How Will You Honor St. John Vianney? How about Saying Thank You to a Priest!

Today is the feast day of St. John Vianney, patron of priests and, in particular, parish priests. At Mass this morning I was thinking about and praying for many of the priests who touched my life: those who celebrated Masses I attended, heard my confessions, advised me, blessed me, buried my relatives and friends, anointed me when I was sick...what a number!

I'm also praying today for the priests who scandalized me and my family: the dissenters who told me falsehoods about the faith, those who desecrated the Mass, the teachers who lied to my children...all the scandalizers. I'm praying for the "retreat master" at my supposedly Catholic college who condemned the "outdated" Church and told students not to bother going to Mass if they didn't get anything out of it. What a jokester he was and how he played to the crowd. And foolish as we were, we laughed and listened.