Some 11th Sunday after Pentecost Thoughts from St. John Vianney

For this 11th Sunday after Pentecost, a special treat: thoughts from St. John Vianney, the Cure d'Ars, whose feast day we celebrated this past week. We found these at the wonderful williedoyle.org website.

First, something Father Willie wrote in his diary about one of his favorite saints when he visited where the saint lived and worked in France.

"In the little village Ars, near Lyons, lived and died, some fifty years ago, a simple French Curé. He had none of the great gifts which the world looks for in her famous men; so deficient was he in learning, that his Bishop hesitated about ordaining him, and he could call neither talent nor eloquence to his aid. But the Blessed Curé d’Ars possessed a marvellous, secret power over men, the power of personal holiness. For the last thirty years his life never varied. At midnight, after a broken sleep of only three hours, he entered his confessional, where for eighteen hours he absolved and consoled the hundred thousand pilgrims who annually came to Ars. He revelled in austerities and humiliations, he hungered for prayer, winning souls to God and converting the most hardened sinners by the example of his heroic life as much as by the graces of his sanctity."

Now these words from the saint himself:  

There are people who make capital out of everything, even the winter. If it is cold they offer their little sufferings to God.

A Christian either rules his inclinations or his inclinations rule him.

God has given each of us our work to do. It is for us to pursue our road, that is to say, our vocation…When God gives such and such a vocation, He bestows upon us at the same time His grace to fulfil it. 

Very few people invite Jesus Christ to their wedding; on the contrary they seem to do all they can to keep him away.

The way to destroy bad habits is by watchfulness and by doing often those things which are the opposite one’s besetting sins.

We all make wonderful promises to God so long as nobody says anything to us, and all goes well

All soldiers are good in garrison. On the field of battle we see the difference between the brave and cowardly.

We must be like the shepherds in the fields during the winter. They have a fire, but from time to time they search about for sticks to keep it alive. If we knew how to keep up the fire of the love of God in our heart by prayers and good works, it would not go out.

In the soul which is united to God it is always spring.

(Source: https://williedoyle.org/thoughts-for-august-4-st-john-vianney-from-fr-willie-doyle-10/)

 

Happy 11th Sunday after Pentecost!