What was the Cure to do?
Seeking direction from his divine source, the Cure was inspired with an idea! How do you get parents to care for their families? Why, you send for their children, that's all, offering free catechism classes. Did it work? In time the entire family, proud of the example of their children, attended church together, even the men who usually stood outside smoking during the service. Yes, The Cure d'Ars knew the plan, and that is, that a child or in this case a village of children would lead them.
The Cure struggled on more than one occasion with that plan in his parish of Ars. Never alone for hardly a minute and longing for quiet, which he believed he needed to grow in sanctity he set off from Ars in the middle of the night, more than once, only to be met by the objections of faithful parishioners. They did not want to lose their beloved, but aging cure. It did not matter to them that his words were garbled during a sermon or if he seemed to fall asleep at a service. No, he was theirs, and if he wanted a place of meditation, not rest, as the Cure hardly slept at all, he'd have to find his seeking in heaven.
During his term of service in Ars, Jean Vianney was prone to theatrics during sermons and in the confessional, often calling out sins amongst the crowded church or refusing absolution to an unrepentant sinner. The people apparently enjoyed his rhetoric and his vehemence for storming souls, as they traveled from all over France to hear his sermons and have their souls "doctored" or cured by their Cure d'Ars.
Vianney, as did most of the saints had an intense devotion to Our Lady, their heavenly and earthly mother as well. Vianney looked upon her with reverence, listening for her guidance. On one instance a visitor in his house witnessed an apparition, St. John Maria Vianney conversing with his Holy Mother. He swore the visitor to secrecy, which in itself shows that the most holiest of moments are not meant to be shared, or to draw attention to the saint unless they are directed otherwise, perhaps for the good of souls or a particular person or situation.
