Example of Holiness
"I will tell you the way of Heaven," he replied to the little shepherd who had shown him the way to Ars, that is, "I will help you become a saint."
He invites everyone to be sanctified by God, to receive the means offered to him for this union with God, which begins here and lasts forever eternity.
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I paid for you
In praying, the Priest of Ars added penances, it was certain that if someone had paid their ransom, God would soon forgive the poor sinners. He said that it takes sacrifice to save the souls.
Ever since his arrival, Don Vianney had given the needy to his mattress. He sometimes slept on the floor and the walls were damp. He soon countered facial neuralgia, which made him suffer for fifteen years. He then went to sleep on the floor.
When he went into his room, he whipped, with chains or ropes with iron tips, resulting in incredible distress, sometimes seen on the left shoulder of the shirt stains blood.
In March 1818, on the occasion of Lent, John Vianney began a rigorous fast, which will not end unless his death. In his first year of care, in making mortifications, he passed every measure so that later, recalling these excesses, he said that they were follies of youth and had passed any limit.
Reduced its material needs to the minimum possible, 450 grams of bread it takes for over a week.
Don Vianney was baking himself, in the oven, or boiling potatoes for a whole week.
He deposited them in a sort of iron basket hanging on the wall, and when he was hunger, He ate them cold, sometimes they were already covered with fungus, especially when the supplies were over.
Sometimes an egg was cooked in hot ashes, or he drank a handful of flour with water and salt. This discipline lasted until 1827, when the Providence House was organized, Don Vianney went there to eat.
Sunday at noon was even more neglected and he was happy for lunch for three or four grams of blessed bread. Only in the evening he ate something more.
John Maria Vianney sought every kind of mortification and imposed the penance of never enjoying the perfume of flowers, never eating fruit, never drinking just a drop of water even during the summer heat. If a fly stopped on his face, it could stay as it wanted, take advantage of everything, even the smallest and insignificant things to torment his poor body. When he kneels, he never got a support. He forced himself to show no repugnance and to keep secret all the repulsions of nature, and avoid any feeling of curiosity.
For forty years he became martyr for the poor sinners. We have seen how cruel, since the early days of his ministry in Ars, was whipped to blood to obtain the conversion of his dear people from the mercy of God.
The effect was happiness, but even when he saw his converted parishioners cling to the aisle of his little church, he was not dispensed using his instruments of penance. Meanwhile, however, his forces were consumed, and he was forced to use them with less frequency and more benignity for his body, waiting for the wounds to be wounded between the various flagrances.
On the Easter day, the Curate felt sick in the church. He was taken to his room, and the person who helped him undressed discovered the chain that strained his kidneys. In his arms he wore a bracelet armed with acute tips. One of these cymbals opened up one day a wound, which caused anxiety, because he could have caused the gangrene.
Fasting made the saint weaker and everyone was wondering how he could still stand, such a diet would make a normal man die. He himself remembered these extreme penitence called the follies of youth, these fasts were extended for two or three days. Human wisdom can marvel at such macerations he did not realize: but the man who freely submitted himself felt his inspiration and assistance from above. Besides, did not he himself say that in the way of repentance is only the first step it costs? We note, however, that just to make this step and to reach the summit of such a difficult virtue is necessary heroism helped by Grace.
If the patience of St. John Maria Vianney is a wonderful example that we may try to emulate, his mortification brought to extreme limits to endure by human forces is to be considered a way only for creatures so close to God to receive inhuman strength To endure them.
Vianney's love for creatures was like a fire burning in his heart and prompted him to ask God to convert sinners through offering himself, paying for them.
