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

"them.IS NOMINATED CURE OF AR8. 43When asked if this were true, he made his usualIt is not a bad idea." Thereply on such occasions,people of Ars were not slow to discover what a treasurethey possessed in their new cure. Those who heard hisfirst Mass were struck with his extraordinary fervour, andwith the saiutliness of his whole bearing. The generalimpression was strengthened by the report of frequentvisitors from Ecully, where his loss was still bitterly deplored. The simple peasants, rude and uncultivated asthey were, failed not to discover that their pastor wasa man of prayer, a priest in very deed after the heart ofhis Divine Master. In the beautiful words of his friendand biographer,"his heart was a most pure vessel ofmortification and prayer; and, like the thurible which hishand waved at the feet of his Lord, it was ever open towards heaven, and closed towards earth; exhaling continually that precious incense which burns to purify theair, and consumes itself in neutralising the invisible yetfatal miasma around it."With him the priest was all in all, the man nothing.M. Vianney was destitute of all natural means of attractinginterest or commanding admiration. He had none of theordinary graces of youth, nor had he yet attained thatspiritual beauty which glorified his old age. His face waspale and angular, his stature low, his gait awkward, hismanner shy and timid, his whole air common and unattractive.There was nothing in his appearance, except itsasceticism, and the singular brightness of his eyes, topress the mind of an ordinary observer.No sooner was the new cure installed in his parishthan he chose the church as his dwelling-place. Hewould be seen for hours together kneeling perfectly motionless in the midst of the sanctuary, "bathing" (to useim