Saint John Mary Vianney, Priest

Jeremiah 31:31-34 
Matthew 16:13-23

In today’s Gospel (Mtt 16:13-23) we have Peter’s great profession of faith – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Christ then goes on to predict His death in Jerusalem and Peter pleaded with Him not to go there and,for this, the Lord rebuked him for trying to prevent what must happen. Despite his profession of faith Peter still did not fully understand what that profession really meant. Once again Jesus was teaching His disciples and us what it means to serve God and to serve others. We have to be prepared for a thankless task as well as hot complaints. But God sees, He knows how we try to bear it up.

Today we celebrate the life of a faithful 19th Century “builder” of the Church, St. John Vianney.  A simple man of humble background, he zealously spread God’s love and helped build up the Church as a pastor.  He is especially known for his generous ministry of the Sacrament of Reconciliation at his parish in Ars, France — regularly spending long hours celebrating the Sacrament with thousands of penitents from near and far.  His ministry flowed from an intense spiritual life based on prayer and penance.  As a priest/pastor Saint John Vianney so witnessed the merciful love of the Jesus that in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI named him patron of priests.

As today we honor the “patron of priests”, let’s pray for priests — active, retired, deceased — and prayerfully encourage those discerning a priestly or religious vocation:  that they may have deep faith and zealous, Christ-like love to help build up the Church.  Together with Sts. Peter, John Vianney, may we lovingly proclaim Jesus as the Son of the living God, our Lord and Savior!
God bless

Fr. Joseph

Credit:
This article is written by Rev Fr. Joseph Osho OSJ. Please visit his personal blog @ https://www.blogger.com/profile/10377666931103644634
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