slogan will be, “I told you so!”