Lenten Station At The Basilica Of Saint Laurence-Without-The-Walls. Third Sunday In Lent.

Roman Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

Italic Text, Illustrations and Captions, are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Third Sunday in Lent.
Station at Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls.

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines.

Semi-Double.
Privilege of the First Class.

Violet Vestments.

The spelling of this Saint's name can be either Laurence or Lawrence.

English: Papal Basilica of Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls.

Italian: Basilica Papale di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura.

Photo: February 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: User:Panairjdde

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Station, today, is made at Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls, one of the first Patriarchal Basilicas of Rome, where are buried the bodies of the two Deacons, Laurence and Stephen. In the Collect for Saint Laurence's Feast (10 August), we Pray that the flame of our sins may be quenched within us, as the Saint overcame the fire of his torments; while, in that for Saint Stephen's Day, we undertake to love our enemies, like this Saint who Prayed for his persecutors.

Here are two virtues, Chastity and Charity, which were especially practised by the Patriarch Joseph, whose history The Church gives us this week in The Breviary. For Joseph resisted the evil solicitation of Potiphar's wife, while, on the other hand, he loved his brethren to the extent of rendering them good for evil.

When Joseph told his brethren the dreams, which foreshadowed his future greatness, they became filled with hatred against him, and at the first opportunity got rid of him by throwing him into a disused pit. After which, they sold him to some Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt and, after, sold him to an Egyptian noble named Potiphar. It was in this man's house that Joseph strenuously resisted the advances of his wife, thus becoming a great model of purity.

Artist: Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783–1853).

Title: The Cloisters, San Lorenzo fuori le mura.

Date: 1824.

Current location: Art Institute of Chicago,

(Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection).

Photo: April 2007.

Source: Own work.

Author: user:Rlbberlin

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Ambrose says: "Today, it is the history of the pious Joseph which invites our attention. He possessed many virtues, yet he shone especially by his conspicuous Chastity. Rightly, therefore, is this holy Patriarch set before us as a Mirror of Chastity" (Matins).

When Joseph was cast into prison, having been unjustly accused by Potiphar's wife, turning to God in Prayer, he asked to be freed from his bonds. In similar terms, we say in the Introit: "My eyes are ever towards The Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out of the snare." And the Tract continues: "Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, so are our eyes unto The Lord our God, until He have mercy on us." 

And, in the Collect, we speak of Almighty God, Who regards the desires of those who humble themselves, as stretching forth in our defence the Right-Hand of His Majesty. In this event, Pharao took Joseph from his prison, made him sit on his Right-Hand, and entrusted to him the government of his whole Kingdom; and when, through his gift of foreknowledge he predicted the famine which should last seven years, Pharao gave him the title "Saviour of the people." [only once in the Gospels is this title given to Our Lord, namely, when He was speaking to the Samaritan woman, at Jacob's well. The incident is recorded in the Gospel for Friday of this week, devoted, Liturgically-speaking, to the history of Joseph.]

Interior of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura.

[taken from: http://papastronsay.blogspot.com]

Then, Joseph's brethren came to Egypt and he told them: "I am Joseph, whom you sold. Be not afraid. God has brought everything to pass that I may be the means of preserving you from death." Jacob's happiness, at seeing his son again, was unbounded; and he came and lived with his sons in the Land of Gessen, which Joseph gave them.

Saint Ambrose says: "The jealousy of Joseph's brethren is at the bottom of all the facts which make up his history. Besides, it is recorded to teach us that a perfect man does not give the rein to to his desire to avenge an outrage or to render evil for evil" (Matins).

Italiano: Fotografia Anderson, Roma - "Roma - S. Lorenzo Fuori le Mura". 

Numero di catalogo: 110.

English: Fotografia Anderson, Rome - 
"Rome - Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls Church". Catalogue # 110.

Date: 1938.

Source: Own work (scan).

Author: Either James Anderson (1813-1877) 

or his son Domenico Anderson (1854-1938).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Surely, in all this, we can recognise a type of Christ and His Church. Jesus, The Blessed Virgin's Son, is, in the highest degree, the model of virginal purity. And, in today's Gospel, we see Him contending in a special way with the unclean spirit. For so do Saint Matthew and Saint Luke describe the Devil, whom Our Lord cast out of The Dumb Man by The Finger of God, that is, by The Holy Ghost. 

So does The Church drive out the same unclean spirit from the Souls of the Newly-Baptised. Lent was a time of Preparation for Baptism and, in administering this Sacrament, the Priest breathes three times on the person to be Baptised with the words: "Go out of the child, unclean spirit, and give place to The Holy Ghost." 

Saint Bede, in his Commentary on this Gospel, says: "What then took place, visibly, is every day accomplished, invisibly, in the conversion of those who become Believers. First, the Devil is driven out of their Soul, then they perceive the Light of Faith; and, finally, their mouth, until then dumb, opens to Praise God" (Matins).

Pope Saint Pius X 
is buried at the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura.

Date: between 1880 and 1900.

Source: Library of Congress, U.S.A.

Author: Tryphosa Bates Batcheller.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In the same sense, in today's Epistle, Saint Paul says: "No fornicator or unclean or covetous person . .. hath inheritance in The Kingdom of Christ and of God. Fornication and all uncleanness, let it not so much as be named among you." 

And it is especially at this Season of Combat against Satan that we must imitate Christ, of Whom Joseph was only the type.

With regard to the Virtue of Charity, of which this Patriarch has set us an example, the likeness to Christ and His Church is obvious enough. Our Lord, too, was hated by His own people and sold by one of His Apostles, and, when He was Dying on The Cross, He Prayed for His enemies.

He had recourse to God and God Glorified Him, making Him sit on His Right-Hand in His Kingdom. As Joseph distributed the corn of nature, so, at Easter, Jesus will distribute The Wheat of The Eucharist. We know that, as a condition of receiving Holy Communion, The Church requires that Charity, of which an example was set by Saint Stephen when he pardoned his enemies, and whose Relics are kept in the Church where today's Station is held, the same Charity above all, which Our Lord practised in an heroic degree when He "delivered Himself for us" on The Cross, of which The Eucharist is the Constant Memorial.

Thus, Joseph, as a type of Our Lord, and today's Station, perfectly illustrate the Paschal Mystery for which The Liturgy prepares us at this Season.

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.

Pope Pelagius II (579 A.D. - 590 A.D.) ordered the construction

of the Basilica of Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls.

The Papal Basilica of Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura) is a Roman Catholic Parish Church and Minor Basilica, located in Rome, Italy. 

The Basilica is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome and one of the five Patriarchal Basilicas, each of which is assigned to a Patriarchate. Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls is assigned to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The Papal Basilica is the Shrine Tomb of the Church's namesake, Saint Laurence, one of the first seven Deacons of Rome, Martyred in 258 A.D. Pope Pius IX, awaiting Canonisation into Sainthood, is also buried at the Basilica.

Basilica of  Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls,
Rome, Italy.
(pre-1943 bombing raid of Rome).

[The following three paragraphs are taken from the Web-Site of The Sons of The Most Holy Redeemer at http://papastronsay.blogspot.com]

The Laurentian Basilica owes its foundation to Emperor Constantine, but, being considered too small, a large Upper Aula was added to it by Pope Pelagius II (578 A.D. - 590 A.D.) and Dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary.

For this reason, Pope Leo IV (847 A.D. - 855 A.D.) decreed that The Station for The Octave of The Assumption should be held here.

The Gospel of today alludes to this Dedication by Praising The Great Mother of God, who not only gave Her Own Substance to form The Sacred Humanity of The Lord's Anointed, but was, on Her part, nourished Spiritually by The Divine Word and lived thereby.

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