From the Desk of Father Nathan

A Message from Father Nathan

My dearest people who are all close to my heart!

Prayerful greetings and wishes to you…

Feast of St. John Marie Vianney

August 4, 2020, we are going to celebrate the Feast of St. John Marie Vianney the patron saint of all the parish priests.  Please pray for me and for all the priests that you know in your life that we may be imbibed with the zeal of our patron.  Let me have the pleasure of sharing something about his life.

St. John Vianney, in full Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, also called Cure’ dArs (born May 8, 1786, Dardilly, France– died August 4, 1859,  Ars; canonized May 31, 1925, Feast day August 4 (formerly August 9^th), a French priest who was renowned as a confessor and for his supernatural powers.  He is the patron saint of parish priests.

Because of the French Revolution, Vianney received little education.  Given the anticlerical sentiment of the Hebertists during the Reign of Terror, he was forced to make his First Communion and confession secretly and was impressed by the heroism of the nuns and priests who risked their lives for their faith.  He felt called to pursue the priesthood but struggled with Latin and needed private tutoring to supplement his lack of formal education.   His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into Napoleon’s armies in 1809.  Whether deliberately or by serendipity, he was separated from his draft group and ended up in a rural village with a number of army deserters, where he was forced to hide until the decree of amnesty for all deserters in 1810.  He was ordained in 1815 and was made an assistant priest in Ecully, France.

In 1818 he became a priest of a small village of Ars, which he made a model parish and from which reports of his holiness and his supernatural powers soon spread.   He was known for his devotion to the Virgin Mary and to St. Philomena and was dedicated to the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) for his parishioners.  From 1824 he suffered attacks that he believed were caused by the Devil, who allegedly on one occasion set fire to Vianney’s bed. By 1827 Ars had become a pilgrimage site, and every year from 1845 until Vianney’s death, about 20,000 persons visited Ars to see Vianney and especially to make their confession to him.  The holy cure’ spent as many as 12 to 15 hours daily in his confessional.  He was canonized by Pope Pius XI.

His quotes on the priesthood.

What is a priest?A man who holds the place of God—a man who is invested with all the powers of God”.

 

“A priest goes to heaven or a priest goes to hell with a thousand people behind”.

 

“The priest will not understand the greatness of this office until he is in heaven.If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear but of love”.

 

“There is he who made me a child of God, and opened heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I have sinned: who gives me nourishment to my soul:”

 

When the bells call you to church if you were asked, “Where are you going?You might answer, “I am going to feed my soul.“

If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, “what is that golden door?“ That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept. “Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table? The priest. And what is Food? The precious Body and Blood of our Lord. “O God! O God! HowThou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread, the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world”.

“The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.  When you see the priest, think of our Lord Jesus Christ”

St. John Marie Vianney.  Pray for us

Please be safe..Let us come together to worship the Lord

God bless you all.

– With lots of love and blessing,

Ever at your service.

—Fr. Sahayanathan Nathan