Saint John Mary Vianney is the patron of diocesan priests, a man who humbly recognized that he was not the brightest pupil, that he was, to use even his own description, slow in his studies. He had great difficulty learning his Latin. Other studies came hard to him as well. He did not give up. Helped by a wonderful mentor, Father Balley, who had worked as a carpenter during the French Revolution so as to hide his identity as a Catholic priest as he offered Mass in various hideaways and without any "communion" with the bishops and priests of the "constitutional church," John Mary Vianney persevered time and time and time again, praying to Saint John Francis Regis for help and guidance.
Yes, he was tempted to quit his studies, believing himself to unworthy of priestly ordination because of his lack of intellectual aptitude. Father Balley told him very pointedly, "You've decided to give in to the devil?"
That knocked some sense into our Saint, and it should knock some sense into any young man today who might have experienced some difficulties and perhaps even gross injustices in their own pursuit of the priesthood.
Never give up. We need priests, especially now in this time of apostasy and betrayal.
Always close to Our Lady, Saint John Mary Vianney was brought to the point of his priestly ordination on August 13, 1815. His superiors judged that his moral qualities had overcome any academic deficiencies that would have held others back from being ordained to the priesthood, and they were vindicated in their judgment by the long and devoted service that he gave to the people of Ars.
Oh yes, sure, he tried to run away from his people on three occasions, wanting to seek the solitude of a monastery. Each time, however, he responded to the pleas of his sheep who loved their shepherd, who spent so much time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and in the confessional to hear the confessions of the thousands of people who flocked from all over the world to the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus applied to their souls through his priestly ministry, and returned home to Ars.
Saint John Mary Vianney, who knew failure in his studies for the priesthood, was a firm supporter of the "patron of failures," Pauline Jaricot, the foundress of Society of the Propagation of the Faith and the Universal Living Rosary Association, and zealously devoted to the cause of our great wonder worker, Saint Philomena.
Saint John Mary Vianney spent himself tirelessly in behalf of the flock that was entrusted to his pastoral care. We need to invoke his intercession so that our own true bishops and priests will be fortified by his example as they seek to serve faithful Catholics, the scattering and wandering sheep of this time of apostasy and betrayal, unto eternity.
Part eighteen of "Sin: More Dangerous Than the Coronavirus" is nearly completed. Only a few more hours of work remain on it, but it is too late for me now to do so prudently. Thus, I will have what has turned out to be another exensive study published in less than twenty-four years to be ready for viewing tomorrow, Wednesday, August 10, 2022, the Feast of Saint Lawrence the Martyr. Almost the entirety of the past four days have spent in writing and refining the text and in the selection of the supporting material to be inserted into its main body or in the appendices. Thank you for your patience.
Finally, although I was going to write another the "Naturally Absurd" series to offer extensive commentary about the lawless administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., the Soviet-style raid upon the Mar-A-Lago estate of former President Donald John Trump by nearly one hundred agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation under the direction of Christopher "Deep State Enabling" Wray and with the blesssing of Merrick "Parents are Terrorists for Opposing School Boards" Garland is so breathtakingly bold as to shock even this seventy-one year with an earned doctorate in political science who has been following American politics since the Eisenhower-Stevenson election of 1956.
Thus, the commentary after part eighteen of "Sin: More Deadly Than the Coronavirus" will be about this raid and the implications it carries for a governmental system that is degenerating rapidly into an undisguised totalitarianism replete the the addition of 87,000 agents of the Internal Revenue Service to go after prominent critics of the Biden administration and/or who oppose a "woke" agenda that is nothing other than an excuse to shut down all political dissent in land that has been never as free as people believed it has been because the only true standard of human freedom is the Holy Cross of the Divine Redeemer, Christ the King. Such a commentary will take several days to complete, but it will be thorough and unsparing.
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.
Saint John Mary Vianney, the Cure of Ars, pray for us.
Saint Lawrence the Deacon, pray for us.
Saint Romanus, pray for us.
