St. Lawrence martyr

August 10 is the feast day of St. Lawrence. This is a very important day for me. It so happens this is my religious name day. Lawrence is the name I took when I became a member of the Third Order of St Francis many many years ago, +40 years. I chose Lawrence because I had long been an admirer of him since somewhere early in elementary school where I first heard/read of his death, more of that later.
It just so happens that on this date in 1963 I received my letter of acceptance into St Meinrad Seminary to study to become a Roman Catholic priest. I remember it distinctly as if it was yesterday despite 45 years having gone by. It was a Saturday. It was the day that my cousin Jo Anne Maynard, God rest her soul, married Cecil Cope. I rode my bike home to check on the mail between the ceremony and the reception of the wedding. I was so excited about being accepted. I had bugged my Pappa for over a year to let me apply before he finally agreed. I had real doubts about being accepted. My intention was to finish high school at St. Meinrad and then apply to the Trappist monastery of Gethsamane. I had already been a lover T. Merton for 5 or 6 years so the heading to Gethesamane.
It was the summer between the 9th and 10th grade. There were Minor Seminaries in those days. St Meinrad was a Benedictine monastery. There were 150 students in my grade at St. Meinrad. It was assumed even then that about only 4-5 of us would make it all the way to ordination, which as best as I can tell was pretty accurate. I cannot begin to say how important those 2 years there were for my formation and clearly were wonderful years for me. I would not be anything like I am now, at least in the positive way if not for those 2 years. I can recall very vividly many of those days there as if they just happened.
It has been rare in these past 45 years that I have not thought my whole life was not focused on this vocation. Very few seconds in which there was any question of this vocation, plenty of confusion and non-understanding what this really entailed.
Thank you Yahweh for that blessed day so many yet so few years ago.

The very 1st time I heard the story of St. Lawrence I was smitten by him. Could there ever be another remarkable story. I began to pray on a regular basis for the gift of martyrdom. I have often wondered what Jesus made/is making of such a prayer.
One can find many accounts of this life with little variations. Basically, he was roasted on a gridiron and as he was made fun of he said: "Turn me over I am done on this time." I have thought about this over and over in my life and cannot begin to grasp what type of person could do this. It is unimaginable by any standards. I cannot make any of the small slights of my life into anything like this.
A great deal of my life has been spent trying to figure out what motivates people to do what they do. but even more than the motivation how do people arrive at this point in their lives. This is not mere emotional response to something. There is something much deeper. It is this event in this life of St Lawrence that pretty much has pushed me to be so focused on how spiritual formation takes place. Is it quite amazing how something so pivotal happened in my life when I was somewhere in the 9-12 years old.
Peace vincent ira ciaramitaro