Why Did “Prayer and Penance” Go Missing on the Feast of St John Vianney?

Today on the 1960 general Roman calendar is the feast of St John Mary Vianney. When he was canonized in 1925, his feast was set for August 9, but in 1960 he was bumped back a day to August 8. His dies natalis, August 4, had been occupied by St. Dominic for so many centuries that no one thought of moving him. As Gregory DiPippo pointed out at New Liturgical Movement, St. John Vianney would himself have celebrated Mass in honor of St. Dominic on August 4th.

What struck me this morning as I assisted at Mass is the Collect, which is the only proper item (the rest of the Mass is from the Common of Confessors “Os Justi”). Here is how it reads:

Guest Article: “The Seven Steps of the Altar”

Rorate Caeli is grateful to Canon Heitor Matheus, ICRSS, for sharing with us this beautiful homily he preached some time ago at St. Mary's in Wausau, Wisconsin. It is fitting to share it this week as we recall the dies natalis of St. John Vianney on August 4th (with his Mass in the usus antiquior on August 8th). We are reminded that the minor and major orders are very much alive in the Church today, continuing immemorial tradition. Young men responding to the Lord's call desire and deserve to have these rites for their strengthening and sanctification.

The Seven Steps of the Altar: Ascending to the Priesthood

Canon Heitor Matheus, ICRSS

THIS YEAR on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (July 2), our Institute had the great joy to give nine more priests to the Church—nine more men who were ordained to continue the work of Redemption of Our Lord Jesus Christ. So I wish to speak today about this beautiful adventure that we call vocation and how a man becomes a priest.

As in a great puzzle, God has a place for each one of us, and we have the duty to try to find out where our place is. And I tell you that we are only going to be happy, truly happy, in the vocation God has for us. Our vocation is the most important decision we have to make in this life: it will decide the course of our life here below, and also bear upon our eternity.

But how do we find out our vocation? First of all, we have to know that the word “vocation” means “calling.” A vocation is a calling from God. We don’t hear this calling with the ears of our body, but we can perceive it by the affections of our heart. For example, when a young man enjoys coming to church, serving at the Altar, learning about the Faith, spending time in prayer… when it is as if he is drawn by a secret force to the things of God. Such things are signs of a vocation.

May Month of Mary: II - "Mother," Our Lord says to the Blessed Virgin, "I can refuse you nothing."

Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la -Garde, Marseille

The Holy Virgin is often compared to a mother, but she is much better still than the best of mothers; for the best of mothers sometimes punishes her child when it displeases her, and even beats it: she thinks she is doing right. But the Holy Virgin does not so; she is so good that she treats us with love, and never punishes us.

The heart of this good Mother is all love and mercy; she desires only to see us happy. We have only to turn to her to be heard.

The Son has His justice, the Mother has nothing but her love.

God has loved us so much as to die for us; but in the heart of our Lord there is justice, which is an attribute of God; in that of the most Holy Virgin there is nothing but mercy. Her Son was ready to punish a sinner; Mary interposes, checks the sword, implores pardon for the poor criminal. "Mother," Our Lord says to her, "I can refuse you nothing. If hell could repent, you would obtain its pardon."

The most Holy Virgin places herself between her Son and us. The greater sinners we are, the more tenderness and compassion does she feel for us. The child that has cost its mother most tears is the dearest to her heart.

Saint John Mary Vianney

On the Feast of Saint John Mary Vianney:Thank you, dear Priests, for showing us the way to heaven!

"I will show you the way to heaven !"

We ought also to fast and to abstain from vices and sins and from superfluity of food and drink, and be Catholic. We ought also to visit Churches frequently and to reverence priests not for themselves, if they be sinners, but on account of their office and administration of the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they sacrifice on the altar and receive, and administer to others.

And let us all know for certain that no one can be saved except by the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the holy words of the Lord which priests say and announce, and distribute, and that they alone administer, and not others.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Epistola ad Fideles II (Letter to the Faithful II)

[Reposted: thank you, dear Priests!]

August 4, a special day for the Curé d'Ars and the Pastor-Pope

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[In the famous image above, Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, Patriarch of Venice, on August 4, 1901, exactly 113 years ago and precisely 2 years before his election, in a trip from Borso del Grappa to the top of Mount Grappa (Province of Treviso, in the Veneto), where he would unveil the little shrine to Our Lady Help of Christians. The Madonnina del Grappa would be damaged during World War I, in which the Grappa was a place of intense fighting in three battles between Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces. NC]

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by Fr. Paul J. McDonald

And on yet another August 4, in the year 1903, exactly 111 years ago, the Conclave following the death of Pope Leo XIII elected the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Sarto, as the Successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ.

This date is very significant. It is the anniversary of the death of the Curé d'Ars, St. John Vianney. It would be Pope Sarto who would beatify Vianney.

Pope Saint Pius X was the only and still is the only pope who worked as a priest in charge of a parish: a "Pastor", as we say in America, a "Parish Priest", a "Curé", a "Parroco"‎.