Just after the celebration in Rome marking the end of the Year for Priests it is good for us to call to mind Pierre Bienvenu Noailles whose feast it is today. We celebrate him today as a curate in a parish church who knew how to take the advice given to him by his professors who had great confidence in him. The extract from the following letter from M. Mollivaut, a priest of St. Sulpice, gives proof of this:
From the Solitude in Issy, June 21st 1822
“Dear Sir and Friend,
Since the day I had the pleasure of meeting you, the feelings of esteem you inspired in me have not left me, and my heart likes to follow you in the work where Divine Providence has chosen to make use of your zeal. As you know yourself, all our consolation comes from holy priests who are working to repair the ruins and the desolation of the Church.
You want to be a holy priest. This is the only thing that counts, and you will be one because you want it. But how? you will ask me. Will I become a missionary, a Trappist, a Jesuit, or will I stay here where I am?
Well then, let us remember that it is neither the place nor the work that sanctifies a man. What is necessary then? To be perfectly indifferent to the place or to the work. What else? To work only and always to renounce yourself in all your undertakings, to remain peaceful, to meditate, to keep yourself in the holy presence of God preferring an hour of good contemplation to the most brilliant actions that would make people talk about you, desiring to be forgotten and held in contempt by others, loving only the divine will; with that my dear friend, whether you be in Bordeaux or in Peking, poor or rich, you will have God Alone and you will have everything. And you will be astonished to think that when a person has God he could possibly desire anything more.
[…] The hardships that you have undergone show us that God wants you there where you are”
Indeed, Father Noailles strove constantly to respond to the numerous demands made on him in his priestly ministry.
Over and above any physical or moral suffering he encountered what mattered to him was to be able to communicate his interior strength, the very source of his energy.
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During these days new priests are ordained
We can read this dialogue of Benedict XVI with priests
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2010/june/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20100610_concl-anno-sac_en.html
