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Daily Prayers July 11 – July 15
Daily Prayers July 11 – July 15 940 788 SVDP USA

Monday, July 11:

Lord Jesus,
With steps at times uncertain,
I seek to follow Your way.
My mind and heart united,
I seek to know Your truth.
May the love that never fails
Let me share in Your eternal life.
Amen

Tuesday, July 12:

Lord Jesus, in Your name
I ask forgiveness
Lord Jesus, through Your word
I am renewed.
Lord Jesus, for Your sake
I love my neighbor
Lord Jesus, risen Christ,
May I rise, too.
Amen

Wednesday, July 13:

Though I love You, Lord
With the strength of my arms
And the sweat of my brow,
Mine are not feats of strength
But works of love
In Your name,
By Your power,
And for Your glory.
Amen

Thursday, July 14:

Lord Jesus, give me rest
From the burdens that I bear
From work and weariness
From the aches of a long journey
From worries and sorrows
Place Your hands upon me
And with Your words of life
Lord, give me comfort,
Lord, give me rest
Amen

Friday, July 15:

Lord in Heaven, maker of earth,
God of power and might,
Who saw and knew and loved me,
Before You said “let there be light.”
O Lord, I rejoice in creation,
The sun and the land and the sea,
Created and never abandoned,
The mountains, the sparrow, and me.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.

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News Roundup July 9 – July 15
News Roundup July 9 – July 15 1200 1200 SVDP USA

With 100,000 Vincentians across the United States and nearly 800,000 around the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provides person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering. Read some of their stories here:

INTERNATIONAL

NATIONAL

Help us share the good news of the good work being done in your local Conference or Council! Email us at info@svdpusa.org with the subject line Good News.

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07-14-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
07-14-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1368 1387 SVDP USA

This isn’t a stores column, but let’s use a store as an example. When reviewing a Thrift Store, I always request that the manager and I close our eyes and we suddenly appear in the middle of the store. What do we see, and what is the store trying to tell us?

In a recent overseas stores tour, the request led me to see a lot of signage about sustainability. That’s a fairly new term for what stores used to call “reuse, renew, and recycle” to which all Thrift Stores can contribute. While such sustainability is a great stores benefit and certainly a very Catholic objective, it is not why we operate our stores. Rather it is one of many good business practices we undertake in the course of our work.

Thus a second and most important question, for all our works: Why don’t we tell more people about our actual mission in what we do to meet it?

Our mission is to bring people to holiness, done through the serving of the poor, assisted with the operations and revenues of, in this example, the store. Our members often complain that no one knows enough about the Society. However, we continue to tell them only what we do. What we often fail to tell them is who we are.

It is natural to confuse activity with intentions. Our communities see our food pantries, pharmacies, and other programs, and so assume that these are the Society’s mission. Even worse, for privacy reasons we purposely don’t show the public our core Home Visit service, so they have no evidence that this is any aspect of our Society’s mission. At best they know we “help the poor,” and because that’s often enough to stimulate donations and good will from most people, we leave well enough alone.

This might all be fine if our mission was to attract volunteers and funds to help our neighbors in need. That’s dangerous thinking because many good people don’t need a faith basis to be charitable. As pro football coach, Bill Parcells once said, you are what your (win-loss) record says you are. What does our Society program, signage and advertising “record” say we are? Could we easily be confused with another social services organization, another used goods store, or a parish ministry?

Marketing people look for the “unique offering” that distinguishes you from the competition, and hopefully provides an advantage in attaining organizational goals.  A unique offering of the Society in a few words is that we offer our members the chance to see the face of Christ. That’s one heck of an offering, right?

We are not embarrassed by our Catholic faith, nor by our members being driven by it to serve the poor. We can be much more intentional about this in our materials messaging, signage, and especially in our language. When asked what the Society does, the proper response might be different for a parishioner than someone else, and that’s fine. Whether the response is, “We help our members grow in holiness through serving the poor,” or “We are Catholics and others who put our faith into action by serving the poor,” at least both point to the same north star of our mission. Yes, we accomplish lots of other good outcomes! We provide sustainable solutions for clothing and household goods. We make efficient use of medications and food supplies to help the most needy. We pay rent and utility bills. We teach neighbors how to be more self-sufficient. We advocate. We do all this and so much more, which, again, is fantastic.

Let’s not confuse what we do, though, with who we are. Others, perhaps many others in our community, can do what we do. No one else is who we are, the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. We are not simply good people doing good works, we are disciples.  And we pray that others will join us and share in our vocation.

I invite you to close your eyes during your Vincentian service, and then re-open them. With this fresh view, what do you see?  Do others see it too?

Yours in Christ (see, isn’t that easy?),
Dave Barringer
CEO

Michael Bourg
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St. Vincent de Paul New Orleans Welcomes New Executive Director
St. Vincent de Paul New Orleans Welcomes New Executive Director 1080 1512 SVDP USA

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Archdiocesan Council of New Orleans (ADCNO) is pleased to announce the hiring of Michael S. Bourg as Executive Director.

Bourg brings over 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector to the organization; specifically in the areas of management and fundraising. He has done extensive work in institutional strategic and long-term planning and is skilled in community relations and inter-agency collaboration within both faith-based and secular non-profits. He has created an international training in advancement and communications for Catholic startup development/ communications offices across the globe – teaching it from Poland to the Philippines to South Africa and beyond.

“We’re very excited to have someone with Michael’s credentials associated with the Society, and lead our Council,” says Board President Michael Champagne.

Through decades of experience working with, volunteering with, and representing Catholic organizations, Michael’s motivation has always been Matthew:25 – seeking to accompany and walk with those at the margins of society.

A Vincentian himself, Michael is both humbled and excited by the opportunity to serve the many SVdP Conferences within the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

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News Roundup July 2 – July 8
News Roundup July 2 – July 8 1200 1200 SVDP USA

With 100,000 Vincentians across the United States and nearly 800,000 around the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provides person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering. Read some of their stories here:

INTERNATIONAL

NATIONAL

Help us share the good news of the good work being done in your local Conference or Council! Email us at info@svdpusa.org with the subject line Good News.

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Contemplation — Seeking Help From the Neighbor
Contemplation — Seeking Help From the Neighbor 940 788 SVDP USA

The parable of the Good Samaritan is a Vincentian favorite. In Christ’s command to “go and do likewise”, we hear the call to our lay vocation: to tend to the helpless, the hungry, the sick, and the lonely with acts of both corporal and spiritual mercy.

For Frédéric, the robber’s victim represented all the “humanity of our days” which had been robbed not only of its possessions, but of its “treasure of faith and love” by the “cutthroats and robbers of thought”. [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1835] In Frédéric’s retelling, the priest and Levite had not passed by, indifferent to suffering. Shaped by his own experiences with widespread rejection of the church, the priest and Levite had instead been rejected by the traveler, who did not recognize them as helpers.

Because of this, the task of tending to the wounds of “the great sick one” was left to us, “weak Samaritans” whose task was not only to tend to the necessities of the body, but to offer “words of consolation and peace” so that he might return to the church. In this interpretation, Frédéric echoed the commentary of St. Augustine, who had taught that the innkeeper represented the church. [Quaestiones Evangeliorum, II]

We can hear this idea repeated in Frédéric’s later essay on “Help Which Honors”, in which he explains that to give material help only, without our love and friendship, is humiliating. Instead, we honor those in need by offering those things that we may need ourselves – a handshake, consolation, kind words. “Help then becomes honorable,” he said, “because it may become mutual.” [O’Meara, 229]

When you consider it this way, it would seem that when we “weak Samaritans” crouch down at the side of the road to offer our help, we also are seeking help from the victim, in whom we see the suffering Christ. [Rule, Part I, 1.8] Our service to the neighbor, given freely and generously, is a means to the end of our own growth in holiness. We grow closer to Christ by serving Him.

After all, the question Christ was answering with the parable was about what we must do to inherit eternal life. How could we do anything but to “go and do likewise”?

Contemplate

Do I feel gratitude to the neighbor for drawing me closer to Christ?

Recommended Reading

15 Days of Prayer with Bl. Frédéric Ozanam

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Daily Prayers July 5 – 8
Daily Prayers July 5 – 8 940 788 SVDP USA

July 5

You are the Lord of hope,
In my works done in Your name,
May I be a servant of faith
With heart, mind, body, and soul,
May I help build the Kingdom of love
Amen

July 6

I commend my soul to You, Lord,
May my body be a temple
Of the Holy Spirit.
I am yours in body and spirit, Lord,
Make of me what You will.
Amen

July 7

Lord help me to serve
In humility and selflessness
So that through my wordless witness
You may gather Your children
As one in Your love
Amen

July 8

Lord God Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
And all who dwell here,
Hear my prayer,
Walk beside me,
Lead me home.
Amen

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07-07-22 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
07-07-22 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

During the past several months, it has been my pleasure to attend three regional meetings of the Society and the meeting of the International Executive Committee in Paris. It was wonderful to be with Vincentian friends I have not seen in many years, and to meet new people taking leadership roles in our Society. Sure, we did get many people to participate in the Zoom conferences held during the past two years, but there is nothing like being together, sharing meals, and interacting with workshop presenters and other participants.

In a couple of months, we will have an opportunity to get together in Baltimore for the National Assembly themed “Come to the Water.” Please do come; I hope to see many of you there Aug. 30 through Sept. 3. It will make you a better Vincentian. When I attended my first National Assembly many years ago in Milwaukee, I saw for the first time the bigger picture of this international network of charity. I came home with many great ideas and renewed enthusiasm for our mission. Most importantly, I came home knowing like-minded Vincentians from all across the United States.

The Baltimore Council is working to host a wonderful meeting. We have developed a great program with excellent keynote speakers and dozens of topical workshops that will be led by knowledgeable presenters. I especially want to encourage our East Coast members to take the opportunity to attend. We move this meeting around the country to provide more people easy access to this experience. That is why I attended that first meeting. It was an easy drive for me, and I have not missed many since then.
This meeting will be special because it will be the first time Renato Lima de Oliveira, the President General of the International Council, will be attending our National Assembly. He is an enthusiastic ambassador for the Society everywhere he travels. He will share with us a perspective on what it takes to be a worldwide network of charity. Renato will be with us for the entire meeting; so, you will have many opportunities to meet and talk with him.

Another opportunity you will have at this National Assembly will be to meet and speak with the next president of the National Council of the United States. We don’t know who that will be yet, but all four nominees will be at the meeting. You can talk with them at Thursday’s Host City event or listen to their campaign speeches at the Saturday business meeting. At that Saturday meeting, the National Council Members will vote to reduce the number of candidates to two.

An important part of any National Assembly is our spiritual enrichment. We will celebrate the Eucharist on Friday with our National Episcopal Advisor, Bishop Donald Hying, and on Saturday with Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. This year, our Friday morning of reflection will be led by Dan Schutte, who has written many of my favorite liturgical songs. Dan was one of the original St. Louis Jesuits and has continued that ministry by composing music and leading retreats.

If you are one of the more than 800 graduates of the Invitation for Renewal program, there will be a special event celebrating the program’s 20th anniversary. Come to rekindle friendships, continue to grow your leadership skills, and renew your Vincentian heart. Those who have not attended may receive some encouragement to do so after learning about the impact Invitation for Renewal has had on so many of our current Vincentian leaders.

A scripture quotation that Frédéric Ozanam and our other founders frequently repeated is, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst.” This Gospel passage certainly captures our Vincentian reliance on Christ journeying with us. In Baltimore, however, let’s shoot for “where 700 or 800 are gathered.” We have a great program in place, but what will make our National Assembly truly great is having you there. I think you will have a great time, but please do not regard this gathering as Vincentian tourism. When you get back home, what you will have discovered in Baltimore, you’ll need to share with fellow members, and what you will have learned there, you’ll need to put into practice. So, what’s your next step? Plan to sign up today, and be sure to get the early-registration discount!

Serviens in spe,

Ralph Middlecamp
National Council President

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Contemplation – The Soul of Liberty
Contemplation – The Soul of Liberty 940 788 SVDP USA

As a young man, Bl. Frédéric Ozanam considered himself, like his father, to be a monarchist, seeing government on earth as an expression of the divine principle of authority. He was inspired especially by the example of St. Louis, King of France, whose monarchy represented “the sacrifice of a single person for the good of all… which I revere with love.” [Letter 77, to Falconnet, 1834]

Following the restoration of the French monarchy in 1813, the Ozanam family returned to France from Italy, where Frédéric had been born. Yet the church, now restored to legality in France, had not fully regained the confidence and trust of the people. Indeed, as further revolutions continued to develop, social philosophies that rejected the church became more popular – not least the philosophy of Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, whose “technocratic” vision relied on a belief not in spiritual power, but in industry and science.

It was a group of young Saint-Simonians who would challenge Frédéric and his Catholic friends to “show the good of the church” in 1833. In answer to the challenge, they would choose to serve the poor as Christ did – with love and friendship; “not only as an equal, but as a superior.” [O’Meara, 229]

This continuing work pointed Frédéric towards the best alternative to Saint-Simonianism and its more revolutionary successors. He saw how important it was “to make equality as operative as is possible among men; to make voluntary community replace imposition and brute force...” [Letter 136, to Lallier, 1836]

For Frédéric, liberty was much more than a political slogan, it was a gift from God. Indeed, as he wrote to a political ally who was an unbeliever, “I believe [our] cause to be more ancient and, therefore, more sacred” Liberty, equality, and fraternity, he explained, did not come from the revolution of 1789, but from Calvary. [Baunard, 301]

As our church teaches, “Man can turn to good only in freedom, which God has given to him as one of the highest signs of his image.” [CSDC, 135]

Because it was best able to preserve equality and liberty, Frédéric concluded that “democracy is the natural final stage of the development of political progress, and that God leads the world thither.” Therefore, he asked, “are not the men of the Church and the men of the people to be found side by side at the foot of the tree of liberty?” [Baunard, 281]

Liberty is both a gift from God, and a pathway to His truth, and so, as Frédéric said, “Christianity will be the soul of Liberty.” [Baunard, 290]

Contemplate

Do I celebrate liberty as a gift from God, for me and for all?

Recommended Reading

Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam

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Daily Prayers June 27 – July 1
Daily Prayers June 27 – July 1 940 788 SVDP USA

Monday, June 20:

Lord, Your words of love,
Not shouted once,
but whispered constantly,
Settle within my open heart.
They strengthen and comfort me.
Help me to serve You.
Help me to share You.
Amen

Tuesday, June 21:

Lord Jesus, the calm in the storm
Lord Jesus, the peace in my heart
In crashing storms
Through times of trial
The one set of footprints
For difficult miles
Lord Jesus, the calm in the storm
Lord Jesus, the peace in my heart
Amen

Wednesday, June 22:

Lord Jesus, Your word within me
And I, a brick in Your church
Help me beckon Your children
Through living my faith
In mind, in body, in soul
And in service for love alone
Amen

Thursday, June 23:

Whatever ails my body, Lord,
Illness, injury, pain, weariness,
Matters not to me
If You will but forgive me
And heal my soul
Amen

Friday, June 24:

Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening
Yours is the word of life.
My eyes are cast towards the heavens
To seek the eternal light.
For the kingdom, the power, the glory,
And I are Yours with which to make
A labor of love unceasing,
In Your name and for Your sake.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.

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