Ars

this morning we visited ars...the highlight and major purpose of our trip and a sacred place i have desired to see for over a decade. words cannot fully describe its significance nor that of the visit to me as a priest. it took us a while to find the tiny village...appropriate since vianney himself had trouble. :) when we arrived and almost life sized statue greeted us...i held the cure's hand and almost cried. i was finally in ars! i saw the confessional st john vianney used, touched the pulpit from which he preached and the cabinet where he vested, toured the house where he lived and saw the school he founded. we walked to the statue which commemorates the boy antoine telling the cure how to find ars and walked the road he would have walked into the town. i had a beautiful confession and we concelebrated mass in the basilica that is now built around vianney's original parish church. i also spent a good bit of time in quiet prayer. the nuns at the shrine and the people in the town are wonderful and seem to have absorbed vianney's spirit and keep his legacy alive. i beg god to be a holy priest like john vianney.