Easter with the Cure of Ars

Resurexit Sicut Dixit! He is Risen as He Said!

I hope this finds you all well in these joyful days of Easter. All is most well here are the school year moves ever closer to an end and as the warmer days of spring take hold.

Easter here in Rome was wonderful. Every other year here at the College we have all of the Triduum in house and it just happened that it was the case this year. So while I was not able to attend the great liturgies of the Church's holiest week with the Holy Father, we had really beautiful and prayerful liturgies at the NAC.

On Easter Sunday morning a group of 40 of us left for Ars, France to spend a week in the town where the Holy Cure of Ars and Patron Saint of All priests, Saint John Marie Vianney, poured out his life for the sake of the salvation of the soul of his parishoners. I was able to spend a lot of time praying in the Church in which he said mass, heard confessions for 16 hours a day, and prayed at times all night long for the conversion of his parishoners. It was really cool to read his biography while sitting in one of the little side chapels and then looking and seeing the confessional just mentioned or the pulpit from which he daily preached the good news of Jesus the Crucified and Risen Lord.

Of all the sites around the little village of Ars- the church, his rectory with his bedroom preserved as it was in his day, and the beautiful country side- the place that in many ways was most captivating for me was the little garden around a statue of the Cure on the hill opposite the village. The statue depicts a scene from John Vianney's life when he had just been appointed the pastor of the parish in Ars. He was walking from Lyons (about 40 km away!) and was a bit lost trying to find his new parish. On the way he ran into some young shepherd boys one of whom was named Anthony. The Cure asked him to lead him to Ars and after having arrived to the crest of this hill- from which the town is first seen- the humble priest told the boy "Tu m'as montre le chemin d'Ars, Je te montrerai le chemin du Ciel!" You have shown me the way to Ars, I will show you the way to heaven!" The statue which is seen in two of the pictures where, is one of the most inspiring images I have ever seen because in the hand of the Cure raised pointing toward the heavens there is encapulsated the entire mission of every priest- to lead souls to Jesus and through him to his Father in Heaven!

It was a truely blest week of prayer, renewal, fraternity, enjoying the beauty of the countryside, and eating delicious french food!

In addition to spending time in Ars we made a day long pilgrimage to the nearby village of Paray-le-Monial where our Blessed Lord revealed His Sacred Heart to a young religious sister, now know as Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the late 1600s. We were able to have mass in the chapel there where the apparitions took place, and it was really awesome to meditate on the Sacred Heart of Jesus since, as John Vianney said, "The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus." Throughout the time spent in prayer for my own vocation, and for all the priests and seminarians at home in Saint Louis, at the PNAC, and throughout the world, I really came to be reenergized and renewed in my desire to give my life in service to Jesus as a priest of his one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church!

I thought this shop was cool since it had mom's name on the door! (Reine = Queen in French! Love you mom!)