The Cure of Ars: A Model for Priests
On this day, August 4th, in 1859, the world witnessed the passing into eternity of a most remarkable man, a simple country priest, who lived and worked at the same parish for 41 years, never taking a holiday, nor much of a break at all. He slept little, and ate even less, totally devoted to his parish and the souls of his parishioners, hearing confessions in the sweltering heat and frigid cold for up to 16 hours a day.
When as a young curate he arrived in the out-of-the-way village of Ars in 1818, he asked a boy to show him the way to the parish, and that if lad did so, he would show him the way to heaven.
Saint Jean-Marie Vianney ended up showing an untold number of souls the ‘way to heaven’. Sacrificing for his flock in a way that seemed well beyond human nature, the ‘Curé d’Ars’, as he came to be known, produced miraculous spiritual fruits: He could read souls, tell people their secret sins, and spoke with God and His Mother like they were right there. The Devil, who appeared to the Curé, often in the form of a big, black toad, especially when a ‘big sinner’ was about to arrive, was enraged, claiming that if there were but a few priests like him, ‘his kingdom would be destroyed tomorrow’.
People flocked from all over France and beyond to seek out the soon-famed priest, with line-ups lasting three days. The government had to put in a train station to handle all the ‘pilgrims’, a sign and fruit of the holiness of the simple and humble Curé. Other priests were envious, and signed a petition for his removal. When the petition arrived at his own parish, Father Vianney added his own name, claiming that he was unworthy of his vocation. He was always tempted to run off to a monastery, but stayed faithful to the end where God had put him. Saint Jean-Marie Vianney died peacefully on this summer day, with a resplendent funeral with thousands in attendance, so universally recognized was he. He could no longer object. To this day, his shrine at Ars, outside Lyons, attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. annually.
There are two ways the sacraments work: Ex opere operato, by the very fact of the sacraments being performed, with all the grace being present as the fruit of Christ’s work. And ex opere operantis, from the devotion of the recipient, who opens himself more or less to this grace.
In the first way, the Cure’s sacraments, his Masses and Confessions, were the same as any other priest, good, bad or indifferent. But in the second way, the holiness of the priest can elicit a great, even a miraculous, devotion in those who receive his sacraments.
Pope John Paul II, himself a holy and zealous pastor, called for such holiness in priests, as the primary hallmark of their vocation, to devote themselves to souls without stint, to form their own souls by prayer, a spirit of sacrifice and performing always without delay and grumbling the duty of the moment. A gift-of-self in the very image of Christ. Saint Jean Vianney fulfilled these so perfectly, was so Christ-like himself, that he has been proclaimed not only the patron saint of parish priests (as he was for a time), but now the patron saint of priests, everywhere, forever and always.
All we need is a few good men to preach God’s kingdom, and help bring about its fulfillment. The Church began that way, and may end the same.
Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, ora pro nobis!
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass
Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’… ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→