Put a good bunch of grapes under the winepress, and a delicious juice will come out. Under the winepress of the cross, our soul produces a juice that feeds and strengthens us. When we haven't got any crosses, we are dry. If we carry them with resignation, what happiness, what sweetness we feel!

John Vianney

Categorized in : Soul Dry Juice

There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us.

John Vianney

holy-mass holy-eucharist sacrifice

Do not try to please everybody. Try to please God, the angels, and the saints - they are your public.

John Vianney

saint angel trying

The sign of the cross is the most terrible weapon against the devil. Thus the Church wishes not only that we have it continually in front of our minds to recall to us just what our souls are worth and what they cost Jesus Christ, but also that we should make it at every juncture ourselves: when we go to bed, when we awaken during the night, when we get up, when we begin any action, and, above all, when we are tempted.

John Vianney

soul night jesus

God commands you to pray, but forbids you to worry.

John Vianney

command praying worry

When the heart is pure and simple it cannot help loving, because it has discovered the source of love which is God.

John Vianney

simple heart helping

A priest goes to Heaven or a priest goes to Hell with a thousand people behind.

John Vianney

hell heaven people

On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight - we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses, and make use of them to take us to heaven?

John Vianney

suffering heaven children

We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that - they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen.

John Vianney

imperfection pride people

All that we do without offering it to God is wasted.

John Vianney

offering

It is always springtime in the heart that loves God.

John Vianney

springtime god-love heart

If you invoke the Blessed Virgin when you are tempted, she will come at once to your help, and Satan will leave you.

John Vianney

religious blessed helping

The Lord is more anxious to forgive our sins than a woman is to carry her baby out of a burning building.

John Vianney

burning forgiving baby

Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.

John Vianney

light fire prayer

If you find it impossible to pray, hide behind your good Angel and charge him to pray in your stead.

John Vianney

angel praying impossible

Humility is like a pair of scales: the lower one side falls, the higher rises the other. Let us humble ourselves like the Blessed Virgin and we shall be exalted.

John Vianney

blessed humble fall

Almighty God sends no trial without consolation.

John Vianney

almighty-god almighty trials

My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun.

John Vianney

prayer sweet children

You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God.

John Vianney

saint world

See, my children, a person who is in a state of sin is always sad. Whatever he does, he is weary and disgusted with every thing; while he who is at peace with God is always happy, always joyous. . . Oh, beautiful life! Oh, beautiful death!

John Vianney

doe beautiful children

The virtue of obedience makes the will supple... It inspires the courage with which to fulfill the most difficult tasks.

John Vianney

virtue tasks inspire