"After each trip to places of crushing suffering, such as Uganda and Haiti, coming home is always a difficult transition for me to make. Going from extreme need to stunning abundance is jarring. In a land of plenty we hunger for more. We have turned greed into a virtue. Our lives are fragmented and disconnected. Television and the internet have turned our interior dwellings into shanty towns. Instead of looking in, they prompt us to look outward, and we become what we gaze upon. When praying, we turn away from ourselves and turn toward God."
- Gerry Straub (from his blog today, the Feast of the Curé of Ars)
Today is the Feast of the Curé of Ars, the parish priest assigned to a forgotten farmers' village. The simplicity of his life and acceptance of his limited natural knowledge, drew people from all over France to his confessional. He spent 17 hours a day hearing confessions. It is said that he could read peoples' souls. He was a guide for the down-trodden and broken people of the world.
His body remains incorrupt.
More on St. John Vianney is HERE.
Note: I do not usually write about saints in this blog. I think that St. Benedict Joseph Labre, the patron saint of tramps, is the only other one. Interestingly, the Vianney's were a family who gave hospitality to the poor and Benedict Joseph Labre as he passed through their French town.
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