St John Vianney – The Cure of Ars
If people would do for God what they do for the world,
what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven.
Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there:
If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames.
But gather these straws into a bundle and light them,
and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky;
public prayer is like that.
When we receive Holy Communion, we experience something extraordinary: a joy, a fragrance, a well-being that thrills the whole body and causes it to exalt.
Every Consecrated Host is made to burn Itself up with love in a human heart.
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St John Vianney on Prayer
Consider, children, a Christian’s treasure is not on earth, it is in heaven.
Well then, our thoughts should turn to where our treasure is. Man has a noble task: that of prayer and love. To pray and to love, that is the happiness of man on earth.
Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvellous light. In this intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax moulded into one; they cannot any more be separated. It is a very wonderful thing, this union of God with his creature, a happiness passing all understanding.We had deserved to be left incapable of praying; but God in his goodness has permitted us to speak to him. Our prayer is an incense that is delightful to God.
Prayer is a foretaste of heaven, an overflowing of heaven. It never leaves us without sweetness; it is like honey, it descends into the soul and sweetens everything. In a prayer well made, troubles vanish like snow under the rays of the sun.
Prayer makes time seem to pass quickly, and so pleasantly that one fails to notice how long it is. When I was parish priest of Bresse, once almost all my colleagues were ill, and as I made long journeys I used to pray to God, and, I assure you, the time did not seem long to me. There are those who lose themselves in prayer, like a fish in water, because they are absorbed in God. There is no division in their hearts. How I love those noble souls! Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Colette saw our Lord and spoke to him as we speak to one another.
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