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We've just returned from venerating the relic of the heart of St. John Vianney during a peaceful evening at St. Michael and All Angels in Woodchurch on the Wirral.
For a few hours, whilst Confession was available, people quietly processed around the church to prayerfully venerate the relic of this great saint who loved God so much with all of his pure heart.
Bishop Mark Davies concluded the evening by leading the sizeable congregation of priests and laity in Compline and giving his final blessing. As he remarked at the end, the whole event had been characterised by reverent and silent prayer in the presence of God and His saints.
It was moving for us to have this opportunity to pray before the saint's miraculously incorrupt heart for Dad - who is sadly now in a lot of pain and exhaustion - and for the reconversion of Great Britain in these secularized times.
Earlier in the day, Bishop Davies had given a homily at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool; where Archbishop Patrick Kelly was hosting the heart for a National Day of Prayer for the Renewal of Parish Life and Vocations.
In his homily, Bishop Davies had spoken refreshingly of the fact that St. John Vianney had not had a concrete 'pastoral plan' but had relied on the grace of God and led the laity in his care to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in the Tabernacle and to purify themselves to receive Him with a good Confession.
In his concluding paragraph, Bishop Davies had announced, 'St. John Vianney had no doubt that whatever lies at the centre, the heart of our parishes must always serve to bring us back to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. Wherever there may be little love for God, the saint of Ars challenges us to bring love for God there!'
St. John Vianney - Pray for us!
