The Spirit Of The Cur Of Ars

Reprint of the original, first published in 1865. Translated from the French of M. L'Abbé Monnin. With Seventeen Additional Exhortations.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1865. Translated from the French of M. L'Abbé Monnin. With Seventeen Additional Exhortations.

If we have ever thought, in reading of the apostolic labours of saints who lived in times gone by, that the uncompromising severity of their teaching would have been modified by the altered circumstances of our own age, the life of the Cure of Are shows us that we were mistaken. We see him in the midst of a neighbouring people, the trusted guide of every class of Christians. Every doubt that could arise from the exigencies of the nineteenth century, concerning theology, politics, or even fuhion, was submitted to his decision; and he answered one and all in words which might bave fallen from St. Vincent Ferrer or the B. Leonard of Port Maurice. Thus, when we hear of the numbers of all ranks and conditions who crowded from town and country into the secluded village church to hear his simple exhortations, our thoughts go back to the time when Pharisees and Sadducees, soldiers and publicans, thronged the desert .. banks of the Jordan to hear the preaching of st. John Baptist, and to be told that they must do penance, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. In peruing the instructions of the Cure of Ars, we may miss the sweetness of his voice. or the bright look and affectionate manner with which they were wont to be accompanied; but our hearts burn within us as we read, for they come from a saint on fire with the love of God, who was raised up in an unbelieving generation to carry on the old tradition, and to sanctify the world by the simple preaching of the Cross.