26 How the Church Has Changed the World “This kind,” said Jesus, “comes out only by prayer and fasting.” Laboring in love So that is exactly what Father John did. He retired to his small room. He prayed, he fasted. In doing so he immersed himself in the sufferings of the people of Ars. To pray for them, to fast for them, to beseech God to turn his privations to their blessing, was the most powerful form his charity assumed; and it flowed forth in many more visible acts of charity. He ate little, some days only a bit of bread, and yet that little sustained his wiry form, and he would go miles on foot to visit a sick old woman in the countryside, then back to the village for vespers, without rest; and eventually people noticed it. It didn’t happen right away. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. That seed is hard to see in space; it is also hard to see in time. Those first years at Ars, Father John fasted and prayed, he served his people in simple and unswerving duty. And, one person here and one person there, the church began to look more like a house of worshipers instead of a cavern; and they sat and heard him preach. How do you put a mountain into words? Father John still did not know how. He was not eloquent, yet the words came. The deaf and dumb spirit began to retreat.
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