St. Jean-Marie Baptiste Vianney - The Little Catechism of the Cure of Ars (with Supplemental Reading: Confession: Its Fruitful Practice) [Illustrated]

Saint John Marie Baptiste Vianney
The Cur of Ars
1786 -1859
Patron Saint of Parish Priests

Nihil Obstat:	Joseph D. Brokhage, S.T.D. Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:		Paul C. Schulte, D.D. Archbishop of Indianapolis April 6, 1951

Copyright 1951 by St. Meinrads Abbey, Inc.

Originally published as a Grail Publication, St. Meinrad, Indiana.

The typography of this book is the property of TAN Books, and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without written permission of the Publisher.

The cover photograph is a picture of the statue sculpted by Cabuchet, a friend of the Cur of Ars. The statue can be seen at Ars in a shrine paid for by donations from the priests of France. Photograph: Editions Xavier Mappus, Lyon.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 87-50943

ISBN: 978-089555-323-2

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
2011

Contents

The Blessed Cur of Ars in His
Catechetical Instructions

T HERE IS no doubt, says Pre Gratry, that, through purity of heart, innocence, either preserved or recovered by virtue, faith, and religion, there are in man capabilities and resources of mind, of body, and of heart which most people would not suspect. To this order of resources belongs what theology calls infused science, the intellectual virtues which the Divine Word inspires into our minds when He dwells in us by faith and love.

And Pre Gratry quotes with enthusiasm, excusing himself for not translating them better, these magnificent words of a saint who lived in the eleventh century in one of the mystic monasteries on the banks of the Rhine: This is what purifies the eye of the heart, and enables it to raise itself to the true light: contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, contrition of heart, abundance of tears meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven. Embrace all this, adds the Saint, and continue in it. Advance towards the light which offers itself to you as to its sons, and descends of itself into your hearts. Take your hearts out of your breasts, and give them to Him who speaks to you, and He will fill them with deific splendor, and you will be sons of light and angels of God.

The description we have just read seems to have been traced from the very life of the Cur of Ars. Every detail recalls him, every feature harmonizes marvelously with his. Who has ever carried further contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, abundance of tears? He was always bathed in tears. And then, meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, and fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heavenhow characteristic is this! He had advanced towards the light, and the light had descended of itself into his heart. He had taken his heart from his breast, and given it to Him who spoke to him; and He who spoke to him, who is the Divine, uncreated Word of God, filled him with deific splendor. No one could doubt it who has had the happiness of assisting at any of the catechisms of Ars; of hearing that extraordinary language, which was like no human language; who has seen the irresistible effect produced upon hearers of all classes by that voice, that emotion, that intuition, that fire, and the signal beauty of that unpolished and almost vulgar French, which was transfigured and penetrated by his holy energy, even to the form, the arrangement, and the harmony of its words and syllables. And yet the Cur of Ars did not speak words: true eloquence consists in speaking things; he spoke things, and in a most wonderful manner. He poured out his whole soul into the souls of the crowds who listened to him, that he might make them believe, love, and hope like himself. That is the aim and the triumph of evangelical eloquence.

How could this man, who had nearly been refused admittance into the great seminary because of his ignorance, and who had, since his promotion to the priesthood, been solely employed in prayer and in the labors of the confessionalhow could he have attained to the power of teaching like one of the Fathers of the Church? Whence did he derive his astonishing knowledge of God, of nature, and of the history of the soul? How was it that his thoughts and expressions so often coincided with those of the greatest Christian geniuses, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa?

For example, we have often heard him say that the heart of the saints was liquid . We were much struck with this energetic expression, without suspecting that it was so theologically accurate; and we were surprised and touched to find, in turning over the pages of the Summa, that the angelical doctor assigns to love four immediate effects, of which the first is the liquefaction of the heart. M. Vianney had certainly never read St. Thomas, which makes this coincidence the more remarkable; and, indeed, it is inexplicable to those who are ignorant of the workings of grace, and who do not comprehend those words of the Divine Master: Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. [ Matt. 11:25].

The Spirit of God had been pleased to engrave on the heart of this holy priest all that he was to know and to teach to others; and it was the more deeply engraved, as that heart was the more pure, the more detached, and empty of the vain science of men; like a clean and polished block of marble, ready for the tool of the sculptor.

The faith of the Cur of Ars was his whole science; his book was Our Lord Jesus Christ. He sought for wisdom nowhere but in Jesus Christ, in His death and in His Cross. To him no other wisdom was true, no other wisdom useful. He sought it not amid the dust of libraries, not in the schools of the learned, but in prayer, on his knees, at his Masters Feet, covering His Divine Feet with tears and kisses. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament where he passed his days and nights before the crowd of pilgrims had yet deprived him of liberty day and night, he had learnt it all.

When persons have heard him discourse upon Heaven, on the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord, on His dolorous Passion, His Real Presence in the most Holy Sacrament of our altars, on the Blessed Virgin Mary, her attractions and her greatness, on the happiness of the saints, the purity of the angels, the beauty of souls, the dignity of manon all those subjects which were familiar to himit often happened to them to come out from the discourse quite convinced that the good Father saw the things of which he had spoken with such fullness of heart, with such eloquent emotion, in such passionate accents, with such abundance of tears; and indeed his words were then impressed with a character of divine tenderness, of sweet gentleness, and of penetrating unction, which was beyond all comparison. There was so extraordinary a majesty, so marvelous a power, in his voice, in his gestures, in his looks, in his transfigured countenance, that it was impossible to listen to him and remain cold and unmoved.