Formation

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Contemplation — Pray, Pray Again
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In advising a young priest who was departing to become the Superior of the Agde Seminary, Vincent offered guidance that was both deeply spiritual and profoundly practical – advice that remains pertinent to those in servant leadership in the Society today. [CCD XI:310-316]

He urges the new leader to focus on imitation of Christ, discernment of God’s will, and especially on the virtue of humility. Indeed, it is Christ’s humility that Vincent holds forth as an example to imitate. Christ, as leader of His disciples did not “lord it over them”, despite, in fact, being the Lord! He taught us that he had come not to be served, but to serve.

Vincent contrasts this very basic tenet with those who that you have to “make it clear you are Superior.” Instead, he emphasizes that the superior should live just like the others, and always seek God’s will in prayer and meditation, rather than rely on his own personal judgment. Observers should not be able to tell by watching how we live, which is the leader.

Again and again, he comes back to humility, and to imitation of Christ’s humility: The superior does not take personal satisfaction in the works or successes of the company, instead always attributing them to God. He does not offer his words of advice or make decisions without recourse to prayer and meditation to God. He asks God to tell him the needs of the others and to guide him in serving them.

No matter how dedicated we may feel that we are in our prayer lives, Vincent’s words here remind us how much more room there is for prayer and meditation – and how very practical this advice is. For those times when, even subconsciously, we think “this problem is not important enough to bring to God,” Vincent reminds us, echoing the Sermon on the Mount, that God counts even the hairs on our head. Not to bring our “little things” to Him more regularly is, in a sense, to deny the great humility of God’s incarnation in Christ; it is to elevate our own judgment in place of God’s.

As servant leaders, we should marvel each day that Providence led us to this place and to this role and pray that we are giving back to heaven all that we have been given. Perhaps this, from St. Vincent, should be one of our daily prayers:

“Lord, what have I done to have such a ministry? What works of mine correspond to the responsibility being placed on my shoulders? Ah, my God, I’ll spoil everything if You yourself don’t guide all my words and works!”

Contemplate

How often do I pray for God’s guidance in all of my decisions and all of my works?

Recommended Reading

Praying with Vincent de Paul

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A Week in Prayers December 19 – December 25
A Week in Prayers December 19 – December 25 900 900 SVDP USA

Monday, December 19

O Blessed Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
By Your power and Your grace
Light my heart on fire.
Help me to know
And to do Your will
In all things.
Amen

Tuesday, December 20

O my Jesus, my Savior and Lord,
Seated in glory,
In heaven above.

O my Jesus, my Neighbor, the Poor,
Present in suffering,
Welcomed with love.

O my Jesus, of humble birth,
May You greet me in heaven
As I greet You on earth.
Amen

Wednesday, December 21

My heart is filled with joy
At the coming of the Lord
Lord Jesus, find me ready
In my faith.
Amen

Thursday, December 22

Lord Jesus,
Help me to follow
Your model of humility;
Born a helpless infant,
Creator becoming the created,
Exalted becoming the lowly,
Almighty becoming the servant,
United with us,
So that we may be united with You.
Amen

Friday, December 23

Holy Spirit, make me ready
For the coming of the Lord;
Humble and gentle,
Patient and kind,
Generous sharing Your love.
Amen

Saturday, December 24 (Christmas Eve)

O God in Your love,
You sent us Your Son
Born in the cold of night.
Fully human, fully divine
Child of holy light.
Child we adore
With the peace of a dove;
With hearts like a child
That knows only love.
Amen

Sunday, December 25 (Christmas Day)

Joyful, joyful, comes the Lord!
God’s light and love on earth!
Shadows fade as new light grows,
And every heart is full.
Infinite power, infinite glory,
Infant tender and mild,
We welcome you,
We praise you,
We celebrate you!
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — A Persevering Fidelity
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As Vincentians, our primary purpose is our own growth in holiness. Achieving this is very closely tied to another core tenet of our spirituality, which is that our “ideal is to help relieve suffering for love alone, without thinking of any reward or advantage for [ourselves].” [Rule, Part I, 2.2] It only stands to reason that our ideal is also the greatest commandment, Christ’s express will that we love the neighbor as ourselves, for the love of God.

Saint Vincent de Paul once explained to the priests of the mission that in order to do this, we must make our intentions clear at the start. He suggested this prayer, which members of the Society might also consider offering before each home visit: “My God, I’m going to do this for love of You; for love of You I’m going to stop doing this thing in order to do something else.” [CCD XI:284]

Making this good intention, he said, is much like saying the words of the sacrament of Baptism – it isn’t the water that baptizes the child. Water is only matter; the prayer is the form. In a similar way, our charitable works, by themselves, are only matter if not expressly offered for the love of God alone.

There are many temptations that can distract us from this. Vincent described five vices that act contrary to our virtues: “(1) mere human prudence; (2) the desire for publicity; (3) always wanting everyone to give in to us and see things our way; (4) the pursuit of self-gratification in everything; (5) attaching no great importance to either God’s honor or the salvation of others.” [CCD XII:254]

So, for example, although we owe an accounting of our works to our donors, we can sometimes get too caught up in the narrative of our great successes, and even begin to see our works as achievements, forgetting “that giving love, talents and time is more important than giving money.” [Rule, Part I, 3.14]

Fr. Corpus Delgado, C.M., in a conference on St. Louise de Marillac, shared this great insight from her example: “To follow Jesus the Crucified Lord is to learn little by little that success is not one of the names of God, and that in our vocation and in our service, we are not asked for percentages of effectiveness but a persevering fidelity.” [CEME, Salamanca, 2010]

The home visit isn’t about the light bill, or the rent, or the groceries. If it were, we could leave those things at the doorstep. It’s about the love of God and the neighbor, which perhaps can’t be measured or reported but is exactly the thing that can lead to our growth in holiness, so that it is no longer we who love, but Christ who loves through us. [Rule, Part I, 2.1]

Contemplate

Do I make my intention clear to God before each work of charity?

Recommended Reading

The Manual

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A Week in Prayers December 12 – December 16
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Monday, December 12

Lord, Creator of all,
The mighty and the lowly,
Teach me to love them
As You do
Without exception
Without condition
In Your name
And for Your sake
Amen

Tuesday, December 13

Lord, be patient with me
When I am strong in will
But weak in faith.
Help me to hear
The cry of the poor.
Help me to do Your will
By serving them in hope.
Amen

Wednesday, December 14

Your peace is upon me, Lord,
And the joy of Your kingdom
Fills my heart.
May Your justice fall
Like a gentle rain,
And Your mercy
Shine like the sun.
Amen

Thursday, December 15

Father of all mercies, maker of all things,
May Your light shine from within me
So that I can offer Your love,
Which multiplies as it is shared,
With all those the world has forgotten
Who are precious still in Your sight.
Amen

Friday, December 16

Lord Jesus, Son of man,
With all the power of heaven within You,
You chose to suffer to do the Father’s will.
Help me to follow Your example of selflessness,
Willing the good of the other before my own,
Seeking to serve and not to be served,
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — Close Enough
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There’s an old joke, when a task is incomplete or incorrect, that “it’s close enough for government work!” There is no comparable joke for charitable works, because we have the highest standard possible: we are called to do God’s will as best we can discern it. How can we best help this family? What is the best decision for the Conference? Through prayer and discussion, we come to a consensus that we hope reflects God’s will.

It is true that to begin works of charity, offered for love alone, requires very little discernment because Jesus very specifically told us His will that we should love the neighbor, and serve the least among us! Yet we know that in the course of these works, as we walk our Vincentian pathway, we encounter more questions along the way. We are never really done with seeking God’s will.

Our prayers, individually and together, draw us closer to Him. We offer praise and thanks, and place our needs before Him, but, as Jesus prayed, “not as I will, but as you will.” We seek His will in the answers to our prayers. In our Vincentian friendship, we seek to be of one mind and one heart, “following the example of the blessed Trinity.” [SWLM, 771] We seek to do His will by imitation.

The Society’s primary purpose is our own growth in holiness, towards “perfect union with Christ”. [Rule, Part I, 2.2] That isn’t limited to the works of the Conference, because ours is a “vocation for every moment of our lives”. [Rule, Part I, 2.6]. Both as Vincentians and as Catholics, we are called to discern God’s will for the spiritual journey through our lives.

In between all our talking and doing, we must also stop to listen, to try to hear that tiny whisper in the storm. We must look back upon the events and people in our lives and “re-read” those moments that changed us. We may accept a loss or misfortune as God’s will, but that is only one step. Placing ourselves silently in God’s presence, we also look back to see where that misfortune led us – something we could only know by looking back.

Little by little we move closer to knowing and doing His will and doing it fully. It isn’t the gist of God, it’s the will of God. If that seems very specific, that’s only because it is. God’s will is for each of us, very specifically, because He loves each of us very individually.

To seek and to do His will is nothing more than to love Him back, and when we truly love Him, we are close enough for charitable work.

Contemplate

Consider a moment of conversion in your life. How did it change your heart, and your path?

Recommended Reading

A Heart on Fire – Apostolic Reflection with Rosalie Rendu

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Contemplation — On Our Way
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One of the central activities of the Conferences and Councils of the Society is formation. Because we often use this word as a synonym for “training” we can begin to think of it as an isolated event, something to check off on a list when we join the Society or enter into specific positions. But formation is not a single event – it is a lifelong journey of becoming…of becoming what?

As Vincentians, we have chosen a specific way of being Catholic, and this way, this vocation, forms us. The Foundation Document on Vincentian Formation, adopted by the Society more than twenty years ago, suggests four different dimensions of formation, closely mirroring the areas outlined in Pastores dabo vobis, an apostolic exhortation on the formation of priests.

Our human formation, the basis for all formation, begins with our actions, which are shaped by our virtues. We become by doing, we build habits of virtue in order to become virtuous. For Vincentians, these include the Cardinal Virtues, the Theological Virtues, and our Vincentian Virtues.

Our spiritual formation has to do with the transcendent aspect of our nature; the aspect in which we are truly made in God’s image. Our spiritual formation reminds us that we are created to live in community. The model of the Holy Trinity reminds us that the eternal life is a shared life, and that our path to it is also shared. As Vincentians, we pray and reflect together often. Our spiritual reflections and prayers in each Conference meeting are a vital part of our ongoing formation. Our individual prayers, retreats, Mass – and prayers shared with the neighbor are all part of our spiritual formation. We journey together towards holiness. [Rule, Part I, 2.2]

Our training falls within our intellectual formation. The efforts we make to learn the practical aspects of our vocation, to learn about poverty, and about specific works and programs. But our intellectual formation also demands that we take the time to read about our heritage, the words and deeds of our saints and blessed, as well as to devote time to personal study of Holy Scripture.

Finally, ministerial formation comes from a commitment to our vocation as mission, accepting our service as a means to our growth, and remaining open to all ways to serve, including servant leadership.

Our particular way of being Catholic, our particular process of becoming, is our Vincentian vocation. We follow, in every part of our lives, our Vincentian pathway towards becoming what Christ calls us to be, “perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Contemplate

In what way was I formed today? How did I grow closer to holiness?

Recommended Reading

Faces of Holiness

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Contemplation — My God, I Give You My Heart
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Our Rule repeatedly emphasizes the importance of prayer to our vocation. We pray often, the Rule reminds us. We live “a life of prayer and reflection, both at the individual and community level,” [Rule, Part I, 2.2] Prayer is central to our lives and to our vocation. So, as in all things, we must ask: what does St. Vincent teach us about our life of prayer?

In a general audience in November 2020, Pope Francis expressed four characteristics of prayer, given to us through Christ’s example. [General Audience, 4 Nov 2020] The first of these is the primacy of prayer; prayer is “the first desire of the day.” We listen, we encounter God from our first moment of consciousness.

Similarly, St. Vincent de Paul urged that we should “always do whatever you can so that, prayer being your first occupation, your mind may be filled with God for the rest of the day.” [CCD IX:29] Vincent himself began each day with “mental prayer,” interiorly seeking God’s guidance. The Common Rules of the Congregation of the Mission would later incorporate this practice for all the priests and brothers of the mission.

We are only human, and it is easy to seek coffee first – to try to physically jolt ourselves into the energy we need to get up and to get going. But how full are our hearts when we open them instead, first thing each day, to God? Caffeine may well make our hearts beat faster, but prayer will make them beat more insistently, more persistently, more patiently, and more purposefully.

Coffee doesn’t give us the empathy to understand the neighbor as we would a brother or sister. Coffee doesn’t help us to form relationships based on trust and friendship. [Rule, Part I, 1.9] Coffee is indeed a joyful way to help us greet the day, but coffee is only physical. It warms us from the outside in.

Prayer fills us from the inside out, from where God touches us most deeply so that His love may take root and grow to where we can share Him and His love with all those we encounter. But first, and to start each and every day, we must open our innermost hearts to Him.

On awaking, his biographer Joseph Guichard said, St. Vincent would begin each day by crossing himself and saying, “My God, I give You my heart.” May we follow his example, not only in our words, but in our devotion, our practice of prayer, and in our hearts – every day.

Contemplate

As a Vincentian, a Catholic, a Christian, how do I greet each day?

Recommended Reading

500 Little Prayers for Vincentians

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A Week in Prayers November 21 – November 25
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Monday, November 21

Lord Jesus,
Help me to give of my time and myself,
To serve the neighbor in need;
To give from my poverty or from my wealth,
My two small coins, my second coat,
And the love of the Lord above.
Amen

Tuesday, November 22

Jesus, Son of Man,
Whose chose not power,
But poverty for Yourself,
Loving and serving the poor,
Help me to follow Your Way
In faith.

Jesus, Son of God,
You followed the Will
Of the Father,
Even unto death.
Help me see the Truth
With hope.

Jesus, Lord and Savior,
Whose love is everlasting!
Through the cross
And resurrection,
You lead me to new Life
In love.
Amen

Wednesday, November 23

Father, forgive me,
Show me Your mercy,
Send me Your spirit of love.
Your grace makes me whole,
And with all of creation,
I rejoice like the angels above.
Amen

Thursday, November 24

In the quiet of the morning, Lord,
As day slips out of night,
Your blessings fall upon me
Like the slowly growing light.

I thank you for my talents, Lord,
I thank you for my faults,
For all I thought I should have had
But am better off without

More gifts you’ve given me, O Lord,
Than one alone could bear,
But all that I’ve received, O Lord,
You’ve given me to share.
Amen

Friday, November 25

In Your name, O Lord,
I offer prayers of thanks.
For all that I am, all that I have,
And all I will ever be.
I am humbled
By Your great love for me,
That brings such peace
To my heart.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Contemplation — Our Long-Term Vision
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Our Manual explains that Vincentians “trust in Providence” in our works and in our lives. [Manual, p. 63] We understand this to mean, as Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount, that we should not worry about tomorrow, that we should let the day’s own troubles be enough. [Matthew 6:25-34] But how do we live this belief in our Conferences?

In one sense, it would seem that trust in Providence is a call to passivity – just sit back and let God take care of it! Yet neither Jesus, St. Vincent, nor Bl. Frédéric suggest anything of the kind. While assuring us that God knows of our needs and will provide, Jesus reminds us to “seek first the Kingdom”, which he contrasts to the flowers God cares for, though “they do not work nor spin.” [Ibid]

St. Vincent was a man of action, who famously called his followers to love God with the strength of their arms and the sweat of their brows! [CCD XI:32] We begin with discerning the will of God, then acting upon it, trusting in Him to provide us with what we need. We already know that serving the poor is the direct, expressed will of Jesus Christ. Waiting to act on that, when you think about it is, at least to a degree, a failure of trust.

Similarly, writing extensive and detailed assistance guidelines meant to cover all circumstances is an example of “treading on the heels of Providence” to use one of Vincent’s often-used phrases. Rather, we should be guided by Frédéric’s teaching, that in works of charity “it is necessary to give yourself up to the inspirations of the heart rather than the calculations of the mind. Providence gives its own counsel through the circumstances around you, and the ideas it bestows on you. I believe you would do well to follow them freely and not tie yourselves down with rules and formulas.” [Letter 82, to Curnier, 1834]

Trusting in Providence means trusting that when we seek to do God’s will, the outcome of our works also will be His will. God provides, but he also knows what we need, even when we do not. We can and should plan ahead – fundraising is part of that – but God calls us first to provide for the neighbor before us, for the troubles of their day, not for our treasury balance tomorrow.

Trust in Providence presents us with one of the ironies of our vocation. Letting today’s troubles suffice, without a thought to tomorrow, would seem to be very short-sighted. Yet by doing this, we fulfill God’s will, seeking His eternal kingdom, which is the longest-term vision we can possibly have.

Contemplate

Do I sometimes let my worries for the future drown out the cry of the poor today?

Recommended Reading

Vincentian Meditations II

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A Week in Prayers November 14 – November 18
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Monday, November 14

Lord Jesus,
You are the light of the world.
Lead me from darkness,
Fill me with the light of Your love
Let it shine forth from me
In all that I do in Your name.
Amen

Tuesday, November 15

Light of the World, fall upon me,
Awaken me from my slumber.
As sure as the flowers
Unfold in the sun
My heart is turned toward You
Amen

Wednesday, November 16

O Lord these gifts You have given me,
My time, my talents, myself,
And even my worldly possessions,
Remain mine and even grow
Only as I give them away,
In Your name and for Your sake.
Amen

Thursday, November 17

O God, Creator of all,
I seek to do Your will.
Speak to me, Lord,
Through the people I meet,
Through events before me,
Through a tiny whisper in the storm.
Your servant is listening
With an open heart.
Amen

Friday, November 18

How will I love the neighbor, Lord?
With the same love I give to You.
From the depths of my soul,
With all of my heart,
And with all the work that I do.
Amen

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