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

"ment.HIS LABOURS FOR HTS PARISH. 45Nearly every Sunday they assembled together onthe green, a few steps from the church, or, according tothe season, in the village taverns, to indulge in dancingand amusements of every kind. J They were, in fact, remarkable among the villagers of the neighbourhood for aheadlong and reckless devotion to pleasure.How is theirpastor to stem the tide ? He has but two weapons : one,as we have seen, pursuing prayer, and the daily offeringof the all-prevailing sacrifice ;the other, the faithful andfervent preaching of the Word of God. To this last heattached very great importance, and he spared no pains inpreparing his sermons. He would shut himself up fordays together in his sacristy, devoting to this employmentevery moment which he had to spare from his spiritualexercises. When he had finished writing his discourse,he would recite it aloud by himself, as if from the pulpit.In this laborious preparation he faithfully persevered, untilhe attained in time that marvellous facility which characterised his preaching in the later years of his life. Buthe had another way of preaching not less effectual."The world," it has been well said, belongs to himwho loves it best, and does most to prove his love ;"* andit was by the might of love that M. Vianney mastered thehearts of his people. They felt that he loved them, notonly as a whole and in a general way, but with the discriminating and individual love of the Sacred Heart itself foreach severally and alone. No child could pass him in thestreet without receiving a smile or a caress ; no troublewas beneath his notice, no sorrow too trifling for his sympathy.Without ever for a moment forgetting, or suffering others to forget, the dignity of his sacred office, hewould enter uncalled the dwellings of his poor people, and* L Abbe Mullois, Manuel cU la Charite.