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Jill Pioter

01-25-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

01-25-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 150 150 SVDP USA

“Excuse me if I’m late in writing to you, but it’s the fault of my laziness.”
– Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

 If you know me… I am sure you just read that line and laughed to yourself. I constantly find myself running from one thing to the next… and usually late. I stumbled upon this quote on Facebook as I was multitasking: watching a webinar “Successful Strategies to Engage Black Catholic Young Adults,” catching up on emails, and eating my first meal of the day. (Did I mention it is 8:36PM?) I then found myself doing a deep dive through the World Wide Web trying to fact check this quote… because it seemed too good to be true coming from a Blessed. I have always been inspired by how human our Saints and Blesseds were. (Maybe there is hope for me yet… despite my chronic lateness!) Did you know Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was named patron of Vincentian Youth in 2017? In the 1920s, Frassati was a young Vincentian involved in a SVdP Conference. He enjoyed visiting neighbors in need and had an unwavering love for the poor.

Unfortunately, it seems that this quote attributed to Blessed Frassati was one of those quotes inspired by knowledge of him, but not actually something he said. But while reading further, I found this validation, “He was often scolded for being late for meals, but he never revealed that his tardiness was due to feeding the poor, running errands to buy them medicine, or finding widows and their children a place to stay for the night.” Clearly he was not lazy, but doing all he could and as much as he could for those in need. As Vincentians, I know many of us can relate.

It is an honor to be able to write a Servant Leaders column. I promise my procrastination in writing this was not due to laziness, but to prioritizing serving our neighbors in need, as well as filtering through the numerous thoughts I wanted to share with you all.

Starting the year off, some of our young adult Vincentians had the opportunity to attend SEEK — a Catholic event hosted in St. Louis for College Catholic Students. There were over 20,000 young people present. SEEK is the perfect way to start off the new year. The joy of Christ radiates the space with young people passionate to find their way through this crazy world guided by their faith. You may have seen some of the videos on social media about just how generous and selfless some of these young people were. There was a request shared prior to the event, challenging the young adults to “Pack for the Poor.”

Planning ahead isn’t necessarily every young persons’ strength, so during the event, we had a sign with the challenge, “Would you give the shirt off your back?” We thought this was a great conversation starter, and even a way to encourage these young people to return another day with items of clothing that they no longer wanted or needed, as many purchased new items at the gift shops and vendor tables. But, to our surprise, every time we turned around, we saw someone else removing their t-shirt or taking off a layer and leaving it in the pile. It was truly inspiring. Our workshop had a full house, with over 600 young people attending. (I promise you, we spoke to many many young people who are eager to find ways to get involved back home!) Reach out to your local Catholic universities, Newman Centers, Diocesan and Parish Young Adult groups, and young people in parish pews. Invite them to serve alongside you.

As I continue to write this and listen to this webinar on engaging young adult black Catholics, everything they are discussing is the same across the board. If we truly want younger and more diverse members, we need to do better. We need to invite. We need to make space. We need to listen. We need to make new members feel welcome and encouraged. Don’t be afraid of a little change. New ideas and perspectives can inspire and uplift. Let the Holy Spirit be the driving force, and don’t be afraid to invite someone, and don’t be afraid to invite them again. Look even within our own families, our children and grandchildren, our friends, our parishioners. Tonight I received a text from a friend jokingly with an invite for an event, “… I suppose we can just keep going back and forth with these invites, until one of us gives in…” Sometimes it is just not the right time. We have to be understanding and patient; personal invites are always what works. When the time is right, the Holy Spirit will give them the nudge.

Flipping back to my open tab on Frassati, I read on. He encouraged his college classmates in a speech on charity to join Conferences. This brought me back to standing on the stage a few weeks ago talking to our SEEK audience, “I don’t know if you are all aware of these institutions that were so marvelously conceived […]. It is a simple institution suitable for students because it does not involve commitment apart from being in a particular place one day a week and then visiting two or three families every week. You will see, in just a little time, how much good we can do for those we visit and how much good we can do for ourselves.” (Now, most Conferences meet less than once a week!) Honestly, if it wasn’t for these personal encounters with those we serve, I honestly don’t know if I would continue serving as a Vincentian.

There was a time Blessed Frassati was frustrated within his Conference for abandoning a needy family, and so he resigned and joined another Conference. As a Vincentian for almost 10 years now, I can relate to this. Although in my heart, my want to abandon and resign is always outweighed by my passion to help and encourage a change of heart for my Vincentian friends. Although sometimes Conference meetings can be discouraging, I find immense inspiration from the young members in one of the youth Conferences I help facilitate. On their days off from school, they often volunteer at various capacities on projects or offer their time to shadow on Home Visits. Although when first beginning, they didn’t have an understanding of poverty. Throughout the years, through encounters, poverty education, and long discussions, I am constantly impressed by their forward thinking, generosity, and compassion.

In a recent situation, we were presented with an opportunity to help a family with their last steps out of generational poverty. This young mother is embarking on her last semester of nursing school, and is steps away from the finish line, but a health situation set her a few steps back. Something like education can be hard for some to feel as an essential need when others do not have food or roofs. It was encouraging to hear these young Vincentians explain the importance and life-changing assistance we could provide to this family; helping not only this young mother, but opening doors for the future of her two small girls.

It is so frustrating to see how these young people were able to grasp this so quickly, and my Conference didn’t seem to see it at all. I challenged these young Vincentians with some of the responses I received from my Conference, and their responses were so eloquent. This work is not too mature for high schoolers. Young people can begin serving as early as they feel comfortable. The conversations and works may look and sound different, but the younger we begin talking, educating, and advocating, the more young servant leaders are developed. Someone on the webinar remarked, “The Church needs young people and young people need the Church.”

I know the last few columns have been focused on change — Let’s change our mindsets. Let’s change our attitudes. Let’s change our hearts. Let’s change the world.

God Bless,
Kat Brissette
2nd Vice President and National Vice President of Youth, Young Adults, and Emerging Leaders

PS: This message was brought to you Kathleen, caffeine, and the Holy Spirit!

Contemplation: To Know Fully

Contemplation: To Know Fully 1080 1080 SVDP USA

In his 1978 book, God and the Astronomers, astrophysicist Robert Jastrow concludes that the astronomers, following science alone to scale the mountain of ignorance, would, when reaching the truth at its peak, be “greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” This metaphor captures a truth at the heart of our vocation, since the founders were challenged by those who scoffed at the church’s role in the “modern world.”  Then, as now, the truth we serve is much deeper and more permanent than the temporary circumstances of the times in which we live.

In Frédéric’s time, many philanthropic associations formed whose goal was to get material resources out to as many people as possible, using every modern efficiency of the day. As Frédéric observed, after “only a year in existence … they already have large volumes of resumés.” [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1835] He went on to contrast those works with what he’d been challenged to show: the true good of the church.

The Society’s purpose is not service delivery, but charity — love. Our success is not measured by the quantity of dollars or food we may distribute, but by the quality of the relationships we form. In the recent pandemic, we were forced to make do with alternate forms of contact, rather than home visits. While being grateful for the ability to continue to serve, we quickly saw they were only “half a loaf.”

In 1834, Blessed Frédéric explained that “at-home assistance is one of the best rendered charities and one that produces the best results”, especially, he continued, “in these times when help is generally dispensed with such culpable indifference.” [Doc. 1457, report on works, 1834] As Pope Francis explains, we set aside our own wishes and desires in serving the vulnerable. “Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, ‘suffers’ that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.” [Fratelli Tutti, 115]

It’s a well-known axiom that most human communications are non-verbal. We pick up cues such as social context and body language from other people even when we are not aware of them consciously. There really is no substitute. The Apostle Paul even explains arriving at holiness and understanding by contrasting an image in a mirror with seeing face to face, when he will “know fully, as I am fully known.”

Recent psychological research has compared the effects of remote and face-to-face communication. Their conclusion has been that relationships and communication are not only better formed face to face (“fully known” you might say), but that face-to-face meeting is even associated with better mental health. If only today’s researchers had consulted Frédéric Ozanam first. Not to worry – when they reach the mountaintop, he will be waiting for them there…in person.

Contemplate

Do I truly stop to see and to know the neighbor in front of me?

Recommended Reading

Mystic of Charity, especially “Home Visits in the Vincentian Tradition

New Issue of Serving in Hope Out Now

New Issue of Serving in Hope Out Now 830 830 SVDP USA

The latest edition of SVdP’s Serving in Hope Newsletter is now available!

Highlighting stories of how Vincentians are serving neighbors in need and changing lives across the country, Serving in Hope is published quarterly and sent to all donors of the National Council.  This issue’s cover story features Rita, a single mother who was able to find permanent housing and keep her family together thanks to the generosity of our donors and the support of local Vincentians. We’re also sharing a photo essay spotlighting some of the ways Vincentians brought help and hope to the poorest among us over the Christmas season.

If you haven’t received your copy yet, click here to read Serving in Hope.

National Council Announces New Friends of the Poor Grant Recipients

National Council Announces New Friends of the Poor Grant Recipients 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Grant awards for this round total $100,000. We received 150 grant applications totaling $741,855. Available FOP funding is normally limited to the amount raised and/or approved by the National Council budget process.

SVdP Conferences and District Councils can apply for up to $5,000 from the National Council’s Friends of the Poor Fund. Individual grant award amounts may vary from the application amount, but will not exceed $5,000. Grants are targeted to specific areas of need, above and beyond available Conference resources: assistance for rent/housing, utilities, food, clothing, medical, transportation, and baby/children needs.

01-18-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

01-18-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1200 1200 SVDP USA

Well, here we go. We have been reflecting on change recently, and just as we begin a new year where change and how we are going to adapt to it will be a major focus of discussion and discernment for us all — a substantial change is announced.

Last week, Dave Barringer made public his plans for retirement. If his ‘retirement’ is anything like Ralph Middlecamp’s or mine, it just means he will be working just as hard for the Society… but — as my Archbishop once told me — for indulgences rather than dollars. Seriously though, Dave has done a wonderful job for us and replacing him won’t be an easy task. Luckily, he gave us notice that this was coming long before my election. So the Board and I already have a search firm working on finding a successor, and hopefully there will be a seamless transition in September.

In 535 BC, the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus is purported to have said, “The only constant in life is change.” And there really wasn’t a heck of a lot going on back then, right? He’s probably talking about a couple of changes a year, maybe two a month in a crazy time. Heck, it took three months for a letter to get from Rome to Athens! (And talk about change — letters were chiseled on a stone tablet. Think about that postage stamp today.) So, can you imagine what he would be thinking about change today? In today’s world, change comes at a dizzying pace.

Back in the 17th century, when Vincent de Paul was championing the cause of the less fortunate, the world was a tad different too. No smartphones, no internet — can you imagine? Encounters were purely face-to-face, and if you needed directions, you had to ask an actual person instead of Siri. Ah, the good old days!

Fast forward to the 21st century — our opportunities to create Encounters with those we serve have evolved. We are not just knocking on doors; we are navigating through virtual spaces, sending emails, and sharing information with other organizations. While we may miss the simplicity of the past, it is important that we embrace the opportunities that technology offers to expand our reach and impact. We can, must, and do leverage technology and change to maximize our ability to create personal Encounters with those we serve. But we cannot, must not, and never can allow technology and change to replace the human-to-human Christ-centered Encounter that embodies who we are.

Frédéric Ozanam once said, “Charity must never look beyond the needs of the present hour.” Wise words, indeed. Our ability to expand our encounters may have transformed, but the essence remains the same — addressing the needs of the hour through the Encounter has not changed. We sit with people. We pray with people. We talk with people. We serve people. We do not serve computers. We do not serve phones. We do not serve paper. As some of our trucks and signs say, “We serve people.”

Technology can be — and is — our friend. Picture Saint Vincent de Paul trying to send a text message with quill and ink — “Help needed at the soup kitchen. Bring bread!” The challenges of communication in the 1600s…so much easier with an iPhone, eh?

And Frédéric Ozanam might have appreciated the convenience of a group chat — “Team, we have a mission! Let us band together and make a difference. Who’s bringing the coffee?” Because come on, let’s be real, coffee is essential for any charitable endeavor.

As we navigate these changing times, let us remember the spirit of Vincent and Frédéric. Our Encounters are a testament to the enduring power of compassion. Each interaction is a chance to bring warmth, understanding, and a touch of humanity into someone’s life.

As we embrace change, and use it to do what we do better, we must make sure we also continue to cherish the human encounters that define the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Whether it is a 17th-century doorstep in the slums of Paris or a 21st-century personal Encounter in the suburbs of Atlanta (set up through a text message to the caseworkers that came from the Vincentian on Intake who took a call off the Conference phone line), our commitment to serving with love remains unwavering.

Peace and God’s blessings,
John

John Berry
National President

52 Things You Could…To Do a Little Good

52 Things You Could…To Do a Little Good 1772 1772 SVDP USA

The world we live in can be discouraging and negative. As we start this new year, there are lots of small ways we can become better and do a little good, like our founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.

He started his mission of charity alongside five friends. Do you accept the challenge? Many of the things on this list are simple and should be things we do already, but when completing these good deeds, remember to do them purposefully and with love. Here are 52 things you could… to do a little good throughout the year.

  1. Challenge five friends to complete this list
  2. Donate gently loved clothes
  3. Compliment a stranger
  4. Donate dorm items that are not needed
  5. Write a thank you letter to someone
  6. Make a donation to the poor box
  7. Ask a homeless neighbor their name
  8. Hold the door open for someone
  9. Say a prayer for a struggling family member
  10. Thank a past or present teacher
  11. Let someone go before you in line
  12. Pay for someone’s coffee
  13. Pick up litter when you see it
  14. Thank the cleaning crew
  15. Write a letter to a prisoner
  16. Check in on someone who may be lonely
  17. Leave a positive note for a stranger to find
  18. Thank the staff at the dining hall
  19. Invite someone out for coffee
  20. Say thank you
  21. Clean up after eating
  22. Lend a hand to someone when it’s inconvenient
  23. Sincerely ask someone how they are doing and listen to the answer
  24. Reach out to a friend you haven’t seen in a while
  25. Help a friend study or offer to proofread their essay
  26. Read a book to a child
  27. Write a gratitude list
  28. Let someone else go before you
  29. Leave the good parking spot for someone else
  30. Say a Hail Mary when you see or hear sirens or see a rescue
  31. Speak well of someone when others are not
  32. Pack a snack and note for a homeless person
  33. Visit or call an elderly person
  34. Invite a friend to pray the rosary
  35. Fast from beverages other than water for a day for people struggling with addiction
  36. Buy a hot or cold drink for a homeless person
  37. Pray for the souls in purgatory
  38. Volunteer at a food pantry
  39. Pray for someone who is feeling alone
  40. Invite a friend to Mass
  41. Dedicate time in adoration to pray for others’ needs instead of your own
  42. Pay for the person behind you in line
  43. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
  44. Send someone a TikTok or meme to brighten their day
  45. Leave a bigger tip than you normally would
  46. Spend time with your grandparents or an elderly person
  47. Return the shopping cart, instead of leaving it astray
  48. Shop at your local SVdP Thrift Store
  49. Make an effort to be kind to someone you don’t always get along with
  50. Offer your time and talent to an outreach program at your parish
  51. Replace your mean thought with something positive
  52. Write a card to a child in the hospital

Contemplation: To Become Better

Contemplation: To Become Better 720 720 SVDP USA

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 – he literally changed the world. Yet we know him to have been a very humble and modest man. Although there is no record of him saying this actual phrase that is often attributed to him, it is very fair to say that he truly sought in his life “to become better, and to do a little good.”

How could such a modest goal become such a great, apostolic legacy? Perhaps it would be better to ask how it could not. After all, the very Kingdom of Heaven, Christ taught, is grown from the smallest of seeds. Frédéric accomplished great things not by setting out to accomplish great things, but by setting out to make himself better by growing closer to Christ, and to share the good news with others. This was his vision for the Society, too, as a “a community of faith and works erasing little by little the old divisions” made up of members resolved “to become better themselves in order to make others happier.” [Letter 290, to Amélie, 1841]

Frédéric believed that the church offered the solution to “the social question” precisely because it was not of this world; because through the saving word of Jesus Christ we will be able to place all questions in their proper place, and be united by love, not divided by material concerns. At the same time, he recognized the great challenge of this, and asked the very same kinds of questions we often ask ourselves: Am I holy enough? Who am I to try to teach others the path to holiness?

As Frédéric once put it, “how does one make saints without being a saint oneself? How do we preach resignation and courage to the unfortunate when we feel devoid of it ourselves? How do we reproach them for things we too are guilty of?” We’re challenged, he said, when we see “we are equals in infirmity and in virtue often inferior to those we are visiting.” [1372. Report to Gen’l Assly, 1838]

In his deep and lifelong kerygmatic commitment, Frédéric recognized that it is we who are first evangelized when we see that it is Christ we serve, that love of neighbor can never be separated from love of God, and that our own growth in holiness makes each of us not a mighty tree, but something much greater – a tiny mustard seed.

To seek personal holiness might seem, Frédéric conceded, a “motive of personal interest, this egoism which is at the bottom of our work.” [Letter 82, to Curnier, 1834] But we only become better by becoming smaller, greater by becoming more modest, and we change the world by first changing ourselves.

Contemplate

Am I holy enough?

Recommended Reading

15 Days of Prayer with Blessed Frédéric Ozanam

01-11-24 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

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

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 in the works for about two years. I chose a time to end my service that would hopefully be the least challenging for our organization, given the National President election a year ago and the change of our Board a few months ago.

Here are quick answers to the usual questions. Am I sick? Thankfully, No. Am I fighting with the President or the Board? Heck No. Am I leaving for another job? Are you offering one? Seriously, No. Can we change your mind? Thanks, but No.

To be very clear, my decision has nothing to do with my relationships with President John Berry or with any of our Board members, or with our path forward. Actually, I have some regrets leaving during all of this planning excitement! Many months ago, John and other Presidential candidates asked me to stay on for at least their first year if elected. It has been fulfilling to have served as Society staff leadership for 11 years and with nonprofits for more than 40 years. I will be 66 this August, so it’s simply a good time for my family to move on to some rest and to other vocations. My plan is to continue my Vincentian service as a volunteer nationally and locally as our leaders wish me to contribute, and of course, to provide whatever support I can to my successor.

Mary Ellen and I plan to relocate to Phoenix to be nearer to our son, the high school science teacher and football coach. I hear that there’s a SVdP Council in Phoenix…

President John and a search committee are beginning the recruitment process for the next CEO. Look for details in upcoming issues of the e-Gazette. Our plan is to have the new CEO formally installed at a Mass during the National Assembly. We chose this time to make the retirement announcement so that the process will have the time necessary for a thorough national CEO search. I certainly will not “name my successor” and have asked not to be on the search committee; however, I will assist in providing experience-based input to the committee as requested and to any inquiring candidates.

Meanwhile, between now and October I will still be here, doing whatever I can along with my staff to serve you and all our members. There is certainly lots to do, so this is not Goodbye quite yet!  See you soon.

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
National CEO

 

Contemplation: What Good Have I Done?

Contemplation: What Good Have I Done? 1080 1080 SVDP USA

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 they are measured by social service agencies or philanthropic societies. We may begin to question whether we are really helping the neighbor at all.

This feeling can lead us to a crossroads where we must choose: do we seek “efficiency” by trying to divvy up the resources as widely as possible, substituting phone calls for Home Visits, or asking the neighbor to come to us instead of we to them? Do we stop meeting, because our “business” can be conducted by phone or email? Or do we pause to reflect that these are the same questions that led to the Society’s founding and defined its purpose; the perpetual questions raised in the minds of members for nearly 200 years? Do we choose to recommit ourselves to the true good that we are called to do?

The introduction to the first edition of the Rule, written in 1835, assures us that “we must never be ashamed on the smallness of our alms.” Indeed, shortage of funds for “considerable works of charity” is, it said “one of the conditions of our existence.” [Rule, 1835] Our works and the good that we do have never been measured by the amount of money we can offer, or by the number of problems that we “fix.”

In founding the Society, Frédéric and his friends were challenged to show the good of the church in the modern world. Their challengers were quite convinced that they had better answers to poverty and the social question. What they could not see, but Frédéric could, was that the true good of the church, the message of Christ’s incarnation, is not that we are promised material abundance, but that we are promised eternal life by a God who loves us so much, He sent us His only Son. Bringing ourselves closer to eternal life and His love to the poor, is the good that God calls us to do.

Our Conference meetings are not business meetings. They are opportunities to share in prayer and reflection the ways in which we have grown closer to God, and the ways in which we have encountered Christ in our works. To the critics of his own time who accused the Society of not doing enough, Frédéric replied that they were only repeating the challenge the Saint Simonians had posed 15 years earlier. [Baunard, 279-280] But the measurement of achievement only in material terms will always lead to disappointment. The poor, we are taught, will always be with us – not as burden, but as a challenge, a measure not of our alms, but of our love.

The good that we do is not in our works, but in our charity – our love of God and neighbor.

Contemplate

How often do I pause to reflect on the presence of Christ in my Vincentian encounters?

Recommended Reading

What Good Have I Done – a poem that asks and answers the question

A Christmas Blessing for Disaster Survivors

A Christmas Blessing for Disaster Survivors 2000 1045 SVDP USA

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, the prospect of a homeless Christmas became a harsh reality.

Using funds from a Rapid Response Grant given to the Gainesville District Council, DSC and Vincentians sprung into action, quickly providing a 7-day hotel stay that ensured the family had immediate shelter and would not spend Christmas on the streets. With short-term housing secured, the team was able to get the family’s FEMA check into a credit union, giving them essential resources for survival. We then helped them get into a FEMA-provided trailer, providing a home base for the family as they rebuild their lives.

Thanks to your generosity and the collaborative efforts of SVdP, DSC, and FEMA, we were able to restore stability and hope for this family and so many others like them. Your support makes stories like these possible.

Thank you for being the heart and soul of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Together, we are creating a world where compassion reigns, and hope flourishes for disaster-impacted survivors.

With gratitude,
Elizabeth Disco-Shearer
CEO, Disaster Services Corporation, SVDP-USA

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