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Today, 4 August is the feast day of St. John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of all priests and confessors. His life is an example of man being elevated to do the work that God calls him to do, that no task is impossible for us if God gives it to us. So today, let’s pray for all our priests, that they too may be able to perform the work that God has entrusted to them.
“All Good Works together are not of equal value with the sacrifice of the Mass, because they are the works of men, and the holy Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison; it is the sacrifice that man makes of his life to God; the Mass is the sacrifice that God makes to man of His Body and of His Blood. Oh, how great is a priest! if he understood himself he would die. . . . God obeys him; he speaks two words, and Our Lord comes down from Heaven at his voice, and shuts Himself up in a little Host. God looks upon the altar. “That is My well-beloved Son, ” He says, “in whom I am well-pleased. ” He can refuse nothing to the merits of the offering of this Victim. If we had faith, we should see God hidden in the priest like a light behind a glass, like wine mingled with water.”
- from a Cathechesis on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Various Catholic blogs have already mentioned the readings plans that Fr. Bryan Jerabek offers here. The four different plans all offer reading material for at least the forty days of Lent, and sometimes also the Sundays and the Easter Triduum.
I intend to follow one of the plans, but I’m not entirely sure which one. The Church Fathers plan is quite demanding in sheer volume but, like the other three, it seems very interesting. Of course it would also be quite fitting to read from the Curé of Ars of Cardinal Newman.
Anyway, it’s a great initiative. Now to decide what else I can do this Lent…
