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By Timothy Williams, Senior Director of Formation and Leadership Development  Charity, Blessed Frédéric explained, was the strongest tie of friendship, but charity “is a fire that dies without being fed, and good works are the food of charity.” [82, to Curnier, 1834] This would make no sense if charity were a synonym for good works,…

By Timothy Williams, Senior Director of Formation and Leadership Development  The word “courage” often brings to mind images such as a firefighter rushing into a burning house to save a child, or a soldier making his way under fire to help a downed comrade. Among our Vincentian saints and blessed, few examples are more vivid…

By Timothy Williams, Senior Director of Formation and Leadership Development  “All those who have experience of public charity,” wrote Bl. Frédéric in 1848, “know that the poor are never better helped than by the poor.” [To Good People, L’ere Nouvelle, 1848] Those who have suffered deprivation and indignities themselves will not only dig deeper to…

By Timothy Williams, Senior Director of Formation and Leadership Development  It is probably the case that while most members join the Society in response to a call from the Holy Spirit, they don’t yet fully understand the Society as a vocation. And although we do not take solemn vows like members of the clergy or…

By Timothy Williams, Senior Director of Formation and Leadership Development  Catholic Social Doctrine teaches us the principle of the universal destination of goods, under which we recognize that all things come from God, and are meant for all of His beloved. Nowhere should the demands of this principle be clearer than in our stewardship of…

By Timothy Williams, Senior Director of Formation and Leadership Development  It is from St. John of the Cross that we get the phrase “dark night of the soul,” which we use to describe a crisis of faith in which we are plagued by doubts about God, our souls, and our church. It is through such…