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“God has placed deep within the bosom of this physician and priest the heart of Saint Vincent de Paul. The fervour of his love for the poor was unsurpassed, the integrity of his blameless conduct was truly angelic, the kindness beaming from his face recalled Saint Francis de Sales. I have followed him very attentively through all the stages of his virtuous life and I must acknowledge, I have never met a priest who was so zealous for the salvation of souls, so amiable and so holy as he.” Archbishop of Palermo, Cardinal Giuseppe Guarino,

• Missionary Servants of the Poor

Prayer to Blessed James Cusmano:

O Most loving Father James Cusmano, you who consecrated your life to the love and service of Christ by serving the Poor, teach us to make real in our own lives the "New Commandment" given by Our Lord, by lovingly putting into practice the Works of Charity.
Help us to re-discover the joy of serving others, so that we can come to the fullness of "Faith through Charity". Free us from the illusion of feeling we are so poor that we have nothing to give or of feeling so rich that we have nothing to receive. Make us capable of sharing with others what we have and what we are, in a spirit of true communion. Obtain for us that, by loving and serving Christ with you as our example we may one day contemplate Him and possess Him for ever, together with you in the Home of our heavenly Father. Amen.

Source: Missionary Servants of the Poor Philippines

Almighty God and Merciful Father, I thank you and praise you for you adorned the heart of Blessed James Cusmano with "Charity which knows no bounds" in helping the poor and the unhappy.
Make that, by his example, inflamed by the ardor of the same ardor of charity, I can also be always happy to offer my life for the glory of Your name, to the service of others, and to be blessed in the Kingdom of Heaven. Grant me, through his intercession the grace ... of which I am badly in need. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end amen.

Source: James Cusmano

"Another bad habit which is very common in homes and among working people is impatience, grumbling, and swearing.

Now, my children, where do you get with your impatience and your grumbling? Do your affairs go any better? Do they cause you any less trouble? Is it not, rather, the other way around? You have a lot more trouble with them, and, what is even worse, you lose all the merit which you might have gained for Heaven.

But, you will tell me, that is all very well for those who have nothing to put up with. If they were in my shoes they would probably be much worse....

I would agree with all that, my children, if we were not Christians, if we had nothing to hope for beyond what benefits and pleasures we might taste in this world. I would agree if -- I repeat -- we were the first people who ever suffered anything, but since the time of Adam until the present, all the saints have had something to suffer, and most of them far more than have we. But they suffered with patience, always subject to the will of God, and soon their troubles were finished, and their happiness, which has begun, will never come to an end.

Let us contemplate, my dear brethren, this beautiful Heaven, let us think about the happiness which God has prepared for us there, and we shall endure all the evils of life in a spirit of penitence, with the hope of an eternal reward. If only you could have the happiness of being able to say in the evening that your whole day had been spent for God!

I tell you that working people, if they want to get to Heaven, should endure patiently the rigor of the seasons and the ill humor of those for whom they work; they should avoid those grumbles and bad language so commonly heard and fulfill their duties conscientiously and faithfully.

Husbands and wives should live peacefully in their union of marriage; they should be mutually edifying to each other, pray for one another, bear patiently with one another's faults, encourage virtue in one another by good example, and follow the holy and sacred rules of their state, remembering that they are the children of the saints and that, consequently, they ought not to behave like pagans, who have not the happiness of knowing the one true God.

Masters should take the same care of their servants as of their own children, remembering the warning of St. Paul that if they do not have care for them, they are worse than the pagans, and that they will be more severely punished on the day of judgment.

Servants are to give you service and to be loyal to you, and you must treat them not as slaves but as your children and your brethren. Servants must look upon their masters as taking the place of Jesus Christ on earth. Their duty is to serve them joyfully, obey them with a good grace, without grumbling, and look after their well-being as carefully as they would their own. Servants should avoid the growth of too-familiar relationships, which are so dangerous and so fatal to innocence. If you have the misfortune to find yourself in such a situation, you must leave your employment, no matter what it may cost you to do so.

Here is an example of those very circumstances wherein you must follow the counsel Jesus Christ gave you when He said that if one's right eye or right hand should be an occasion of sin, one must deprive oneself of them because it is better to go into Heaven lacking an eye or a hand than to be cast into Hell with one's whole body. That is to say, however desirable your position may be, you must leave it at once; otherwise you will never save your soul.

Put the salvation of your soul first, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us, because that is the only thing you ought really to have at heart.

Alas, my dear brethren, how rare are those Christians who are ready to suffer rather than to jeopardize the salvation of their souls!"

Source: The Sermons of the Curé of Ars, 1960 (Public Domain)

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen