With a breeze and no excessive heat-- marvellous weather indeed. Am listening to Gustav Holst's Neptune from The Planets at the Proms; it is one of those moments when one realises one's age because the conductor of the premiere in 1918 was Adrian Boult who, when I first knew of him, was then a knight bachelor and already retired from the BBC, already also (as it seemed to me) an elderly fellow conducting, I believe, a performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. So I recall; I suppose it wouldn't be terribly onerous to find a list of all his recordings to see if the 1812 is there or not, but I have no interest in confirming the material accuracy of my memories.
In any case, I wanted to note Gregory DiPippo's essay today on 'the feasts of Saint Lawrence' at the New Liturgical Movement website. As he so expertly describes, the feasts of the 3rd, the 6th, the 9th, and the 13th of August are all connected with Saint Lawrence's feast today, he to whom "a remarkable number of Roman churches are dedicated... several more, in fact, than are dedicated to either of the Apostolic founders of the Church in the Eternal City".
Having written about the parallels between the lives of Saints Stephen and Lawrence, Dr DiPippo continues with this example of their association in the Sacred Liturgy:
In the office of St Stephen, the third antiphon of Lauds (partially quoting Psalm 62, with which it is sung), reads “Adhaesit anima mea post te, quia caro mea lapidata est pro te, Deus meus. – My soul hath stuck close to Thee, because my flesh was stoned for Thy sake, my God.” In the office of St Lawrence, this same antiphon is changed to “Adhaesit anima mea post te, quia caro mea igne cremata est pro te, Deus meus. – My soul hath stuck close to Thee, because my flesh was burnt for Thy sake, my God.” The artistic pairing of the two done so beautifully by Fra Angelico is also found twice in the Sancta Sanctorum which the Niccoline Chapel replaced, in the mosaics over the altar and in the frescoes that adorn its walls.
There is a motet in Saint Lawrence's honor by Charpentier, H 321, but it doesn't seem to be at YouTube or on Spotify. Eh.
LDVM
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