Life of St John Vianney.pdf - the Catholic Kingdom!

"HIS COURTESY. 235It has been said that, as in all high genius,so in allexalted sanctity, there is a feminine element, which isseen stamped upon the veryfeatures of the medievalSaints ;and in this minute and considerate tendernessfor all the creation of God, and all the redeemed ofChrist, we recognise a love, passing, indeed, the merenatural love of woman, yet akin to it ;a restoration toman of a gift and a grace lost in Paradise, and surviving(in the natural order) only in woman s devoted affectionfor her nearest and dearest.This considerateness was carried into the most insignificant details of the courtesies, as well as the charities,of his daily life. He never sat down in the presence ofothers ;he never allowed others to stand in his own.When the missionaries took leave of him at night,wearied and worn as he was, no persuasion could inducehim to omit paying them the respect of accompanyingthem to the door of the house."thatIt has been truly observed," says his biographer,to acquire a great influence over the hearts of men,gnd to change the indifferent and the hostile into friends,sanctity alone is not sufficient, that the Son of God became man when He willed that religion should become alaw of love. In the holiness of the Cure of Ars there wasthis ineffable union of the Divine and human. How couldmen help loving him, who was so full of love, and whoseonly aim was to do them good, without a thought ofrequital ? It was not by his alms and his material liberality that he mastered all hearts ; it was by his graciousness,his benevolence ; by the active and heartfeltinterest which he took in others. With the growth ofthe interior life, his solicitude for his neighbour seemedto develop day by day He became more and more ten-