Saint John Mary Vianney, or also known as the Holy Curé of Ars, used to give various advice to the faithful and priests to take into account during confession. Therefore, on the occasion of his feast day, which is every August 4, we share with you 7 important recommendations from the patron saint of parish priests.
This humble saint is known not only for his fight against the demon, but also because he always had a long line of penitents who wanted to confess to him. In the book Life and anecdotes of the Curé of Arswritten by Father Ángel Peña OAR, it is said that people had to wait “up to sixty hours before confessing.”
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The desire of the faithful was so great that there were even those who paid others “to stand in line for them.” Through a possessed person, the demon told him: “You make me suffer. If there were three like you on earth, my kingdom would be destroyed.”
Advice from the Curé of Ars for penitents and confessors
1. Sometimes, during confession, he would give a holy rosary, encouraging them to always carry it and pray it. “A good Christian is always armed with his rosary. Mine never leaves me,” he said.
2. When the lines were long, he sometimes uttered short expressions like: “What a disgrace! Love our Lord! If you do not avoid such an occasion, you will be damned! Have mercy on his poor soul!”
3. In his catechesis, he taught: “When the priest gives absolution, we only have to think about one thing: that the blood of Christ runs through our soul to wash it, purify it and make it as beautiful as it was after baptism. Even if the soul is black as coal or red as scarlet, through absolution it will remain white as snow.”
4. In a sermon he began to cry for those who are condemned to hell and with deep pain he questioned: “Why do men expose themselves to being cursed by God? For a blasphemy, for a bottle of wine (drunkenness), for a two-minute pleasure. Oh, to lose God, to lose your soul and heaven forever!”
5. To those who confessed to him he gave a small penance and said: “I impose a small penance on them and what is missing, I do for them.”
6. Advising other priests, he indicated: “Absolution must be denied or, rather, deferred (postponed) to habitual sinners who relapse into the same sin and who do nothing or very little to correct themselves.”
7. “When you see a priest, say: ‘A priest has made me a son of God and opened heaven to me through baptism, forgiven me my sins (by confession) and gives me food for my soul (in communion)’. The priest has the place of God. He is a man who is clothed with the powers of God,” indicated the great Holy Curé of Ars.
Abel Camasca
Journalist graduated from the Communication Sciences degree at the University of Lima. He has been part of the ACI Prensa journalistic team since 2014. Between 2016 and 2022 he was in charge of the production of the television program EWTN Noticias and Más que Noticias, a World Catholic Radio program. He often writes articles about the lives of saints.