Formation

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A Week in Prayers April 10 – April 14
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Monday, April 10

Help me to see the neighbor, Lord,
Help me to see the friend.
Help me to see the face of Christ.
Make me the one You send.

Help me to serve the neighbor, Lord,
Help me to serve the friend.
Let me bear wordless witness
Through the love that I extend.

Help me to love the neighbor, Lord,
Help me to love the friend.
May we be saved together
In Your loving arms, amen.

Tuesday, April 11

For the poor and the hungry,
The thirsty, the cold,
Extend Your loving hand, O Lord.
For the lonely and mourning,
The prisoner, the sick,
Extend You loving heart, O Lord.
For all those who suffer,
For all those who weep,
Make me Your hands and heart, O Lord.
Amen

Wednesday, April 12

Deep in my heart, O Lord.
Through each day’s troubles
I trust in You, God.
Deep in my heart lies faith.

Deep in my heart, O Lord.
Though darkness may fall,
Lord, You are my light.
Deep in my heart lies hope.

Deep in my heart, O Lord.
Only there to be shared
For Your sake, my God.
Deep in my heart lies love.
Amen

Thursday, April 13

Holy Spirit, Breath of God,
Live within me, fill my soul,
Light my heart on fire.
Help me to know
The will of the Father
Help me to see
The face  of the Son
Help me to share
The Flame of Your love.
Amen

Friday, April 14

Lord, clear my eyes
With the light of Your truth.
Clear away sleep,
Wipe away tears,
Help me see through
The fog of the day’s troubles.
Help me walk with my neighbors,
Still lost in the fog,
Until you clear their eyes, too.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — The Fact Remains
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There are some popular sayings we sometimes repeat such as “Facts don’t care about your feelings” or “Facts are facts, whether you like them or not.” Both sayings are quite clever! They also are true, as far as they go, but both really mean the same thing: Shut up and do what I say.

A fact does not care about anybody’s feelings, but that’s only because a fact is not a person. In the same way, rocks don’t care about your pain. But we don’t just throw them at people’s heads to make that point. Facts don’t care about your feelings, but we should. This doesn’t mean we must abandon truth in favor of sympathy – quite the contrary!

Blessed Frédéric took great consolation in knowing that “while defending the truth with all my might, I never offended anyone.”  In our polarized time, this seems like a remarkable thing to say, and it turns out that our times are far less contentious and polarized than Frédéric’s.

Facts don’t care about your feelings. Rocks don’t care about your pain. Yet it can be so easy sometimes, during encounters with the neighbor, to become too focused on the facts. You have been evicted, and a shelter is the best place for you to go right now. That’s a fact. Many of the problems you face are the consequences of your own bad decisions. That’s a fact. Your debts are insurmountable. You need a plan for next month. Money won’t fix your problem. Fact, fact, fact.

It also is a fact, whether we remember it or not, that the neighbor’s problems can feel overwhelming. Some of them may garner nobody’s sympathy. The facts can make people feel very isolated, forgotten, helpless, and small, because facts, like rocks, don’t care about your feelings or your pain.

We do our neighbors no good by simply repeating to them the facts of their situations. The poor, our Getting Ahead training emphasizes, are experts in their own situation. They have already been hit in the head by their rocks. Like the Good Samaritan, we are not there primarily to focus on the facts; the passersby knew the facts. We are there to pour oil on the wound, to speak in a soothing tone, to offer a smile or a tear, to pause from our own lives and problems and truly share the neighbor’s.

Our virtue of simplicity calls us to speak not merely truth, but the Truth; the One Fact that stands above all others; the Fact that counts the hairs on our heads; the Fact that wipes away all tears; the Fact that transcends all worldly suffering.

Let he who is without challenges, has made no bad decisions, and has never needed help cast the first rock, and let us instead try to build Christ’s church upon it.

We serve in hope, and that’s a fact.

Contemplate

In light of the facts, how can I best convey hope?

Recommended Reading

‘Tis a Gift to be Simple

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Week in Prayers April 3 – April 7
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Monday, April 3

Lord, grant me the virtue of simplicity
In my life and in my words.
Animated by love of the Holy Spirit,
With full faith in the Truth of Your Word,
May my honesty reveal You to all.
And may I never be separated from You
By my own pretense or falsehood.
Amen

Tuesday, April 4

Lord Jesus, in my heart of hearts,
Deep within my soul,
In every fiber of my being,
Help me to follow Your way.
Amen

Wednesday, April 5

When I stand tall with undeserved pride,
Help me, Lord Jesus, to kneel.
When I am brought low by the things of this world,
Help me, Lord Jesus, to stand.
When I’m at a loss for the right words to say,
Lord Jesus, hear my prayer.
Amen

Thursday, April 6 (Holy Thursday)

Lord Jesus,
In Your infinitely creative love
You share Your true presence
In bread and wine.
May it remind me that through
The anointing of my Baptism,
I also am sent
To bring glad tidings to the lowly,
To heal the brokenhearted,
To comfort those that mourn,
Not to be served, but to serve.
Amen

Friday, April 7 (Good Friday)

Lord Jesus, lead, and I will follow,
Taking up my cross daily,
And bearing its weight gladly,
No matter how difficult.
For the pathway is narrow
That leads to the Kingdom
But it is marked
By the sign of the cross.
Amen

Saturday, April 8 (Holy Saturday)

Lord Jesus,
Fully divine and fully human,
You fully revealed my nature
And my calling
Through Your life on earth.
You fully paid the price for my sins
By Your suffering
And death on the cross.
Lead me into Life, Lord Jesus.
Amen

Sunday, April 9 (Easter Sunday)

Roll away the stone, Lord Jesus,
So that I may follow Your way!
Roll away the stone, Lord Jesus,
Your truth is as bright as the day!
Roll away the stone, Lord Jesus,
Like the weight of all sorrows and strife!
Roll away the stone, Lord Jesus,
Lead me from death into life!
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — The First Bloom
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When we hear the expression “from the heart” we understand it to mean that the speech or action is both emotional and sincere; it is powerfully felt, so much so that the action it inspires cannot be resisted. When we open our hearts, we invite others in so that they may know us more deeply. When we are sad, our hearts are broken; when happy, they fill with joy.

St. Vincent often expressed his own love, sympathies, and joy by speaking of his heart, once saying to his beloved friend St. Louise that “my heart is no longer my heart, but yours, in that of Our Lord, Whom I desire to be the object of our one love.” [CCD I:172]

Our hearts are moved by each other, moved by pain, moved by joy, and moved by love most of all; the love of family, of friends, of romance – and the greatest of all loves, agape, the love of God. “That is because,” Bl. Frédéric once explained, “the human heart easily allows itself to be captured by love and there is always much love there where there is much faith.” [Letter 145, to Velay, 1837]

Just as our hearts seek one another and seek God, He also seeks us. His love comes first, unbidden and gratuitous; he is, as St. Catherine of Siena said “crazy in love” with us. [Dialog 153] This is the love that truly fills our hearts. It is the love that Frédéric said “which gives itself without diminishing, which shares itself without division, which multiplies itself, which is present in many places at once.” [Letter 107, to Curnier, 1835]

When we visit the neighbor, seeking to learn what Frédéric called “the secret of his lonely heart” [Baunard, 279], we can really only do so by “serving them from the heart” as St. Louise taught. [SWLM, a.85]

Our first Rule, in 1835, explained that Members share a friendship that “will make of all our hearts one heart.” Our vocation calls us to share that friendship not just with each other, but with the neighbors we serve; to share our hearts, and the love of God within them. As was said at the Society’s National Assembly of 1911, “were we to search carefully, we would find in this world, more hungry hearts than hungry stomachs… Humanity is made up of hearts, and hearts need sympathy more than material aid.”

This is the great lesson of our patron, and the reason Frédéric said in the first annual report that ought to model not only his works, but “the manner in which he understood his works. Charity does not consist so much in the distributing of bread as in the manner it is distributed.” Vincent’s life, he said, “is a life to be carried on, a heart in which one’s own heart is enkindled.” [Letter 175, to Lallier, 1838]

In this, may we each have, as Vincent wished for Louise, “a young heart and a love in its first bloom for Him Who loves us unceasingly and as tenderly as if He were just beginning to love us.” [CCD I:408]

Contemplate

Do I let the neighbor in to my open heart?

Recommended Reading

Praying with Vincent de Paul

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A Week in Prayers March 27 – March 31
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Monday, March 27

Lord Jesus, Savior,
Help me to carry my cross daily
As I seek to follow You.
When I sweat, cool my brow;
When I stumble, lift me up;
For the cross is mine alone,
But I am Yours.
Amen

Tuesday, March 28

Holy Mary, pray for us,
That we may hear the cry
Of God’s suffering children.
May He lead us to them
With food for the hungry,
Drink for the thirsty,
Comfort for the mourning,
And the love of Your Son,
Jesus Christ.
Amen

Wednesday, March 29

Heavenly Father,
My life is Your gift
To do with as I will.
May I in turn give freely
Of my time, my talents,
My possessions, and myself
To my neighbors in need
To do with as they will.
Amen

Thursday, March 30

Heavenly Father,
In the silence I await You.
Feed my soul,
Which hungers for Your Spirit,
Which thirsts for Your Word.
Fortified by the strength of Your love,
Send me forth to do Your will.
Amen

Friday, March 31

Heavenly Father,
My heart murmurs prayers
Without words.
My soul awaits Your answer
In the silence.
Lord, do not burden me
With everything I want.
Free me instead
To serve You fully
In body and soul,
In word and in deed,
Tireless in Your love.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — Just Vincentian Enough
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“Well,” we sometimes admonish ourselves when an idea we’re discussing doesn’t seem quite right, “that’s not very Vincentian.” The phrase is a simple reminder of who we are, and how we act. It needs no further explanation. After all, our Rule finds it sufficient to say that “Visits to the Poor are made in a Vincentian Spirit.” [Rule, Part III, St. 8] The very word Vincentian carries with it a depth of meaning that conveys so much more to Members than it does to anybody outside the Society.

It isn’t that the Rule never explains what it is to be Vincentian. Throughout it, we read things such as “Vincentians feel called to pray together,” “Vincentians strive to seek out and find those in need,” “Vincentians serve the poor cheerfully,” “Vincentians endeavor to establish relationships based on trust and friendship,” “Vincentians never forget the many blessings they receive from those they visit,” and, of course, “Vincentians serve in hope.”

It turns out that our little word, Vincentian, is a very big thing. So big that if we were to make a list of all the characteristics and actions of Vincentians from our Rule and Manual, and treat as a list of instructions, it would be overwhelming.

In a similar way, if we were to make a list of all the times Jesus says things like “go and do likewise”, “as I have done for you, you should also do,” “do this and you will live,” “love your enemies,” or “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,” we would have an even longer list!

The good news is that these lists are not in conflict; Vincentian spirituality is Catholic spirituality. To be Catholic, and to be Vincentian, is not to carry these lists only in our books, but in our hearts, and in our actions. We know that to be Vincentian is always to err on the side of compassion, even though those words are not in the Rule.

Challenged by the Pharisees to pick out the greatest of the commandments, Jesus responded with an entirely new commandment, in two parts: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He was not dismissing the Ten Commandments, but was instead answering the “why” of those commandments.

Few Vincentians have the Rule memorized, and although we try to live it fully, most of us will fall short from time to time. That doesn’t make us any less Vincentian, as long as we remember the “why”. Our “ideal is to help relieve suffering for love alone,” and that is just Vincentian enough.

Contemplate

In serving, is my foremost motive always love of God and neighbor?

Recommended Reading

The Spirituality of the Home Visit

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A Week in Prayers March 20 – March 24
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Monday, March 20

To do Your will at all times, Lord,
To serve You in the poor,
To let You in to dine
When you knock upon the door.

To see You and to serve You,
With zeal and without fear,
My efforts do not tire me,
My heart is filled with cheer!
Amen

Tuesday, March 21

Help me, Lord,
To trust in Your providence,
Abandoning my own will,
Desiring nothing
But to do Your will.
Help me to become holy.
Amen

Wednesday, March 22

I will go and serve, Lord,
In Your name and for Your sake.
Outside of my home and comfort,
Outside of my selfish desires,
Outside of myself, my God.
For the love of the neighbor,
In the name of my Savior,
I will go and serve.
Amen

Thursday, March 23

Let me be Your light, Lord,
Let me be Your hands.
For thine is the kingdom,
And mine is the mission
To serve for Your love alone.
Amen

Friday, March 24

Lord, in my sadness,
Grant me Your comfort.
Lord, in my comfort,
Grant me Your joy.
Lord, in my joy,
Grant me Your peace.
Lord in my peace,
Teach me to comfort.
As You have comforted me.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — The Journey Together
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“Vincentians,” the Rule reminds us, “are called to journey together towards holiness.” [Rule, Part I, 2.2] We repeat this often among ourselves, perhaps sometimes at the risk of it becoming a mere slogan. It is good to consider more deeply from time to time exactly what we are saying, and more importantly to ask ourselves: What is holiness? In what special way are Vincentians called to it?

Our church, of course, teaches that all of us are called to holiness, not just a few of us, not just the clergy or other religious – all of us, whatever our state in life. [LG, Ch V] Because of the great variety of gifts and talents we are given, we may walk different paths towards the perfection to which Christ calls us, and for members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, this vocation is our special way of being Catholic, our special pathway to holiness.

But what, exactly, is holiness? The Church officially declares the holiness of men and women through beatification and canonization. These blessed people stand for us as role models and intercessors. Yet part of these ecclesiastical processes is a requirement for performing miracles. Does the “universal call to holiness” then require each of us to perform miracles? That would seem to be a fairly high bar!

Pope Francis assures us that there are “saints next door”. Perhaps you have met a few of those gentle souls whose kindness seems almost to touch you physically when you are in their presence. Perhaps this example of the virtue of gentleness is a small glimpse of the “heroic virtue” the church recognizes in our martyrs and saints. Can we journey towards holiness by living our virtues “heroically”? Can we be role models?

Yet, there is another aspect of holiness, and an important one, which is that “no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual.” Indeed, we “are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people.” [GetE, 6] We not only are made to live in community, but to lead each other to holiness through community. This is why we understand our Conferences to be “genuine communities of faith and love, of prayer and action.” [Rule, Part I, 3.3] We grow in holiness not only by sharing one another’s presence and prayers, but by sharing the work, and reflecting together on God’s presence in the poor.

This, perhaps, is the special call to holiness the Society helps us to follow – that we may not only lead each other to holiness, but, through our works and our love, help to all welcome people to God’s saving plan, one person, one neighborhood, one community at a time.

Contemplate

How do I grow in holiness within my Conference? Within my larger community?

Recommended Reading

Gaudete et Exsultate

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A Week in Prayers March 13 — March 17
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Monday, March 13

Holy Spirit, live within me
Fill me with the breath of God
So that every movement is for You
Every moment is for You
Amen

Tuesday, March 14

Grant me mercy, Lord,
Mercy enough to share.
Help me to forgive fully,
In my heart and in my actions,
Even as I ask Your forgiveness.
Amen

Wednesday, March 15

Lord Jesus,
Lord in the street
On the park bench
In the doorway
In the rain
I will find You, Lord
And serve You
As You asked.
Amen

Thursday, March 16

Help me to see You, Lord,
Even in angry faces.
Help me to greet them
With love, with patience,
And with understanding.
Help me to share Your peace.
Amen

Friday, March 17

Bless me with the faith, O Lord,
To know and do Your will,
Unspoiled by worldly desire,
Not only desire of wealth
Or achievement,
But even desire for health,
Or for freedom from pain
In body and heart.
All this shall pass, and I sing
In the hope of union with You
Desiring only what You desire
Even when I do not fully understand.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — What’s the Difference?
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Speaking about the home visit in 1834, Blessed Frédéric said that it “is one of the best rendered charities and one that produces the best results, above all, in these times when help is generally dispensed with such culpable indifference...” [Unpubished] It’s useful to recall that the home visit was not the first or the only form of assistance to the poor in Frédéric’s time, just as it is not the only form of assistance in our own time.

Take a number. Have a seat. Fill out this form. Let’s see if you qualify. I’ll ask the committee for approval. These impersonal words and actions accompany so much of the material assistance available to our neighbors in need from various agencies they approach, hat in hand, sometimes taking time off work that they can hardly afford to take.

St. Vincent once mused that “there is great charity, but it is badly organized.” [VHJ 26.1] In our day, this observation seems at times to have been turned on its head, as the poor are drowned in “organization” when seeking whatever assistance may be available. As John Boyle O’Reilly so memorably put it in his 1886 poem, In Bohemia: The organized charity, scrimped and iced, In the name of a cautious, statistical Christ.

“Under the guise of being politically correct or ideologically fashionable,” Pope Francis says, “we look at those who suffer without touching them.” [FT, 76] Material assistance doled out impersonally, or indifferently as Frédéric put it, is like exercise on a treadmill. Your body may be served, but you will not have gotten anywhere.

The Home Visit brings with it the understanding of a friend, the welcoming smile, and “to the bread that nourishes, it adds the visit that consoles.” [O’Meara, 229] Far from “culpable indifference,” we “must never take the attitude of merely getting the task done.” [SWLM, 773] Instead, as our Rule demands of us, we give generously of our time, our talents, our possessions and ourselves. [Rule, Part I, 2.5.1]

We’re not called only to write checks. We’re called to love our neighbor. That’s the difference.

Contemplate

Are my Home Visits more like an interviews, or conversations?

Recommended Reading

Serving in Hope, Module VII (with your Conference!)

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