Saturday 16 March 2013

The poor vs. beauty in worship?


From the blog of a very wise young Dominican:

What it means to serve the poor

John Vianney 415.jpg 




In this we look to the saints.  St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, was known as a diligent priest who gave everything he was in service to his people--in preaching, in teaching, and especially in hearing confessions.  He was also an example of a priest who, though never taking a religious vow of poverty himself, lived a life of poverty.  It is said that he would allow his own priestly clothes--his black cassock--to fall almost to tatters.  Why?  So that he might better provide for the beauty of the liturgy.  St. John Vianney believed in a radical detachment from wealth in the world, especially wealth for its own  sake or merely personal comfort. In so doing, that radical detachment from worldly riches opened him up to a finer appreciation for the riches of God. The things of this world are meant to sustain man, but to give glory to God.

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