Home of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity College Seminary And SOLT LAY Community - Asia-Pacific Region

Homilist (1st day): FR. TEODY MEDINA, SOLT
                    OLMHTCS Procurator

Theme:” Saint John Mary Vianney: Dispeller of Satan”

Reading and reflecting the story of Saint John Mary Vianney, one could not ignore and over look the most amazing features of his life. For thirty-five years he was frequently molested, in a physical and tangible way by Satan. This experience of Saint John reminds me of the film entitled “Constantine” which if you happened to watch the movie, the character "Constantine”, portrayed by Keanu Reeves would drive out Satan from the possessed person over a lighted cigarette using various amulets in a physical and tangible way also.

But, what could be the difference between the character of Constantine and of Saint John Mary Vianney especially in dealing with Satan? In the case of Saint John, he is the subject of the temptation and at the same time the one who battles with it. The temptation that Saint John experienced was called infestation, an extraordinary action of the devil, when he seeks to terrify the person by horrible apparitions or noises.

The infestation to the saintly Cure of Ars began in the frosty winter night of 1824 where terrific blows were struck against the door of his rectory and accompanied with wild shouting. These and similar disturbances were almost occurred every night for thirty-five years. The devil for instance would go on for hours producing a noise similar to that made by striking a glass with the blade of a steel knife; or he would sing “with a very cracked voice” or whistle for hours; or he would produce a noise as of a horse champing and prancing in the room; he would bleat like a sheep or meow like a cat, or shout under the Cure's windows:”Vianney! Vianney! Potato eater” and even set the bed of the Cure on fire. With these disturbances we can attest that the devil could do silly things just to tempt us in every way possible. However, Saint John soon perceived that these displays of satanic activities were fiercest when some great conversions were about to happen or as the Cure playfully put it, when he was about to “land a big fish”.

What could be the purpose of the devil why he would do such silly things? It is simply because the devil wants to prevent Saint John during the peak of his ministry from getting that minimum rest which his poor body required and thus to render him physically to go on with his astonishing work in the confessional by which he snatched so many souls from the clutches of Satan. A big fish indeed!

With all these molestation infested by the devil, Saint John Mary Vianney hold on to very powerful weapons in battling against the forces of Satan: mortification and his devotion in hearing confession. One of the authors who wrote the life of Saint John commented that the greatest miracle that the Cure of Ars had done was the intense mortification he practiced. He abstained almost completely from food and from sleep, carried out harshest kinds of penances and denied himself with great strength of soul. And he was even found after his death wearing metal chains as his chastity belt. And many spiritual writers and great saints would attest that to curb the desire especially of the flesh one needs to mortify.

The battle to drive out Satan did not stop in Saint John's personal spiritual life but he had seen also the horrible plight of other souls, selling themselves to Satan because of their mortal sins. This sad reality moved the saintly cure to spend the best part of his priestly ministry in a direct contest with sin through his unparalleled work in the confessional. The Cure's confessional was the second real miracle of Ars that went on for forty years. Saint John spent endless hours within the narrow confinement of a rugged, comfortless, unventilated confessional.  The enormous zeal and devotion to the sacrament of confession of Saint John became the object of pilgrimage that hundred thousands of people flocked Ars just to go to confession to this Cure of Ars.

Seminary life or priestly vocation borrowing the word of Saint John Vianney is a “big fish” for Satan.  He will not just allow young men to follow Jesus in an intimate way, so be cautious always of the enticements of Satan in all forms possible. He may not blow the door of your dormitories or sing with cracked voice inside your shower rooms while you are taking a bath but he can storm you with all sorts of temptation even while praying to redirect your attention and concerns and eventually snatched you out from this fold.  However too late to be horrified and be afraid since we have now the model and intercessor, we have now Saint John Mary Vianney teaching us how to endure the infestations of Satan if we only heed to his advice that in the midst of temptations hold firm to the sacrament of confession and be willing to mortify to curb the desires of the flesh and by doing so we do not need to have the amulets and cigarette of Constantine.

Good day to all!

Triduum Mass in honor of St. John Mary Vianney Aug.4, 2009

Homilist (2nd day): FR. PETER RIPA, SOLT
                    OLMHTCS Prefect of Discipline

Theme: St. Jean—Marie Vianney: A model to appreciating the life of “Prayer, Penance and Fasting”

Nowadays, young men and women always want to imitate or I would say, to become like someone. This becoming like someone, is that, they want to fashion their lives onto the appearance of  other people especially movie actors, singers, and solo artists by watching on TV, hearing on the radio, reading news papers and movie show. These are not bad characteristics of those people like pattern of dancing, catching their voices in singing and even some times their way of dressing are like them. For instance, dancing like Michael Jackson.  These are only external images which attract our senses to comply with which are somewhat modeling our lives in accordance with their characters as well.
In our seminary formation, let us not forget to engrave in our hearts and intellect with the simplicity and humbleness of Cure of Ars especially in prayer, penance and fasting.
Please, let me share with you these three most important things St. John Mary Vianney lived in his life as a priest of Jesus Christ.

1. Prayer:
According to St. John Mary Vianney, “the Christian's treasure is not on earth but in heaven. Our thoughts, then, ought to be directed to where our treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man's happiness lies. Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can every pull apart.” For the Cure of Ars, prayer is a daily breathe and it not merely words on the lips but eagerly expound and echoes in the depth of our hearts.  Prayer is not what we seek from God but what we   yearn from God.  The Cure of Ars would say, “Man is a beggar who needs to ask God for everything”.  St. Vianney would spend hours and hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament just to be with his Master and Lord.  Every day of his life became a prayer moments, either he was in the CR, or in his garden, or on the field or strolling with some friends when conversing.
Prayer never leaves us void and confusion, but it is like honey which flows into our souls and make every things sweet.  As the Cure of Ars says, “I often think that when we come to adore the Lord, we would receive everything we ask for, if we would ask with living faith and with a pure heart.” This lead me to the next aspect of spiritual nourishment.

2. Penance
Penance, St. John Mary Vianney made a great deal in helping his parishioners by practicing mortification.  He denied his body pleasure for conversion of grave sinners. He did not do this periodically or occasionally but lived with his priestly ministry.  Prayer is also an act of penance for his own sins and for other souls who are in great need of conversion.  He even went beyond daily practicing like wearing a metal belt just to keep his promise of chastity pure. Penance is atonement for our wrongdoing, if only we would come to God with proper disposition and act of charity to others.  As St. John Mary Vianney says, “   We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favor of a person we love, the other in favor of a person who has done us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter.”  He loves to gaze his face unto God because God always forgives and he loves others and do penance for them because God loved them first. Penance is a remedy to the soul when accompanying with fasting.

3. Fasting

Fasting is an unimaginable practice someone would do at this modern time. Not because of plentitude and surplus of food, but the because of the motive it requires.
But for Cure of Ars, it was not a hindrance for him. He literally survived only on potato and cold water.  How would that kind of soul survive in this world which God has the answer and that is through his grace? The more he fasted on delicious food, the more he was drawn to temptations and also miracles were happened with prayers through fasting.   As he would say, “Nonetheless he did not content himself with just accepting these trials without complaining; he went beyond them by *mortification*, imposing on himself continual fasts and many other rugged practices in order to “reduce his body to servitude,” as Saint Paul says. But what we must see clearly in this penance, which our age unhappily has little taste for, are his motives: love of God and the conversion of sinners. Thus he asks a discouraged fellow priest: “You have prayed..., you have wept..., but have you fasted, have you kept vigil...?”(27) Here we are close to the warning Jesus gave to the Apostles: “But this kind is cast out only by prayer and fasting.”  
It is impossible to apprehend, as such Saint would live only on kamote without any further ingredients, but first and foremost, he chose to live like this when he accepted the responsibility of helping other souls as priest.

Here, we can see that St. John Mary Vianney is an excellent model for us priests and those of you who are aspiring to become a priest some day.  In all aspect of formation, we should not neglect these three important practices that the Cure of Ars shows us to follow. We can not and should not separate one from the other because they are like wine twining together for the good of the soul. Our prayers in this formation should not be only words but it must come from the depth of our hearts; and it may not become a daily routine but with love and sincere hearts to call God our Father.  Like St. Vianney, let prayer not only becomes part of our life but we have live it out in our daily basis.  
However, prayer leads to penance.  We must do penance everyday for the sake of our own sins or for the sake of others.  It is not only praying but we can include it in our daily chores which are ordinary   like sweeping the floor can become extraordinary. It is not what I want to clean because of my assignment but because I love my community, brothers and priests, I do this as penance for myself or other souls who are in danger of death.  Any penance that we do should not be for the sake of duty or prescribes by the church but for the sake of loving God and conversion of sins, as the Cure of Ars would put it. Penance is grace that renew and purifys our souls if we do with intended and proper disposition of our souls.
Therefore, prayer and penance lead us to the self-denying of body pleasure that is fasting. In our context today, it is very hard to fast for one whole day without food and water. To follow St. Vianney as our model in formation, let us try at least once a day. It is a gift that someone can receive like St. Vianney, but with the grace God we can ask for help and strength to sustain the practice of fasting.  Fasting is not only on food but other impulsive and perverts thought can be transformed into good intentions which are the sacrifice for the souls. We can also fast from external senses for the good of the souls.

With that, we may try to imitate other public figures like movie actors as our model in daily lives but more important is that let St. Vianney, the Cure of Ars can be   excellent model of prayer, penance and fasting in our priestly formation.  Thank you and God bless, Amen.