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Pope Benedict XVI: "What made the Curé of Ars holy was his humble faithfulness to the mission to which God had called him; it was his constant abandonment, full of trust, into the hands of divine Providence. He succeeded in touching people's hearts not by strength of his own human gifts, nor by relying exclusively on an effort, however laudable, of his will; he conquered souls, even the most refractory ones, by communicating to them that which he lived intimately, namely, his friendship with Christ. He was "in love" with Christ, and the true secret of his pastoral success was the love that he nourished through the eucharistic Mystery, announced, celebrated and lived, which became love for Christ's flock, for Christians and for all people who were seeking God. His testimony reminds us, dear brothers and sisters, that for each baptized person, and even more for the priest, the Eucharist "is not simply an event with two protagonists, a dialogue between God and me. Eucharistic Communion tends to a total transformation of one's own life. With force it opens wide the entire I of man and creates a new we (Joseph Ratzinger). Thus, far from reducing the figure of St John Mary Vianney to an example, albeit an admirable one, of 19th century devotional spirituality, it is necessary on the contrary to grasp the prophetic force that marked his very topical human and priestly personality. In post-revolutionary France, which was experiencing a sort of "dictatorship of rationalism" aimed at erasing the very presence of priests and of the Church in society, he lived first, in the years of his youth, a heroic secrecy, travelling kilometres at night so as to participate in Holy Mass. Then, as a priest, he distinguished himself through a singular and fruitful pastoral creativity, apt to show that the then prevaling rationalism was in reality far from satisfying the authentic needs of man and thus, definitively, was not livable. Dear brothers and sisters, 150 years after the death of the holy Curé of Ars, the challenges of contemporary society are no less demanding, indeed they may have become more complex. If then there was the "dictatorship of rationalism", in the current epoch a sort of "dictatorship of relativism" is seen in many areas. Both appear inadequate responses to the just demand of man to use fully his own reason as a distinctive and constitutive element of his own identity. Rationalism was inadequate because it does not take into account human limitations and claims to elevate reason alone as measure of all things, transforming it into a goddess; contemporary relativism mortifies reason, because in fact it ends up affirming that the human being cannot know anything with certainty beyond the positive scientific field. Today however, as then, man "a beggar for meaning and fulfilment", goes in constant search of exhaustive answers to the fundamental questions that he never ceases to ask himself." (General Audience, 5 August 2009) Music: To the Ends of the Earth by Fr Rob Galea - ℗ 2011 Robert Galea - used with permission. For much more, visit Totus2us - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by our holy fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.