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

"To"""Earth258 THE CURf OF ARS.love God :oh, how beautiful this is ! Weshallnever understand what love is till we get to Heaven.Prayer helps us in some degree for ; prayer is the raisingof the soul to Heaven.The more we know of men, the less we love them.It is the contrary with God : the more we know of Him,the more we love Him. That knowledge enkindles sointense a love of God in the soul, that it can no longerlove any thing or desire any thing but God. Man wascreated by love ;therefore is he so prone to love. On theother hand, he is so great that nothing on this earth cansatisfy him. It is only when he turns to God that he iscontent. Take a fish out of the water, it will die. Well!such is man without God.There are people who do not love the good God,who never pray to Him, and yet who prosper. It is ft badsign. They have done some little good amid a greatdeal of evil, and God is repaying them for it in theirlife.is like a bridge for crossing the water ; itserves but to support our We feet. are in this world, butwe are not of this world, for we say daily, Our Father,Who art in heaven. We must wait for our reward, then,till we shall be at home in our Father s house. Therefore it is that good Christians are always on the cross,in the midst of contradictions, adversities, contempt,and calumny. So much the better. But we are surprised at this. We think that, because we love the goodGod a little, we are to have nothing to cross us, nothingto suffer. We say, Such a one is not good, yet everything prospers with him ;do what I will, nothing succeeds with me. This is because we do not understandWe say somethe value and the blessedno?? of crosses.