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Contemplation: A Model To Follow 1080 1080 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

Contemplation: A Model To Follow

By Tim Williams, Senior Director of Formation & Leadership Development When we hear the word “leader” we naturally think of a great general, a head of state, one of those celebrity CEOs, or even a star athlete leading a team to victory. The great leader is an American archetype: charismatic, confident, inspiring; a leader, in…

05-16-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA

05-16-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

On Monday of this week, I spent the day in meetings at the Vatican in Rome. Working alongside Juan Manuel Gomez, the President General International of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and CGI Board Member Sebastian Gramajo from Argentina, we had three meetings: first with Monsignor Luis Marin de San Martin, Undersecretary of…

In Memoriam: Roger Playwin 459 649 SVDP USA

In Memoriam: Roger Playwin

Roger T. Playwin 1941 – 2024 Former National CEO, beloved friend, and dedicated Vincentian Roger Playwin passed away last week at the age of 83. The model of servant leadership, Roger’s long history with nonprofit organizations led him to become Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul’s Detroit Archdiocesan Council in 1998. Roger was…

Contemplation: Invitation to Grow 1080 1080 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

Contemplation: Invitation to Grow

By Timothy Williams, Senior Director of Formation & Leadership Development Why did you join the Society of St. Vincent de Paul? And why do you stay? These are two very important questions for every Vincentian to meditate upon from time to time. Membership is a vocation, a calling. Each of us heard a call, but…

05-09-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

05-09-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

By Dave Barringer, CEO Most of the time, this column is written just for you. This one, however, is written at least as much for the leaders who will come after you, and even the generation that will come after them. When we don’t take care of something, weird and bad things can happen. Don’t…

Contemplation: Under the Cross 800 800 SVDP USA

Contemplation: Under the Cross

Amélie Ozanam, Blessed Frédéric’s widow, had a brief invocation, or perhaps a motto, that she often added to notes and letters that she wrote. It was “et sub cruce, Hozanna!”, meaning “and under the cross, Hozanna!” in Latin. This was a play on her maiden name, Soulacroix, which is French for “under the cross,” along…

05-02-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA

05-02-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

In the South, where I live, the beginning of May signals the beginning of the end of the school year for students. My granddaughter in South Carolina has already had her Prom (yes, she was beautiful) and her Graduation from high school is in a few weeks. For most students in the northern parts of…

Contemplation: A Culture of Welcome 800 800 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

Contemplation: A Culture of Welcome

By Timothy Williams Senior Director of Formation & Leadership Development Many of our Conferences struggle with finding – and keeping – new members. Often, when this happens, we begin to tell ourselves that perhaps we are asking too much of potential members; scaring them off with the notion of weekly or twice-monthly meetings and home…

04-25-2024 A Letter from Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

04-25-2024 A Letter from Servant Leaders

By Pauline S. Manalo National Vice President of Vincentian Programs and Services Christ is Risen! We continue to celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection for 50 days. The Easter season is an opportunity for us to reflect on what Easter means to our Vincentian vocation. Finding the tomb empty Mary Magdalen “raises the question that Christians are…

Contemplation: Chosen From All Eternity 1080 1080 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

Contemplation: Chosen From All Eternity

By Timothy P. Williams National Director of Formation Virtue, our catechism teaches, is a “habitual and firm disposition to do good.” [CCC: 1833] The good deeds themselves are not the virtue; they are, or should be, the fruits of our virtue. From our virtue of charity comes our practice of generosity; from our virtue of…

04-18-2024 Letter from Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

04-18-2024 Letter from Servant Leaders

By John Berry National President Over the last few months, as we’ve launched our VisionSVdP initiative and begun to conduct our ‘family conversations’ regarding how the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA will adapt to a changing world, the feedback I have received from Vincentians across the country has been overwhelmingly positive and excited.…

Contemplation: To You Alone 1080 1080 SVDP USA
  • Kristen Blacksher

Contemplation: To You Alone

To offer the benefit of the doubt is to assume the best of somebody even when you are uncertain of the truth. Is this not what we are called to do in our encounters with the neighbor? Thomas, we are told in John’s gospel, would not believe Christ had risen until he had first seen…

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