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

"WeHIS SELF-MASTKBY. 251evincing on his countenance the slightest shade of annoyance. We have seen him at the moment when the throngaround his confessional was greatest leave it three timessuccessively to give Holy Communion to three differentpersons, who could just as easily have come all ,-togetherand this without showing the slightest sign of impatience,or even making an observation. We have seen him morethan annoyed, harassed every hour of the day by the sameperson, who wanted to get out of him something whichhe did not think fit to grant. She showed an obstinacytotally wanting in tact or delicacy, and therefore extremelyirritating.M. le Cure did not give wayto her in theleast degree, but, with a gentleness equal to his firmness,received her each time that she approached him as if ithad been the first." These traits of great self-masterjin little things bring vividly before us that great patternfor daily imitation, the meekest yet most majestic ofspirits, St. Francis of Sales.The following instructions on the mortification of thewill have a sound too of Annecy :have nothing of our own but our will. It isthe only thing which God has so placed in our own powerthat we can make an offering of it to Him. Thus wemay be assured that a singleact of renunciation of thewill is more pleasing to God than a fast of thirty days.*As often as we can renounce our own will, to dothe will of another, so it be not against the law of God,we acquire great merits, which are known to God alone.What is it which renders the religiouslife so meritorious ? the unremitting renunciation of the will ; the continual death of that which is most alive within us. 1have often thought that the life of a poor servant-maid,who has no will but that of her mistress, if she knows how