This Friday, August 4th we celebrate the feast day of our beloved patron, Saint John Mary Vianney. He is often referred to as the “Curé d’Ars”, which was his title as the parish pastor in Ars, France. He was famous, even during his earthly life, for holiness and priestly zeal. Ars itself was a tiny village (only about 230 souls) but by the end of his time there thousands of people came from all over France to go to confession with the Curé and attend the Masses he offered. He arrived in Ars at a time when the Church had been suffering the violent persecution and terror of the French Revolution for over 30 years. An entire generation had been deprived of catechesis and were apathetic in faith and religious practice. Yet, rather than give into despair this only drove Father Vianney’s zeal to win souls for Christ! We parish priests look to him as a special patron and pray to be like him.

Today’s second reading, Romans 8:26-27, says “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” At first glance that might seem a little disheartening for all of us who have been praying all our lives and think we’ve gotten pretty good at it… “What do you mean we don’t know how to pray as we ought?!”

We priests pray our breviary and its psalms five times a day as well as make time for meditation and liturgy. I know most of us in SJV Parish also make the rosary and scriptural reflection essential daily prayer. Many spend time each day or each week in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Yet, here Saint Paul writes that the Holy Spirit comes to help us human beings because, in our human weakness, we don’t know how to pray as we ought… But thanks be to God the Spirit is praying for us and with us in the profoundest way!

Just over year ago our religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross, elected Brother Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C., as our Superior General. This was an historic election and rightly made international news because it was the first time a brother became superior general of a religious community composed of both priests and brothers. Previously only priests could be elected and each superior general since Blessed Father Basil Moreau, our holy founder, was a priest.

One of the seven sacraments we celebrate very often as priests is the Anointing of the Sick. Frequently it is in the hospital or hospice following a call from distraught family members. They are following the words of St. James in his eponymous letter:

'Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the priests of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven." (Jas. 5:14-15)

What summer it's been so far! We just wrapped up our SJV Summer Camp and we owe tremendous thank you to the many counselors and leaders who helped the boys and girls of St. John Vianney parish grow in love of Jesus and their neighbor, learn more about our Catholic Faith, make new friends, and have a lot of fun! I went to their Camp Talent Show on Friday night and it was really beautiful to see(and hear!) the joy of the Holy Spirit in these, our youngest, parishioners.