| Saint John Vianney, the Curé of Ars |
 |
Saint John Vianney and the Year for PriestsThis year of 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Saint John Vianney, the Curé of Ars. On March 16th last, in an address to the members of the Congregation for the Clergy when he announced the forthcoming Year for Priests, the Holy Father highlighted the "indispensable struggle for moral perfection which must dwell in every truly priestly heart”. He also called the Curé of Ars, “a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ's flock”. The Pope will inaugurate the Year on 19 June 2009, presiding at Vespers in St. Peter's Basilica where the relics of the Curé of Ars will be brought for the occasion by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, France.
During the course of the Year, Benedict XVI will proclaim St. John Vianney as patron saint of all the priests of the world.
A "Directory for Confessors and Spiritual Directors" will also be published, as will a collection of texts by the Supreme Pontiff on essential aspects of the life and mission of priests in our time.
About Saint John VianneyWho was Saint John Vianny? He was born on May 8th 1786 and died 4th August 1859. After many difficulties including military service, academic struggles, the anti-clerical context of the French Revolution, he was ordained priest on 13th August 1815. He served as an assistant priest in Ecully and as Parish Priest in Ars where he was famous for his sanctity and radical spiritual transformation of his parish and its surroundings. His ministry of the sacrament of reconciliation was legendry with him devoting up to eighteen hours a day in the confessional. He was canonised in 1925.
Words of Saint John VianneyOur Lord is our model, let us take up our cross and follow Him. Let us do like the soldiers of Napoleon. They had to cross a bridge under the fire of grapeshot; no one dared to pass it. Napoleon took over the colors, marched over first and they all followed. Let us do the same; let us follow Our Lord, who has gone before us.
I love You, O my God, and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life. I love You, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving You, than live without loving You. I love You, Lord and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally....My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath. Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that. In this intimate union, God and the soul are like two pieces of wax moulded into one; they cannot any more be separated. It is a very wonderful thing, this union of God with his insignificant creature; happiness passing all understanding. We had deserved to be left incapable of praying; but God in his goodness has permitted us to speak to him. Our prayer is an incense that is delightful to God. My children, your hearts are small, but prayer enlarges them and renders them capable of loving God. Prayer is a foretaste of heaven, an overflowing of heaven. It never leaves us without sweetness; it is like honey, it descends into the soul and sweetens everything. In a prayer well made, troubles vanish like snow under the rays of the sun. Prayer makes time seem to pass quickly, and so pleasantly that one fails to notice how long it is. When I was parish priest of Bresse, once, almost all my colleagues were ill, and as I made the long journeys I used to pray to God, and, I assure you, the time did not seem long to me. There are those who lose themselves in prayer, like fish in water, because they are absorbed in God. There is no division in their hearts. How I love those noble souls. Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvellous light. |