Thursday, November 23 : Saint John-Mary Vianney

Our soul is intended to go and spend it’s eternity in the breast of God itself. Let’s say everything in a word, my brothers: our soul is something so great, so precious, that it is only God alone that surpasses it. (…) From that alone, my brothers, I let you ask if we should be surprised that God, who knows this merit so well, so bitterly grieves the loss of a soul. I let you imagine then, what is the care we must take to keep all its beauty. (…) Three things are able to make us cry; But there is only one that is able to make our tears meritorious, which is when we mourn our sins or those of our brothers. (…) Crying the spiritual death of his soul, the distance of God, the loss of heaven: “O precious tears, but alas you are rare! And why, my brothers, if not because you do not feel the greatness of your misfortune, for time and for eternity? (…) Alas my brothers, it is the fear of this loss that has depopulated the world, to fill the deserts and monasteries with so many Christians; It is that they understood much better than us that, if we lose our soul, everything is lost and that it was of a great price, since God himself made it so much of it! Yes, my brothers, the saints have suffered so much to keep their souls for heaven!

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team