God With Us – A Meditation On Christmas By Saint John Marie Vianney - The Cure d'Ars

Our Christmas gift to you is a meditation by the only diocesan parish priest to have been canonized a Saint – indeed, he is the patron Saint of Parish Priests. Saint John Marie Vianney (1786-1859) is known to many as the Cure d’Ars. His priesthood began in August 1815, only two months after the Battle of Waterloo. The Church in France lay in tatters after the disaster of the French Revolution and the Reign of Napoleon. After a quarter-century of turmoil, many Frenchmen had forgotten whatever training in the Faith they had before 1789. It fell to priests like the Cure d’Ars to restore the Faith to those who lost it during the tumult. Here is a sermon given by Saint John Vianney on Christmas Day. It comes from a marvelous book, The Sermons of the Cure d'Ars: For the Sundays and Feasts of the Year, published by Mediatrix Press, which has graciously given permission for The Return to Order Moment to bring it to you. The book is available through the Mediatrix Press website at https://mediatrixpress.com/product/sermons-of-the-cure-dars-for-the-sundays-of-the-year/.