SERMONS OF THE CURE OF ARS - EXCERPTS
THE DREADFUL STATE OF THE LUKEWARM SOUL
HAVE YOU RELIGION IN YOUR HEART?
THE WORLD IS EVERYTHING AND GOD IS NOTHING!
YOUR HEART IS BUT A MASS OF PRIDE
THE TONGUE OF THE SCANDAL-MONGER
ST. NICHOLAS AND THE THREE GIRLS
ARE YOUR AFFAIRS GOING BETTER?
HOW DEATH WILL REVEAL THIEVES!
IF YOU KNOW HOW TO GIVE, YOU MUST KNOW HOW TO PAY BACK
THE DUTIES OF THE PREGNANT WOMAN
YOU WILL ANSWER FOR THEIR SOULS
TO THEIR SHAME IT MUST BE SAID
GETTING TO KNOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE
BEWARE IF YOU HAVE NO TEMPTATIONS
IT IS NECESSARY TO BE CONVERTED
YOUR PRAYERS ARE ONLY AN INSULT
THE SERVICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
No, my dear brethren, let us never forget that in order to receive Holy Communion it is necessary to be converted and strong in a true resolution to persevere. When Jesus Christ desired to give His Adorable Body and His Precious Blood to His Apostles, in order to teach them how pure one should be before receiving It, He even went so far as to wash their feet. By that He wishes to show us that we can never be purified enough of our sins, even our venial sins. It is true that the venial sin does not make our Communions unworthy, but it is a cause of our profiting hardly at all by such a great blessing and happiness. The proof of that is very clear when you consider how many times we have received Holy Communion during the course of our lives. And have we become any better? .... No, not at all, and the real cause of that is that practically all the time we are holding onto our bad habits; we do not break ourselves of any one of them more than another. We have a horror of the big sins which kill our souls, but all those little fits of impatience, those grumblings when some worries or troubles befall us, or some disappointments or setbacks -- these mean nothing to us. You will admit that in spite of so many Confessions and Holy Communions, you are always the same, that your Confessions are nothing else, nor have they been for years, than a repetition of the same sins, which, although venial, are none the less damaging to the merit of your Holy Communions.
You have been heard to say, with good reason, that you are no better one day than another, but who is stopping you from correcting your faults? .... If you are always the same, it is simply because you do not want to make even small efforts to improve yourself. You do not want to endure anything or to be opposed in anything. You would like everyone to be fond of you and to have a good opinion of you, which is a difficult enough thing.
Let us try hard, my dear brethren, to destroy all that could be in the smallest way displeasing to Jesus Christ, and we shall see ho-v our Communions will help us to make great strides towards Heaven. And the more we do this, the more we shall feel ourselves becoming detached from sin and inclining towards God.... This is what I desire for you.