Profile
Universally known as the
"Cure of Ars," St. John Mary Vianney was ordained a priest in 1815. Three years
later he was made parish priest of Ars, a remote French hamlet, where his reputation as a
confessor and director of souls made him known throughout the Christian world. His life
was one of extreme mortification.
Accustomed to the most severe
austerities, beleaguered by swarms of penitents, and besieged by the devil, this great
mystic manifested a imperturbable patience. He was a wonderworker loved by the crowds, but
he retained a childlike simplicity, and he remains to this day the living image of the
priest after the heart of Christ.
He heard confessions of
people from all over the world for the sixteen hours each day. His life was filled with
works of charity and love. It is recorded that even the staunchest of sinners were
converted at his mere word. He died August 4, 1859, and was canonized May 31, 1925.
Readings
All our
religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions and
we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God, if we have not that
universal charity for everyone - for the good, and for the bad, for the poor
and for the rich, and for all those who do us harm as much as those who do
us good.
Saint John Vianney
If people
would do for God what they do for the world, what a greatnumber of
Christians would go to Heaven.
Saint John Vianney
You either
belong wholly to the world or wholly to God.
Saint John Vianney
I tell you
that you have less to suffer in following the Cross than in serving the
world and its pleasures.
Saint John Vianney
You cannot
please both God and the world at the same time, They are utterly opposed to
each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.
Saint John Vianney
We must always
choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one
in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done
us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter.
Saint John Vianney
We should
consider those moments spent before the Blessed Sacrament as the happiest of
our lives.
Saint John Vianney
My little
children, reflect on these words: the Christian's treasure is not on earth
but in heaven. Our thoughts, then, ought to be directed to where out
treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you
pray and love, that is where a man's happiness lies.
Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and
the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can every pull
apart. This union of god with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a
happiness beyond understanding.
My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and
makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of
heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us
without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all
things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the
sun.
Some men immerse themselves as deeply in prayer as fish in water, because
they give themselves totally to God. O, how I love these noble souls!
How unlike them we are! How often we come to church with no idea of what to
do or what to ask for. And yet, whenever we go to any human being, we know
well enough why we go. And still worse, there are some who seem to speak to
the good God like this: "I will only say a couple of things to you, and then
I will be rid of you." I often think that when we come to adore the Lord, we
would receive everything we ask for, if we would ask with living faith and
with a pure heart.
from the catechetical instructions by Saint John Mary Vianny
Prayer is the
inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.
Saint John Vianney
