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Contemplation: To Become Better 720 720 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

Contemplation: To Become Better

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is the largest lay Catholic organization in the world, with about a million members and volunteers in 155 countries around the world. As the primary founder, and inspirational leader of the earliest Conferences, we can very fairly say that Blessed Frédéric Ozanam left a very large legacy –…

01-11-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

01-11-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

This has always been a somewhat personal column between myself and our members, so I’m using it this week to tell you some personal, and Society, news. I will retire as the National Council CEO at the end of this fiscal year. This is not a sudden decision, but rather one that has been quietly…

Contemplation: What Good Have I Done? 1080 1080 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

Contemplation: What Good Have I Done?

In the course of the works of a busy Conference, we often become overwhelmed. The needs are many, and often are greater than our resources enable us to alleviate. We no sooner complete one Home Visit than the phone rings again. It can be exhausting, and even discouraging, if we measure our works the way…

A Christmas Blessing for Disaster Survivors 2000 1045 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

A Christmas Blessing for Disaster Survivors

In Florida recently, St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services Corporation and local Vincentians worked together to bring a Christmas blessing for a family who really needed one. Already facing a series of unforeseen challenges when Hurricane Idalia struck, an undocumented family was hit hard. And when a FEMA check was written to their infant child,…

01-04-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

01-04-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

Dear Vincentian Friends, Here we are in a new year. I don’t know about you, but to me it hardly seems possible that 2024 is here already. But it is, and the turning of the calendar at the new year invites us to reflect on the past and envision the possibilities that lie ahead. It…

Contemplation: The Wages of Love 1080 1080 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

Contemplation: The Wages of Love

Unlike that of humans, God’s judgment, we are taught, is equal to His mercy. This is one reason that we refrain from judging the neighbors we serve; our judgments, sometimes harsh, can cloud our vision, and limit our charity. Mercy, on the other hand, is indispensable to charity. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as…

Contemplation: Abundance 720 720 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

Contemplation: Abundance

“Why on earth would they do that?” we sometimes ask ourselves after a Home Visit in which the neighbors explain a decision they’ve made which makes no sense to us. Perhaps they’ve used their last dollars to pay a past-due cable bill, and the rent is due next week. They’ve quit a job in anger,…

12-21-23 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

12-21-23 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

With the New Year arriving in a week and a half we’ve all been inundated with news stories and articles containing end of the year reviews, lists of the top ten this, that, and the other things of 2023, and predictions for what 2024 will bring (usually all very wrong). I promise you that this…

A Christmas Message from President John Berry 933 525 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

A Christmas Message from President John Berry

Dear Fellow Vincentians, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14 As we celebrate the sacred season of Christmas, I think it is proper for us to reflect upon the Gospel of Matthew,…

Contemplation: Will and Grace 653 653 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

Contemplation: Will and Grace

The word vocation, as we know, is from the Latin vocāre, meaning “to call. A vocation, then, such as our Vincentian vocation, is a calling, specifically a call from God. If you have heard the call, it is for you. What matters most to our own salvation, then, is not the call, but our answer…

12-14-23 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

12-14-23 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

As prominent Catholic theologian Kenny Rogers (just kidding) used to sing, “You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” That’s the lesson for all of us in our government — and some foundation — relationships.  While some good examples certainly…

Contemplation: A Communion of Friendship 711 720 SVDP USA
  • Jill Pioter

Contemplation: A Communion of Friendship

We are called as individuals to the virtue of charity, expressed as complete love of God for His own sake, and love of the neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. [CCC, 1822] Charity is not only the greatest of the theological virtues, [1 Cor 13:13] but also the greatest commandment of Jesus Christ.…

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