I don’t know about you, but I love reading the Lives of the Saints and the many great things they said in the course of their lifetime. What makes the Saints so special for us today is that they are as human as we are and the life we live today, with all the struggles, sufferings, and the day in and day out hardships, they also endured. Every saint in heaven, either canonized officially by the Church or not, sought to live a life of sanctity here on earth, as we do today.

The greatest of the Saints read the Lives of the Saints before them. I can think of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. John Bosco. Both led very different lives, but there were two things that united them in the end, their love for Jesus Christ and His Church and their zeal for the saints that came before them. I think reading the Lives of the Saints and their words can only assist us as we continue to walk on this earth seeking holiness.

A great little book I own is the Thoughts of the Curé D’Ars a.k.a. Saint John Vianney. It’s small enough to fit into your back pocket, purse, or car console (which is where mine is usually kept). Often at stop lights or when sitting in traffic, I will take out this little book and read the practical wisdom he shares on a variety of subjects regarding faith and life.

For today’s “Mondays with Mary”, I provide you 10 memorable quotes from St. John Vianney on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Read them, read them again, pray with them, and utilize them when you see fit. They are very good!

1. “Avarice is an inordinate love of riches and the good things of this life. Jesus Christ, to cure us of it, was born in extreme poverty, deprived of all comforts. He chose a Mother who was poor. He willed to pass as the Son of a humble workman.”

2. “Happy is he who lives and dies under the protection of the Blessed Virgin.”

3. “I LOVE St. Joseph so much because he had the care of the Blessed Virgin.”

4. “Humility is like a pair of scales: the lower one side falls, the higher rises the other. Let us humble ourselves like the Blessed Virgin and we shall be exalted.”

5. “Let us live as the Blessed Virgin lived: loving God only, desiring God only, trying to please God only in all that we do.”

6.  “The Blessed Virgin is like a good mother who, not content with looking after all her children in general, watches over each one separately.”

7. “Jesus on the Cross said to the disciple whom He loved: “Behold your Mother!” How sweet are those words to the Christian who is able to understand what depths of love they contain!”

8. “JESUS CHRIST, after having given us all He could give, that is to say, the merit of his toils, His sufferings, and His bitter death; after having given us His Adorable Body and Blood to be the Food of our souls, willed also to give us the most precious thing He had left, which as His holy Mother.”

9. “The Blessed Virgin’s life was full of sorrow…Every time her tender glance fell upon her Divine Son, she suffered…”

10. “It is impossible to meditate with devotion upon the Mysteries of the Rosary and live in a state of sin.”