SERMONS OF THE CURE OF ARS - EXCERPTS

 THE DREADFUL STATE OF THE LUKEWARM SOUL

 HAVE YOU RELIGION IN YOUR HEART?

 LOST WORKS

 WE ARE WRETCHED CREATURES

 ROUTINE FOLLOWERS

 THE WORLD IS EVERYTHING AND GOD IS NOTHING!

 FOLLOW ONE MASTER ONLY

 THEY ARE FOR THE WORLD

 WE ARE EXTRAORDINARILY BLIND

 NOT LIKE THE OTHERS

 THE EVIL TONGUES

 A PUBLIC PLAGUE

 YOUR HEART IS BUT A MASS OF PRIDE

 THE TONGUE OF THE SCANDAL-MONGER

 OH, EVERYONE SAYS SO!

 ST. NICHOLAS AND THE THREE GIRLS

 THE SEWER OF HELL

 A CURSE WILL FALL

 ARE YOUR AFFAIRS GOING BETTER?

 BAD COMPANY

 ANGER DOES NOT TRAVEL ALONE

 HOW DEATH WILL REVEAL THIEVES!

 IF YOU KNOW HOW TO GIVE, YOU MUST KNOW HOW TO PAY BACK

 WINE IS HIS GOD

 THE DUTIES OF THE PREGNANT WOMAN

 THE DUTIES OF THE MOTHER

 THE DUTIES OF PARENTS

 YOU WILL ANSWER FOR THEIR SOULS

 TO THEIR SHAME IT MUST BE SAID

 GETTING TO KNOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE

 YOU NO LONGER CONTROL THEM

 HE WILL HELP US

 WE MUST EXPECT TEMPTATION

 WE ARE NOTHING IN OURSELVES

 BEWARE IF YOU HAVE NO TEMPTATIONS

 THE BAD DEATH

 HIS PRAYER IS A LIE

 HOW BLIND THE SINNER IS!

 PRISONERS OF SIN

 YOU CAN BECOME A GOOD TREE

 WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

 ANNUAL CONFESSIONS

 REPAIRING THE WRONG DONE

 RENOUNCE SIN FOR GOOD AND ALL

 MERIT ABSOLUTION

 PRAYER COMMANDS ALL

 YOU HAVE NOT THE TIME

 I COME ON BEHALF OF GOD

 YOU SHOULD COME EARLIER

 IT IS NECESSARY TO BE CONVERTED

 HAVE A CLEAN FACE

 MODEL YOUR DEATH

 ON THAT OF JESUS CHRIST

 IF MAN KNEW HIS RELIGION

 THOUGHTS ON THE WAY TO CHURCH

 YOU ARE SURPRISED, BUT NOT I!

 WHEN YOU GO BACK HOME

 CLEAR YOUR MINDS

 WE ARE KEEPING A FEAST

 BE RELIGIOUS OR BE DAMNED!

 YOUR PRAYERS ARE ONLY AN INSULT

 PURITY IS NOT KNOWN

 THE SERVICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN

 OUR INCONSISTENCY

 LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR

 WHO HAS CHARITY?

 PRAYING, FASTING, AND PLEASING OURSELVES

 DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY?

 THE GIFT OF EVERY DAY

 THE PUBLIC CROSSES

 THE CROSSES WHICH ARE WORN

 HARVEST CROSSES

 THE ARMED CROSSES

 THE BELOVED CROSSES

THE PUBLIC CROSSES

I am going to talk to you now about the public crosses, and I am going to give you the reason for their number, for the blessings which flow from them, and for the great honour which the Church pays them. If our interior crosses are so numerous and if the public crosses, these images of that Cross on which our God died, are also so numerous, it is that we may have always present in our thoughts the reminder that we are the children of a crucified God.

We need not be surprised, my dear brethren, at the honour which the Church pays to this holy wood, which obtains for us so many graces and so many benefits. We see that the Church makes the Sign of the Cross in all her ceremonies, in the administration of all the Sacraments. Why is that? My friends, this is why. It is because all our prayers and all the Sacraments draw from the Cross their power and their virtue. During the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the greatest, the most solemn and the most sublime of all those actions which can glorify God, the priest makes the Sign of the Cross over and over again. God desires that we may never lose the memory of it as the surest means of our salvation and the most formidable instrument for repelling the Devil. He has created us in the form of a cross so that every man might be the image of this cross upon which Jesus Christ died to save us. See how eager the Church is to increase their number? She urges them as a special embellishment on our churches and on all altars; she places them in the most public places.