In those early days at Ars its young parish priest had to bring his people back to the practice of their religion. And there is the first difference between those days and our own, for his problems are not exactly the problems of the priest today. Nowadays the great obstacle is not so much morality as faith; priests have to preach the faith, to kindle the spark that through grace will cause men to believe in God and the teaching of the Church. In Ars at the beginning of the nineteenth century St. John Vianney was confronted with a flock that possessed the faith but were exceedingly lax in its practice; it had grown dim no doubt but it was there and for that reason his task was easier for morality in general is a consequence of belief. He preached therefore principally on morality, the sinfulness of dancing and drinking (the besetting sins of the people of Ars), the need to reform, the terrors of hell, the joys of heaven. Reading these efforts nowadays we are at once struck by their severity, their seeming lack of compassion and indeed what we are tempted to call their Jansenistic approach. We know that St. John Vianney was a saint and therefore ex hypothesi no Jansenist. He certainly did not preach heresy nor condone it, but be followed scrupulously the practice of his times and in taking his teaching from the approved sources of those days inevitably presented it in a form that was colored by a contemporary approach and preoccupations. It will help us to realize this more clearly if we examine the method of composition that he used and the sources from which he took his sermons.
How did he prepare for what was a considerable ordeal for him on those Sunday mornings? We know that his sermons cost him an enormous effort and that he prepared them with immense care. With the aid of certain works of reference he wrote out his sermons at length. He had never been much good at his books and the effort at actual composition, for he wrote out every word, took him some time. Occasionally he would leave the sacristy, where he wrote on the vestment press, and go to kneel before the altar. Hours were spent in this way in the preparation
