I have just resumed reading Trochu's "The Curé d'Ars" at breakfast. At the end of the chapter on his heroic patience and mortification, there is this moving conclusion:
If, in order to appraise the penance of M.Vianney, it is necessary to appeal to a specialist in the matter, let us hear the humble admission of a Father of the Grande-Chartreuse: "We confess, we solitaries, hermits, monks, penitents of every description, that we only dare follow the holy Curé d'Ars with wondering eyes, that we are not worthy to kiss his footprints, the dust of his shoes!"The footnote informs us that the quotation is from a letter written September 15, 1865, to M.Toccanier by R. P. Maurice Marie Borel, monk of the Grande Chartreuse.
7 comments:
Didn't the Cure eat black potatos etc? He was extremely austere. i do like reading about him & have several Lives by various authors..but i wouldn't want to be a Priest emulating (is that a word?) him!
Dear Lord, if the Spiritual SAS are in awe of him... wow!
He liked St. Philomena and thats good enough for me!
It was atcually his life by Trochu, that introduced me to devotion to St. Philomena. Such a couragous saint as well - daring to preach the harsh truth, so much lacking in todays sermons. Makes me wonder if he would ever get into seminary, with all the psycological testing and filtering they do nowadays.
For what it's worth, we read that book as a family when our kids were 10 and 12 yrs of age. For so large a book there were very few pages without drama and we all found it very enjoyable and edifying.
Personally I wish it could be the religion textbook for high school sophomores. Lives of the saints are so often presented in treacly fashion over two or three pages, with emphasis on the spectacular. The saint seems to have descended from heaven with halo in place, whereas Trochu presents John Vianney as moving from one struggle to another. Teens could identify, I think, plus there is a very great deal of sacramental and ascetical theology presented in dramatic form.
Very noteworthy is the beginning of of Trochu's book, and I wish it would be highlighted in homilies for women's days of recollection, or for baptisms. Essentially it goes, "When Johnny was a little boy, his mother would read to him from the gospels and the lives of the saints" Of those who are raised to the altar by reason of their innocence- rather than penitence- very many of their lives began in just that fashion. To use the terminology of C.S. Lewis, they underwent a baptism of the imagination at a very early age, a "baptism" that profoundly affected their lives and the life of the entire Church. Perhaps if there were more emphasis on forming the mothers of saints, there would be more saintly men and women for every vocation. Perhaps that is the real "vocations crisis" badly in need of attention.
Is it true that St John Vianney is the only diocesan priest besides St Josemaria (as Opus Dei is not a religious order) to have been canonised?
Felix, as far as I am aware, he is the only parish priest to have been canonised for being a parish priest.
Well that's fine Lee & us Catholic mothers do raise saintly children, but let's not forget the fathers!
God bless
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