We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that - they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the contrast between human pride in virtue and the humility seen in true saints regarding their imperfections.
In this quote, John Vianney reflects on the nature of pride and humility. He points out that most people take pride in their virtues and seek recognition for their good deeds, while feeling upset when their faults are noticed. In contrast, he suggests that true saints are inclined to remain humble, finding discomfort in the acknowledgment of their virtues while being accepting of their flaws. This serves as a reminder that genuine humility involves recognizing and embracing one's imperfections over seeking validation for one's strengths.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a discussion on humility at a church service.
Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.
Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray!
There is no problem of human nature which is insoluble.
They are all beasts of burden in a sense, ' Thoreau once remarked of animals, 'made to carry some portion of our thoughts.' Animals are the old language of the imagination; one of the ten thousand tragedies of their disappearance would be a silencing of this speech.
What draws us into the desert is the search for something intimate in the remote.
Perhaps the seeds of false-refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and defections of their race, in a premature and unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!
We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.
The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.
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