I'm standing near the edge of a cliff. The land is barren with no vegetation. The edge of the cliff is jagged. I look over the edge and see a drop that takes my breath away. This is the eternal pit that if you fall in, you never come out of. The fall into this darkness is for miles and miles. At the bottom of this pit are horrors that I will not mention here.
I look to my right and a mile wide along the edge of the cliff there are people standing at the edge ready to fall in. Behind them, packed very tightly are thousands of souls behind the ones on the edge and they are so tightly packed that they cannot move even their arms easily. They cannot run from the horror that awaits them as there is something constraining them, keeping them in place. Occasionally one or two will break free of the bonds that are holding them and run away from the path of destruction.
Then I see the most horrible thing. People were being added to the back of this horrible line and the addition of more people somewhere in the distance was pushing the line forward, and pushing those in the front of the line....off the cliff.
Their screams were horrific, for within them was complete hopelessness.
As the first ones on the row fell my heart broke, and caused me to draw my breath in with fear. I strongly desired to see these souls be saved, but I was only one, and I had no ropes or any means to pull them away from their destruction. I screamed to them, warning them of the fate that lay ahead, because many in the center of the throng could not see the destruction that awaited them. I begin to pray my Rosary, offer the Stations to God so that souls would not fall into the pit. Slowly, I see that some are breaking free of the bonds and changing the course that they were previously on. There were free of this horrible fate. I had done nothing for this effort, for God had done all, I just asked. For God is moved by the heart of love for Him and when we love the souls that He loves. If we love God, we must love those He loves.
So by love of God and love of those He loves, God saves. In the world that is more sinful than Sodom and Gomorrah, and so many souls are on this path of eternal destruction to worry about rules is like asking the man with a bullet wound to the chest to first fill out the forms before you will treat him. Love them, get them in the hospital of the soul, (Christ's Church and the Holy Mass), and by your love you will change their hearts. Just love them, and God will do the rest. How easily we forget that we are only to present the truth, it is the Holy Spirit that brings it home every time. How little we think of God if we think we must wag our finger at a sinner. Just love them, for God is a big enough God that He can change the blackest of hearts to the most holy of Saints.
Why Every Priest Should Be A Saint: Back At The Cliff.
I am praying and begging God to save souls, to convert the most blackest of hearts, and some are breaking free but still many are going over the cliff. I see a Priest who,like me, is outside of the throng of souls and he was seeing what was happening. By the expression on his face I could tell he wanted to avert these souls being lost. He too like me was praying and begging God that souls not to be lost. He also was offering the Holy Mass and preaching to turn souls away from their fate. I began to notice that his prayers gave a greater harvest of souls than mine did. There was no jealousy, this made me very happy. This Holy Priest by his calling from God and his effort with prayer was able to call at least 100 more souls away from the pit than I could.
God is not a respecter of persons, He loves His Priests as much as He loves any of us. He is not a respecter of persons, but He is a respecter of the Priesthood which He established. When a Priests hands are anointed, it is God's honor that is placed in the hands of the Priest, and God will always respect what He has placed there. For if the heart of the Priest is aligned with God out of love to save souls, what a harvest of souls can be saved!
Why do you think the demon hated St. John Vianney so? Because the demon knew that God not only heard the prayer of His priest, but because of the love in the Saints heart for God and for souls not to fall into hell, God waged great destruction on the demon and countless souls where saved. This destruction on the evil one was so great that it did not profit the demon to hide any longer and he made himself known on several occasions in order to dissuade the Holy Priest from his efforts to save souls. The demon became so angry that he even told the Saint, "If there were three such priests as you, my kingdom [in France] would be ruined."
Think of that...just three. Three holy Priests could save a whole nation.
Every Priest should be a Saint, because if a Priest is a Saint, he can save far more souls that one layperson with a rosary every could.
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