REFLECTIONS

      There is an old saying that "Confession is good for the soul".  I might pick up on that thought and say that "confession" is also very good for the "retired priest blogger" who has not posted since last month.  I confess to being lazy - many times thoughts or ideas came to me but I was too lazy to go to the computer and put them in print.

Mea culpa!  I apologize and ask your forgiveness.

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     If you have been watching the Olympics you are aware that we honor the achievements of our sports heroes from around the world as they provide us with inspiring examples of determination, hard work, and excellence.  We award gold, silver or bronze to recognize these individuals or championship teams.

     The Church also honors our spiritual athletes who have run the race and achieved the crown of glory that comes from our union with Christ.  These champions are our saints.  They vary greatly: from the most obscure (who was Apollinaris?) to those whose names flow from our tongues with ease (John Paul II or Mother Theresa of Calcutta), those who go back to the time of Jesus (Peter, James and John) to those of our time (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Maximillian Kolbe), maybe even saints that we may met or seen in our lifetime. 

     August is filled with such champion saints.  July 31st is Ignatius of Loyola who founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits - of which Pope Francis is a member), August 1st is Alphonsus Liguori who founded the Redemptorist Order, the 2nd is Eusebius of Vercelli who lived centuries earlier and who, as bishop of Vercelli in northern Italy, spent his life defending against the heresy of Arianism.  Yesterday, the 4th we remember and honor John Mary (Jean Marie) Vianney, the cure (or pastor) of Ars, a little village in France during the 1800's.  He is the patron of parish priests.  His greatest achievement was his holiness and dedication to serving the people of his parish with the heart of the Good Shepherd.  In a humble spirit he ministered the Sacraments and celebrated the Eucharist, spend countless hours in the confessional, offered his life in constant prayer and penance, and transformed a godless village into a mecca of spiritual strength.

     I've always had a love of Saint John Marie Vianney.  In our high school seminary, we had a dorm named after the Cure of Ars ... as a Third Order Secular Franciscan at the Friary in Uniontown during my high school years I chose the name "Jean Marie" as my Franciscan name.

When I struggled with my studies in seminary I remembered that seminarian Vianney was almost not ordained because he too struggled with grades (especially Latin).  As a parish priest for forty-four years, I relied upon his inspiration and intercession in my work.  And before the pandemic I concelebrated Mass, venerated the relic of his uncorrupted heart, and heard confessions at Our Lady of Grace Church during the Knights of Columbus sponsored pilgrimage visit to our diocese of that special relic.  His heart, the heart of a shepherd, continues to touch our hearts.

     At a time when priests, especially parish priests, are given greater responsibilities with expectations that are often beyond our humble abilities, please pray to Saint John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, for your priests.  Let me close with this:

Saint John Vianney's Prayer for Priests.

God, please give to your Church today many more priests after your own heart. 

May they be worthy representatives of Christ the Good Shepherd.  

May they wholeheartedly devote themselves to prayer and penance; be examples of humility and poverty; shining models of holiness; tireless and powerful preachers of the Word of God; zealous dispensers of your grace in the sacraments.  

May their loving devotion to your Son Jesus in the Eucharist and to Mary his Mother be the twin fountains of fruitfulness for their ministry.  

Amen.