From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Not on Your Own   
      
      "There are some people who consider themselves able to refine   
   themselves on their own, in order to contemplate and remain in God.   
      Accordingly, they look down upon the mass of Christians who live on   
   faith alone as not being able to do as they do."   
   --St. Augustine--The Trinity 4, 15   
      
   Prayer: Give me strength to seek you, Lord, for you have already   
   enabled me to find you and have given me hope of finding you ever more   
   fully.   
   --St. Augustine--The Trinity 15, 51   
      
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   August 4th - St. John Baptist Vianney   
      
   There is always a word to say about St. John Baptist Vianney because   
   he was one of the greatest saints of the 19th century. His life   
   presents so many different facets that one always can take new lessons   
   from it.   
      
   In the first decades of the 19th century, he was a poor seminarian.   
   Not only was he poor but he had a small intelligence, remarkably   
   small. He had to make an extraordinary effort to follow his studies at   
   the seminary, and twice failed the examinations required before   
   ordination. His intellectual insufficiency gave much cause for concern   
   about his priestly vocation. Finally at age 30 he barely managed to   
   complete the course and was ordained.   
      
   The Bishop sent this dull priest to a tiny village in the south of   
   France, the village of Ars. There he began his sacerdotal life, which   
   would permeate all of Europe with its light, and, from there, spread   
   throughout the world. He was canonized a saint by Pius XI in 1925 and   
   proclaimed patron of parish priests.   
      
   What was it that distinguished this Saint? Even though he didn’t have   
   any natural qualities to make him an exceptional priest, he became a   
   magnificent priest, an extraordinary apostle, a confessor with rare   
   discernment, and a preacher who exercised a profound influence over   
   souls.   
      
   What was the reason for such efficiency? St. Therese of Lisieux used   
   to say, “For love, nothing is impossible.” What this means is that one   
   who truly loves God, Our Lord and Our Lady will obtain the means to do   
   what Divine Providence calls him to do. This applies perfectly to St.   
   John Vianney. For example, let us look at his preaching. He became an   
   extraordinary preacher. He prepared his sermons the best he could,   
   then he studied them. They were not sermons touching on the highest   
   topics of theology; they were common catechetical instructions for the   
   people. But when he taught, he spoke with such conviction, with such a   
   great love of God, with words so blessed that the graces of those   
   sermons were communicative and touched all who heard them.   
      
   A defect I still didn’t mention: he had a weak voice, and in those   
   happy times when microphones didn’t exist, the multitudes that   
   gathered to listen to his preaching--filling the church of Ars and its   
   environs--often could not hear him. Even though persons at a distance   
   could only hear a few loose phrases of his sermons, many of them still   
   converted. Others could not hear him at all, but they also converted,   
   only from the effect of seeing him.   
      
   In his “Soul of the Apostolate”, Dom Chautard relates this telling   
   fact. An impious lawyer went to Ars to "mock its unlearned Curé. But   
   he returned converted. Someone asked him: What did you see there? He   
   answered: “I saw God in a man.” That is, the presence of God was in   
   St. John Vianney. One could note that God was with him and in him. I   
   consider the witness of this impious lawyer about the Curé of Ars--“I   
   saw God in a man”--one of the most glorious homages a man can receive.   
      
   The blessings from his sermons and charisma of his words extended far   
   and wide, and all over Europe pilgrimages started to be made to Ars.   
   This was one of the reasons for the countless conversions St. John   
   Vianney made.   
      
   He was also a martyr of the confessionary. He used to spend hours and   
   hours there hearing confessions and giving counsels. We don’t realize   
   the tremendous penance it represents to spend long hours hearing the   
   foul moral things people do. In the confessionary he applied the   
   advice of St. Alphonse of Ligouri to not hurry through the confession,   
   to be patient, to consider each penitent as if he were the only person   
   to be heard and to help him conquer each one of his sins. So he   
   entered battle against each sin, insisted on the practice of virtue,   
   advised good behavior, and often he denied absolution. Yes, if he   
   could not note a serious intent of amendment, he denied absolution to   
   that person.   
      
   He was an enemy of dancing. You should note that the dances of that   
   time were far different from the immoral and outrageous dances of   
   today. The young ladies were completely covered and had skirts that   
   reached to the floor. If he condemned those dances, what would he say   
   about ours? His condemnation went so far as to deny absolution to   
   those who would not promise to stop going to such dances.. Many   
   persons would go to other churches to receive absolution. Hearing   
   this, he simply commented: If other priests want to send them to Hell,   
   it is up to them.   
      
   This extraordinary Saint spent all his time in the church: at the   
   pulpit, confessionary or altar. At night when he returned to his   
   house, one might think he would at least get a deserved rest. But no,   
   a new fight started, this time against the devil. For decades he   
   fought a nightly battle with the devil--whom he called Grapin--in   
   which the devil physically assaulted him and tormented him with   
   deafening noises and insulting words. On the night before a person   
   particularly dominated by the devil would come to confess to St. John   
   Vianney, the devil would inflict stronger torments on the Saint. Once   
   he set fire to the Curé’s bed. In response St. John Vianney used to   
   increase his special penances, flagellations, and prayers to win the   
   graces for his words to effect the needed conversions.   
      
   It is beautiful to consider that Divine Providence, in order to   
   further increase his apostolate, gave him the gift of the miracles. In   
   fact he worked many miracles. But he did not attribute them to   
   himself. In his church he built a shrine to St. Philomena, a virgin   
   martyr that Paul VI removed from the list of the saints. St. John   
   Vianney did not think the same way, and attributed all his miracles to   
   her.   
      
   I will mention just one extraordinary fact that reveals his gift of   
   reading souls--the discernment of spirits--that he had. This fact was   
   reported by one of his penitents, a young lady who was a Daughter of   
   Mary. She went to confession to the Curé of Ars. After she knelt, he   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)