"My oldest affection is for Mary"

Saint John Vianney held firm onto the Catholic faith. He believed everything that the Church teaches. This belief guided his actions and his choices. And since God wills to give the Blessed Virgin a special role in everyone’s journey towards Heaven, John gave her "full control" in his life. Since Mary had plenty of work left to accomplish with him, he relied on her help. In other words, John didn’t have a just a private, optional devotion to Mary. His Marian devotion was an essential component of his collaboration in the work of Salvation. He didn’t oppose feelings to faith and reason either; instead, he chose everything: "My oldest affection is for Mary. I loved her before I even knew her!" 

John’s mother, Marie Béluse, provided guidance and support as she helped nourish his soul, and her son had such a good disposition that the Blessed Virgin easily found a place in his spiritual life. We know that one day Marie gave her rosary to her sister Gothon, and that it had been a big sacrifice for her, but that she had done it "out of love for God." She replaced that rosary with a statue of Our Lady, to which John became very attached. "He never left her, day or night," one of his parishioners, Catherine Lassagne, said. At age 4, he disappeared, and his mother found him praying before that same statue, in a stable. To find motivation to work in the fields, he would later throw that statuette in the furrow a few paces ahead of him… And as his mother had taught him, when he heard the church clock chime, he would take off his hat and pray a Hail Mary. He kept this habit when he was the village priest of Ars. Mary accompanied him on his slow and difficult journey to the priesthood. "I have so often drawn from this source (the heart of the Blessed Virgin) that it would long have been empty, if it were not inexhaustible... " He was burning to communicate his trust in Mary to others.

His way of holiness can therefore provide inspiration for all those who are seriously discerning their human (as men and women) and Christian vocation (as followers of Christ). His life, his mission, and his style of holiness speak to many. For some, it is his style of priesthood, his complete dedication to God and to others. For others, it is his simplicity of life and his voluntary poverty. For others still, it is his concern for the poorest among the poor, the most fragile, as well as his compassion for sinners... And everyone can add for himself or herself other traits from which he or she can draw inspiration from this priestly heart that continues today to radiate God's unconditional love for all.

May the Holy Curé of Ars, in this novena of preparation for the anniversary of his death (August 4th), illumine our paths and help us to be, like him, both anchored in reality (where our duty places us) and already journeying on "the way to Heaven" (where God is waiting for us)!

Father Frédéric Vollaud, former chaplain at the Shrine of Ars