A rich array awaits us this week, culminating in the Solemnity of the Assumption, though the riches are not earthly ones. On Monday 10th we remember St Lawrence, the 3rd-century deacon who is said to have sold the Church’s possessions and dispersed the proceeds among the poor, incurring the wrath of the prefect of Rome, who demanded that Lawrence return the money. Three days later, Lawrence appeared before him with destitute orphans and people who were blind, lame or impoverished: the Church’s “treasure”. For this, he was burned to death. The Mass that day gives us a reading from the Second Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians (9:6–10), which underscores what motivated the holy deacon.