Sunday in the Year for Priests

From the life of St. John Vianney

Already little John Mary Vianney had the temperament of the priest he would some day become. At once practical and inspired he was both peasant and poet. He felt the peace of the trees and the languor of the day in the very fibers of his being. He loved the meadows, the ripening crops, the good smell of earth and sun. And how he delighted in the lightning flashes that crossed the horizon from end to end. Forty years later, fifty years later, even until he died, he would still speak of it all in a voice filled with nostalgia.

The fact is that John Mary Vianney was first of all a contemplative. He had the sense of prayer. He prayed just as easily as he breathed, with the naturalness, the simplicity that made him seek out solitude. What he preferred above all else was to speak to God without any witnesses, or else listen silently to Him. Dom de Laveyne, who was a great religious, once said: "Silence is the most certain sign of the presence of God in a soul." But little John Mary had to store up his provision of silence, recollection, and solitude right there and then. For when he attained manhood all these things would be denied him.

From the Remarkable Cure of Ars, by Michelle de Saint Pierre

Prayer for Priests

O Jesus, our great High Priest, Hear my humble prayers on behalf of your priest, Father [N].Give him a deep faith a bright and firm hope and a burning love which will ever increase in the course of his priestly life.

In his loneliness, comfort him in his sorrows, strengthen him in his frustrations, point out to him that it is through suffering that the soul is purified, and show him that he is needed by the Church, he is needed by souls,he is needed for the work of redemption.

O loving Mother Mary, Mother of Priests, take to your heart your son who is close to you because of his priestly ordination,and because of the power which he has received to carry on the work of Christin a world which needs him so much.

Be his comfort, be his joy, be his strength,
and especially help himto live and to defend the ideals of consecrated celibacy. Amen.

John Joseph, Cardinal Carberry (+1998)Archbishop of St. Louis 1968-1979

Peace be with you!

Rosemarie

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