Sermons of St. John Vianney St. Jean-Marie Vianney was born in 1786 at Dardilly, France. After being drafted, leaving the army, and opening a school for village schoolchildren, he joined the minor seminary of Verrieres in 1812 and was ordained a priest three years afterward. While famously serving as cure of the town of Ars, he saw to it that his parishioners understood their evil pastimes, spending long hours in the confessional at a time. St. Vianney died at Ars-sur-Formans, France, in 1859, and was declared a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1925. His feast day is celebrated on August 4.

Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, T.O.S.F., (1786 – 1859), was a French parish priest who is better known as the Curé d'Ars. He became internationally notable for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish because of the radical spiritual transformation of the community and its surroundings. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as a saint and as the patron saint of all priests.

Saint Jean-Baptiste Marie Vianney, known affectionately as The Curé d'Ars, was a peasant priest. In the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleonic rule, in a time of anti-clericalism and social and economic disarray, he was appointed parish priest of the obscure and dispirited village of Ars. Over the next forty years, he was the agent of a complete spiritual, social, and material reform of his parish, which became a joyful refuge and a place of pilgrimage. Men and women would travel for weeks simply to confess before the humble and holy man. His particular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is manifest in this book of twenty-seven meditations, which had its first English edition two years before his canonization in 1925. St. John is now celebrated as the patron of parish priests.

St. John Vianney, the Cure d'Ars, though he was not thought competent to preach or hear confessions, became one of the greatest preachers and confessors of his age. The 19th century was one of optimism for French Catholicism, but, following the horrors of the French Revolution, there was also a feeling of lukewarmness and an approach to the moral life that felt sin could not be all that bad. St. John Vianney, on the other hand, would not suffer to see souls be damned for lukewarmness. His preaching permeates with the love of God first and foremost, and clear prescriptions for leading his flock to heaven. Reprinted exactly from the 1901 Wagner edition and unabridged, the Sermons of the Cure d'Ars are arranged for every Sunday of the year according to the 1962 Calendar, as well as the principal feasts of the year as they were in his own time.

"Father, I want to forgive; I really do. But, how do I go about it? Where do I start?" These are some of the questions in many broken and hurting Christians who tried hard to forgive, but failed. They love Christ. They know His teachings about love and forgiveness, and they genuinely want to forgive. But, however they try to make the decision to forgive, they just cannot get rid of that inner force of anger and resentment. So sharply do priests and pastors often exhort people to forgive, and yet they hardly help them with guidance on how to forgive? This is a gap that this books seeks to fill. It seeks to help the reader to become aware of their superiority over anger, to recognise their capacity to forgive, and to learn how to forgive. It presents practical guides and steps to follow in the process of forgiveness. It also highlights various hindrances to forgiveness and how to overcome them. The guidelines it provides, if fully assimilated, will also help the reader towards self-awareness and growth, and in the ability to control any emotion successfully.Fr Thulani Joel Skhosana is the priest of the Catholic Church, under the diocese of Polokwane, Limpopo province, South Africa. Born in Soweto, raised in Mpumalanga and Limpopo subsequently, he was ordained a priest on 16 December 2006. After more than half a decade of active ministry in Our Lady Mediatrix Parish (Bela-Bela), he went to Rome for further studies, where he obtained a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture, at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (PBI). He presently works as the academic dean, lecturer and formator at St John Vianney Seminary in Waterkloof (Pretoria), South Africa.

Catholic wisdom stated in a simple, sublime, penetrating way. His sage counsel on 36 important topics. Probably the most persuasive exhortation ever urging us to renounce sin.