The harvest indeed is great, but the labor is of few.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Today, we celebrate the memorial to the great apostle of charity, St. Vincent de Paul, in
the 17th century France.
France at that time, a century before the bloody French Revolution, was a place of influence
by the secularists and the enlightened people, so-called enlightenment, and the aristocracy
was, in many respects, caught up in the new learning.
The peasants were uneducated, and there was a need for a great apostle, so God sustained
his church by sending the great St. Vincent de Paul, risen out of peasant stock, as we
see in today's first reading, not many of you are wise, and so forth, and who would
ever expect that?
Who would ever expect such a great, great man from the simple peasant stock?
He was born into a wonderful family, father saw how intelligent his son was, and made
it a point to educate him.
He became a priest at the age of 20, and during his early life, he suffered a great deal,
two calamities, in a way, had fashioned him in the school of virtue.
First, he was abducted by the Muslim pirates, and brought to Africa for a few years, where
he was a slave, didn't know whether he was going to live or die, and prayed to the Blessed
Virgin Mary for protection.
Eventually, he was returned to France, escaped with his new owner, who returned to his Christianity,
and then he was housed.
He lived in a house with a man who accused him of stealing 400 pounds.
Eventually, he was exonerated, and he learned the great rule of being patient, and kind,
and silent in adversity, and meek, virtues, Christian virtues, which are so important.
Thereafter, he was introduced to the nobility, the countess.
Becauselike him, .
A police officer had been arrested when the poor Saint Vincent Berg seamstress had gone
to Himself and said to the pope, what was my sin,encouragable, why do you take me as
a sinner, and why did you kill me?
Why are you trying to take my ruining soul away from me?
But, as the Pope saw her, he simply refused to beiplugged.
What don't we like about it,から, kagora, mankind, everything?
life, all his confessions were sacrilegious, and he realized how important it was to make
a good confession.
He wasn't ready yet to found the order, because he was still very humble, but with the aid
of the Countess, Countess de Gondy, and her brother, who was the Archbishop of Paris,
he was given a place, and he saw the great need for educating the, spiritually educating
the peasant people, and giving them instruction.
So he founded the Congregation of the Mission, called the Vincentians, or the Lazarites,
because they had a church in Paris called St. Lazarus, and he educated the priest in
the faith.
So important.
We can see how important this is, because we know a century later, France fell to the
Freemasons and their alleged revolution, liberty, equality, and fraternity, and we see the same
thing happening in our own world today, how the evil secularists are taking over, and
running governments, and so on.
If people had only listened to the people.
And I think that's the most important thing, that God had raised up, like St. Vincent de
Paul, and his dear friend, St. Francis de Sales, the Bishop of Geneva.
Also another good friend of St. Vincent de Paul, Father de Barulle, who eventually became
the great Cardinal de Barulle, leader of the Marian movement in the 17th century, advocating
true devotion to Mary, along with St. Louis de Montfort.
And he was a great man, he was a great man with strong faith, and he was a great man
with a strong heart.
And in our day, if people had only listened to the Church, and the great Popes that we've
had for the last century and a half, beginning with Pope Pius IX, Pope Leo XIII, the great
St. Pius X, Pius XI, Benedict XVI.
Amen?
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
15th, of course, and the latter popes that we are all familiar with,
Pius XII, Paul VI, who gave us Humanae Vitae,
the great Pope John Paul II, and our present Holy Father.
I mentioned all these because the Church has the truth.
And if we read any of the writings that these great popes have written,
we see the truth pouring forth as the antidote for the liberalism of our own time.
How people are so confused because they are like, as our Lord tells us in today's reading,
they are sheep without a shepherd.
He has sent the shepherds, the vicar of Christ, and saints during our time,
St. Maximilian Kolbe, of course, José María de Escovar from Spain,
and countless others, countless others.
So we rejoice today.
At the life of St. Vincent de Paul, raised up in the 17th century,
to teach us the importance of the virtue of charity that he excelled in.
He took care of so many people, took care of galley slaves,
tried to start a hospital for them when they were mistreated,
ransomed 400 slaves who were in the mosques,
and he, with St. Louis de Marillac, founded the Sisters of Charity,
who were a new order, whose parish, whose church was the parish church,
as he said, whose cloister was the streets of Paris, and so forth.
They were raised up to take care of the poor,
much like our Sisters of Charity today, Mother Teresa.
Also, raised up in our time.
If people would only see the works of the Church,
and the works of the saints that God has raised up,
and given such abundance grace,
because they are all examples of God's grace.
Without God's grace, they could do nothing.
And St. Vincent de Paul was well aware of that.
He knew he had a very difficult temperament,
but through the grace of God,
he became the model of meekness and charity and kindness.
And we have his devotees today,
followers who take care of the poor with the St. Vincent de Paul Society,
who do wondrous work with the poor,
helping out all people,
all after the example of St. Vincent de Paul.
So let us ask Almighty God and Our Lady,
during these times, to raise up saints,
for our times.
And let us look at the saints that God has raised up,
as I mentioned, Mother Teresa, St. Vincent de Paul,
St. Maximilian Kolbe.
And we need them in these difficult times.
Saints can change the world,
as St. Vincent de Paul shows.
And let us listen to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
as she said at Fatima, to keep the commandments,
do not offend God, and pray the Rosary.
If we had done that, we would have been saved.
If we had done that, we wouldn't be in the trouble we're in today,
as the world approaches a great crisis in the Near East.
We need to pray.
Heaven will help us, but we've got to pray and ask for it,
as they asked for great help in the 17th century
with St. Vincent de Paul in our own century,
with the great saints whom I've just mentioned.
And, of course, I forgot to mention St. Pio Petricina,
who was the...
exemplar for so many things that were wrong for our society.
He had the message.
Frequent confession, prayer, the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist.
We have the answer, and this is what we must tell the people.
Just read the lives of the saints, read the Pope's messages,
read the teachings of the Church,
and then you will see the truth.
And not the Gospel according to the world.
The world tells us all lies.
It tells us that sin is okay, abortion's all right,
contraception's okay, we need to be enlightened.
No, we don't.
Their enlightenment has caused all the trouble.
Only when we get back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and the good example of the saints
who teach us in their lives
the importance of humility and meekness and kindness
and gentleness.
May the Lord bless you.
Amen.