by Mary Pepping
Rob Pepping won a scholarship to visit the Holy Places in France especially those with a Marist connection. He visited St John Vianney’s church and brought back a Pilgrim’s guide, from which Mary wrote this article
The Curé of Ars was a priest in love with the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. We know this because he spoke of it in most of his sermons. “He is there”, he used to say, “He is listening to you.”
Whenever he faced the tabernacle it could be clearly seen on his face, the reverence and love he felt for the presence of the Lord there.
He was quoted saying, “Don’t make yourself heard in the newspapers, but at the door of the Tabernacle”.
He expressed the knowledge that the sinner does not come back to God to ask for forgiveness, but God himself runs after the sinner so that he turns back to God.
His other strong devotion was to the Blessed Trinity. He used a picture of the Trinity as a marker in his breviary. As he prayed the office, he would look towards the Tabernacle in great happiness.
The faithful prepared for confession in the Chapel of the “Ecce Homo”. It was fitted out by the Cure in 1834 with this intention. All the decorations on the walls and the ceiling recalled the Passion of Jesus. ( viz. Instruments of the passion and death,the laying in the Sepulchre).
On the 1st May, 1836 the Curé consecrated his Parish to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He kept this memory alive with a picture hung at the entrance to the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin, which he had built and which he decorated.
After the apparition at Rue du Bac (the Chapelle de Medaille Miraculese) in 1830, he bought a gilt-wood statue of the Virgin Mary. Soon after, he had a silver-gilt heart made, in which he placed the names of all his Parishioners. This heart hung on the statue of the Miraculous Virgin Mary.
He had other favourite saints – Saint Philomena, St. Francis of Assisi and the Angels.
He made Chapels to honour these, and he became a member of the Franciscan Third Order in 1848. He was very fond of the poverty and humility of St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Philomena he called his “chargée d’affaires”.
The Chapel of Providence was inaugurated in 1848. The Curé of Ars had it built with the hope it would become a retreat for himself…He thought that once he was freed from Parish ministering, he would institute a “Perpetual Adoration according to God’s will.”
Here are some Sayings of the Holy Curé of Ars:
ON GOD’S LOVE: “The only happiness we have on earth, is loving God and knowing God loves us.”
ON PRAYER: “A sweet exchange between a child and his Father.”
ON THE CHURCH: “Happy is the Christian who has been taught and fits into the Holy Spirit of the Church.”
ON PRIESTS: “Priesthood is the love of Jesus’ heart.”
ON THE EUCHARIST: “He is there, He who loves you so much…Why shouldn’t we love him?”
ON FORGIVENESS; “His heart is oozing with tenderness and mercy to drown the sins of the world.”
Rob and Mary Pepping are parishioners of St Mark’s Pakuranga Auckland NZ
