This devotion, for me, has grown over the last year and a half as I have been reading the Curé d'Ars' standard biography, The Curé d'Ars: St. Jean-Marie Baptiste Vianney by Abbé François Trochu. While in minor seminary, I saw guys carrying around this large volume, 627 pages (when the life of a saint rivals the size of entire volume of Butler's, it is large). It was in nearly even room except my own. It was recommended to me by many of my confreres, but, due to my obstinence and God's use of that for His providence, I had not yet taken up this tome for the first seven and a half years of my seminary career. It entered my shelves at the behest of Bl. John Paul II from his book remembering his 50 years of priesthood, Gift and Mystery. On All Saints Day 2009, upon the recommendation of the spiritual director of the seminary, I began a regular reading of the life of a saint. I began with the life of the Florentine St. Philip Neri, who is the patron of the parish of my childhood. After him it only seemed appropriate, being still in the year of the priest, to begin the life of the patron saint of priest. Abbé Trochu had the great gift of having the process for Vianney's canonization as his primary research material. Through it he wished to give an accurate and still thoroughly pious representation of the life of this beloved French priest.
I could dwell on his extreme asceticism, or his miracles, or his holy gifts of reading souls of the living and conversing with the souls of the dead. No. There were four things that struck me about this man, and of which, I wish to imitate during my future life as a priest of Jesus Christ:
- his devotion to the Eucharist
- his devotion to the Blessed Mother
- his humility
- his tireless work in the confessional
1 comment:
Thank you for posting this!
"I am firmly convinced that in our current age of secularism and practical hedonism what is need to bring Christian back to their faith is the confessional." I know that this is a tremendous amount of work for priests, and I am most thankful that you are willing to take on this part of the new evangelization!
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