[00:00] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, today's gospel is a reminder to us of the importance of praying for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. And in this we see the eternal plan of our Lord that we share in His ministry of redemption, His work of conversion and salvation, and that He calls each of us in our own way to

[00:31] participate in this through our prayers, our sacrifices, and specifically to pray for vocations to the priesthood. Today we honor in liturgy St. John Mary Vianney, priest, who is the patron saint of all priests and parish priests in a special way. And St. John Vianney also was a Third Order Franciscan, he was a member of the Franciscan Third Order. St. John Vianney, in his youth, he had not good health and he was rather weak, but yet

[01:06] his family had sent him out to plow the fields, and in doing so he had an image of Our Lady that he would carry with him, and as he plowed the field he would toss the image of Our Lady in front of him, and with that as he reached Our Lady he would toss it again, and in this way plow the whole field with Mary's help. He was extremely devoted to the Holy Rosary, and even though he had difficulties in the seminary, especially with Latin, he was ordained a priest, and the bishop sent him to the little

[01:40] village of Ars, which was inhabited by about 300 people, and it had been without a parish priest for many years, and the village was completely under the dominion of Satan, under the dominion of Satan, in which only a few individuals would attend Mass. But St. John Vianney did not let this deter him, he took it upon himself to do extraordinary

[02:12] penances and prayers and sacrifices, and within nine years the village of Ars was converted, within nine years. He had told a little boy when he went to Ars who showed him how to get there, "You have shown me how to get to Ars, I will show you how to get to heaven." And there were three things that specifically that he worked on. Of course, one of the first one was people not attending Mass on Sunday and working on Sunday.

[02:46] He was very strong about this, he said, "Working on Sunday is to steal from God, that you have stolen from God if you work on Sunday, that you have sold your soul to the devil, and that you have crucified Christ," and so he was very strong about working on Sunday, that it is the Lord's day and we should abstain from unnecessary work on Sunday.

[03:20] The second thing was that he was very strong on was bad language, that there were people who used foul language, cursing, blasphemies, and in this he also transformed the village, that people would not use our Lord's name in vain, and would correct their habit of using bad language. And another area which he was very strong about was public dances.

[03:50] At that time, the village of Ars, because no one was going to church, they were holding dances and people were going to dances, and he said that the dances were the dominion of Satan, and that he was dragging many souls to hell through these events. St. John Vianney would spend at least 16 hours a day in confession, and eventually people were so drawn to him that they had to put a train station in Ars, and hundreds, sometimes thousands

[04:23] of people would come a day from various great distances to go to confession to him. And in this, of course, in his labors to convert sinners and bring souls back to God, he became a target of the enemy, the devil, who would do various things to try to frighten him and to stop him in his work, making very strange loud noises. One time it sounded as if an infantry, an army was in the building in his house or outside the

[04:55] house, would drag him across the floor, and even one time would set his bed on fire, set his bed on fire, and when a particular big sinner was coming, he would try to scare him to leave the confessional, but St. John Vianney was never deterred or put off by the devil's attempts and would have recourse to Jesus and Mary and his guardian angel. He had a very strong devotion to the guardian angel, guardian angels. His labors involved not only taking care of the

[05:30] parish of Ars, but he would eventually establish an orphanage, an orphanage for girls, and had a great devotion to St. Philomena and often would give the credit to the miracles that happened to her. When they ran out of food, he would turn to her and food would miraculously come forward or be produced. St. John Vianney also

[06:02] had the gift of prophecy. One time a young man came to him who was not going to go to confession, but felt an urgency to go to confession, and St. John Vianney had said in a certain way that heaven was in a hurry. So after this man went to confession and received absolution and received the Eucharist, he went out and he was in an accident in the carriage he was in, in which he died immediately. There were many other prophecies he made. He once told a young man,

[06:34] "You don't need to look for a suit for your wedding. God is calling you to the priesthood." And sure enough, he broke off his engagement and entered the priesthood, this young man. St. John Vianney is one of those saints that you cannot get enough of. And if there's one saint you can give yourself some time to study and read about, he's an extraordinary saint to read about his dedication to Christ, his work as a priest, and the many other things that

[07:11] surrounded his life. He had many, many beautiful quotes. One of them is, "If the priest understood his dignity as a priest, he would die not out of fear, but out of love, out of love." And of course, as I mentioned, he had extraordinary devotion to the Holy Eucharist and to our Blessed Mother. St. John Vianney is a saint for us. Also one time, a woman who was possessed came to him, and the devil said through this woman that if there had

[07:44] been three more people, priests like him, his kingdom would be destroyed on earth. If there were three more priests like him, his kingdom on earth would be destroyed. And he had other prophecies that he gave to a once a month senior who was from England and lamenting on the state of the Church in England. And St. John Vianney told him, "Do not worry, one day the Church in England will be as it was in its former days of glory." And so he's just a wonderful saint for us to reflect upon and read about and pray to. He died in 1859 on August the 4th, and his last

[08:23] words were, "Let us go to heaven." He is incorrupt. He's one of the saints that is incorrupt, and you can look him up on the internet and see his body is in a glass case in Ars. And so let us ask St. John Vianney today to pray for all our priests, that they may be holy and dedicated to the service of the Lord, and also for each of us that we may see how short our time is here on earth, and that we have been given this time to sanctify ourselves and to prepare for heaven,

[08:57] and that our Lord in His love for us has given us His Church and His priests to help us through the sacraments He instituted, to be the means to guide us and help us to heaven. May St. John Vianney pray for all of us today, and may we turn to him to help us to have that same fervor and love for the salvation of souls. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.