Collect taken from the feast of St. Jean Marie Vianney, priest.
Collect: Almighty and merciful God, who made the Priest Saint John Vianney wonderful in his pastoral zeal, grant, we pray, that through his intercession and example we may in charity win brothers and sisters for Christ and attain with them eternal glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son…
“Almighty and merciful God, who made the Priest Saint John Vianney wonderful in his pastoral zeal,”
-Especially with a saint son wondrous as John Vianney, it is important to recall that God’s grace made him what he was, not his own abilities.
“grant, we pray, that through his intercession and example we may in charity win brothers and sisters for Christ and attain with them eternal glory.”
-At the same time, however, Vianney embraced the graces given to him and worked tirelessly to gain souls and convert the little town left in his charge. So, we too beg the grace to recognize and accept God’s graces and then to compete wholeheartedly against sin and the devil to “win” as many souls for Christ as God would have us win.
Questions & Advice: Do you feel guilty for not being as miraculous and outstanding as someone like St. John Vianney? How do you understand the balance between humbly admitting your dependence on grace and gallantly working for your own holiness? Do you strive to win souls for Christ or just figure that “someone else” will do that?
Read about drawing souls to Christ through our witness in the Catechism (2044-51). In your daily prayer, take a few minutes of silence – ask God to help you sort the difference between his particular call for your holiness and your own false ideas of holiness. Ask him to increase your desire to win souls and pray in a particular way for your local priest to grow in that desire as well.
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| Sancte Ioannes Maria, ora pro nobis! |