In conversation with the Cure d'Ars.
Listening, remembering, praying to, learning from, st Jean Vianney.
One of the things we have in common at ‘Catholic Unscripted’ is that each one of us treasures St John, Vianney, the Cure d’ Ars.
It was his feast day yesteday (3rd of August) and I found myself wanting to go back to him. What so encouraging about the saints is they are there to be consulted, ‘prayed’ to. We call, and they turn up. With St Jean, the greeat confessor, It becomes almost as if we can make our confession to him, asking him for his prayers, allowing some of his actions and words to refresh and reorientate us.
I have found that one of the most powerful and refreshing parts of becoming a Catholic is th discovery of sainthood or sanctity. It’s like dynamite in the Church. Explosions of holiness are neing set off all over the place, and all through time.
The Holy Spirit keeps on making saints; and He keeps on making saints within the Catholic Church. It’s these saints who keep the Church going, who renew it.
I love some of the bon mots of Mother Theresa ofCalcutta about this hunger for holiness:
“Holiness is not the luxury of the few. It is a simple duty—for you and for me.”
And the wonderful;
“Do not be afraid to be saints. You were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness,
which we all know so well and which we just need to keep on repeating when the whispers of accusation so often in our ears grind us down,
One aspect of what I find so inspiring and exciting about sanctity is the way in which it transforms not only the individual but the whole context the individual lives in.
And this is partly why saint-Jean, Vianney is so astonishing.
Just look what he did to his village.
Ars is just a small non-descript village in France. Like scores of thousands of other non-descript villages the difference is that a man who loved God there came and everything changed. You only know about it, haev heard about it, because a man,. a priest who went there, took prayer seriously.
When he arrived there in 1818 mass attendance was very low and there was a culture of drinking and dancing, having fun and ignoring God.
The great temptation is to imagine this could be changed by wagging your finger and giving people advice. But that hardly ever works if ever. What works is a transformed personality and that’s exactly what sainthood does.
The effect that he had on his village was the transform the moral and spiritual life of the community and within a few years it was to become a profoundly devout Catholic community sent it on the Eucharist confession and prayer
For example, one of the most extraordinary changes
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