Homily for Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Lawrence of Brindisi

July 21, 2026
Collect
Matt 12: 46-50
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

St. Lawrence of Brindisi
By http://www.cappuccinivenezia.org/spirito.htm,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org

“O God, … you bestowed on the priest St. Lawrence of Brindisi a spirit of counsel and fortitude” (Collect).

You’ve surely heard that old age isn’t for sissies.  Neither was the vocation of being an educator.  For that vocation, we surely needed the Holy Spirit’s gift of counsel, to know how best to lead and guide young people.  For our current vocation—yes, we have a vocation in our senior years—as surely we need fortitude:  courage and strength to persevere in God’s service in a less active life.

Lawrence of Brindisi, a Capuchin whose ministry covered the 1st 2 decades of the 17th century, needed those gifts of counsel and fortitude.  He was charged to preach the Catholic faith in northern Italy and in German lands infected by Lutheranism, to take up leadership posts among the friars, to serve as chaplain in campaigns against Turkish invaders, and to carry out diplomatic assignments.  He journeyed extensively at a time when travel was difficult and dangerous, and in fact died on the road, in Portugal for peacemaking diplomacy.

We prayed specifically that, like St. Lawrence, “we may know what must be done and … bring it to completion.”  As it happens, that prayer coincides with today’s gospel:  “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, sister, and mother” (Matt 12:50).

God’s will sent us into classrooms and other forms of ministry.  Now it’s brought us to this stage of our lives.  What must be done now, and how shall we bring it to completion?  What does divine counsel tell us?

Certainly we need fortitude.  But even at St. Joe’s the time for counsel, sharing the Gospel, isn’t past.  Our openness to God’s will edifies our brothers, our families, our staff, and our friends, perhaps including many of those once-young men and women we educated.  Not so long ago, we were amazed at Al Cussen’s continued influence.  We still are blessed with the possibility of living God’s will and counseling others on doing that.