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I Will Trust in You

Hello!

Where is “the journey (together) in holiness” [Rule 2.2] leading you? As Vincentians, we are called to holiness through “promoting a life of prayer and reflection” and by “Meditating on their Vincentian experiences.” God has provided providential moments that I will share with you that have surely been planned as a way for me to journey together in holiness and lean into this call to welcome young members through friendship.

A Little Background of My Most Recent Journey

In January of 2025, I wondered what I was going to do with the thought of having extra time with Zoie heading to college soon and Cain, my younger son, a freshman in high school at the time. Of course, I would still have both of their events to attend and the ebb and flow of marriage, but I knew these moments would be times of change for all of us. In that, I had to learn to trust in God and open myself up more in this journey in holiness. And so, like God often does, He provides –March 2025 brought on another layer of Vincentian-ing far different than I could ever envision, thus, my answer to how to spend this “extra time.”

First off, Zoie knew more about the role than I did. She had won the Young Vincentian Excellence Award in 2024 and that is when both of us first learned about something in the Society called Youth, Young Adults and Emerging Leaders. If this is the space you find yourself in going “huh” or “what” to this terminology, then good news, I can help!

Anyway, the first week after being announced, I had many emails of people wanting to meet virtually to ask questions, inquire about upcoming events that the young members could present at, a sponsorship to prepare for, youth Conferences that wanted to begin, etc. Again, Zoie led the way in understanding many of these pieces. For example, she had prepped the slideshow for regional meetings in January 2025 but to now have the responsibility of presenting them, that was scary and an honor at the same time. Enter in doubt, what can we share that would benefit our fellow Vincentians? We just do what we do in serving the people in need. Is it unusual or special that we serve as a family in many aspects of the Society? Yes is the answer I quickly discovered.

Fast forward to four months in, three regional meeting presentations later, Zoie and I headed to Rome for the Third International Youth Meeting. It was a major risk since we would arrive home the day before she moved into college and her first year as a student athlete. After a sprint to the connecting flight home, we were on track to make it in time to leave bright and early that next morning to drop Zoie off. Enter in tears of sadness and tears of joy. Enter in trusting the Lord

And so, I ask you, with this idea of journeying together in holiness and trust in the Lord’s plan, How is welcoming new members going for you?

In this role, I get many questions about getting new members, particularly young. Young, to me, is not defined by an age, but a mindset. How you act and think may be influenced by your experiences but why is it summed up by age?

Here are a few examples of efforts with young members:

1. A young member in his twenties willingly comes to a meeting. He needed service hours for one of his university classes and wanted to help people in Direct service, not in theory. Members reach out via text with additional information and other ways to connect and invite him back after the meeting. Still no return.
2. The daughter of two Vincentians agrees to meet another Vincentian from the same Conference. The daughter is part of a young adult group at a local parish that does not have The Vincentian and her meet for coffee, discuss SVdP, and that is where it ends.
3. There is a family who’s interested in A member offers all kinds of other options instead of SVdP to serve the community since “home visits” probably are not what they can do or would be interested in.
4. A college intern willingly seeks out your local SVdP The intern seems qualified and a good fit. Out of fear and a plethora of other reasons you deny the young adult an opportunity to experience SVdP from the inside out since it “costs too much” and “interns should not be paid.”

We think, “How many times can we try to find more people and it does not work?” or “What’s missing in my approach?”

Friendship—is this the missing essential element in your Vincentian journey to holiness in the examples above?

We often apply our Vincentian Charism to people in need, but miss the mark with potential members and our fellow Vincentians. Ask yourself:

• Are you inviting or content with your group of Vincentian friends?
• Are you engaging or mostly talk-and-theory to potential members?
• Are you welcoming or only looking for particular members to join your Conference?
• Is your mindset Vincentian-like in your actions or theory?
• Are you a Vincentian in friendship or only service?
• Do you offer to help a fellow member with their spiritual journey or sideline your efforts as that would be too personal?

Meetings

Do you show up to meetings in friendship or with a “one-hour” or “business-like” mentality since “we all have so much to do” and need to be “respectful of everyone’s time?”

Think back to spending time with a genuine friend. Someone you want to be with. Someone you have chosen to label “friend.” Did you also keep it to one hour and follow all the same guidelines we sometimes put on our SVdP friends? More than likely, the answer is no. A few will say yes and that is a mindset choice.

Perhaps we need to rethink our meetings.  Is this where you are landing on your friendship temp – lukewarm?  If you do not want to invite potential members to meetings, ask for a change. Make the meetings welcoming, a sense of renewal, a place of genuine friendship, and see the difference, feel the change, see even see an increase in recruitment and membership.

So, how is friendship welcoming new members?

Make your welcoming efforts inviting. Have a meal, coffee, Boba, desserts, or whatever else you may like. Start with a story about a neighbor in need instead of the history of our Society, how to become a member, the

training you will need or all the other things that tend to feel like overload from the second we meet someone who is inquiring about the Society.

Most importantly, measure your success by the relationships you’re forming, falling back on the trust in God, the trust that the timing in His plan is for good. So, let’s get back to seeing our ministry as a way of friendship in addition to service and first and foremost – a journey together in holiness.

Tootles,

Linda Roghair

In the Spirit of Frédéric: Charity Rooted in Truth

As I write this, I’m just back from several days in Paris at the international headquarters of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. It was a grace‑filled visit in many ways, but one moment in particular has stayed with me, and I’d like to share it with you because I think it speaks directly to our Vincentian vocation today.

During the trip, I had the joy of returning once again to the tomb of our founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, in the crypt of the Church of Saint‑Joseph des Carmes.  I have had the privilege of praying there a number of times over the years, and each visit has felt like coming back to sit for a while with an old friend and mentor.  Above Frédéric’s tomb is a depiction of the Good Samaritan, a reminder that he did not just think about charity – he organized it, he lived it, and he invited others to walk that road with him.

Standing there, I found myself thinking of one of his simple, practical invitations: “Let us do without hesitation whatever lies in our hands.”  That sounds so modest, yet it’s actually quite demanding. It means doing the good we can, now, in this place, with these people, without waiting for perfect conditions or easier circumstances. For us as Vincentians, that might mean having a difficult personal encounter visit after a long day, listening patiently to someone who is angry or distrustful, or advocating for a neighbor even when the system seems stacked against them.

Frédéric also insisted that “the poor person is a unique person of God’s fashioning with an inalienable right to respect.”  That phrase, “inalienable right to respect,” echoed in my heart as I left the crypt and walked literally through a small door to another sacred place of memory.

At the church and crypt is the site where a large number of priests and bishops were imprisoned and then killed during the French Revolution in what came to be known as part of the “September Massacres” of 1792. Revolutionaries had demanded that clergy swear an oath to uphold the new civil laws governing the Church, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, effectively placing obedience to the state above obedience to the Church, specifically the Pope. Many priests and bishops refused this oath in conscience and were arrested and confined in the former Carmelite monastery, the Hotel des Carmes.

In early September 1792, mobs stormed the prisons of Paris. At the Carmes, they went through the courtyard, confronting these clergy one by one. Their demand was stark: take the oath or face death. Around 90–160 clergy and religious leaders (bishops, priests, deacons, and others) were killed there over those days, many hacked down in the cloister garden where they had been praying.  Their names and stories have been preserved in the Church’s memory; some have already been beatified as martyrs.

It is sobering to realize that the same church which now shelters Frédéric’s tomb was once literally spattered with the blood of those who refused to betray what they believed.  Walking from the crypt into that space, I found myself holding two truths at once: the gentle, organized charity of Ozanam and the fierce, costly fidelity of the September martyrs.

We are not, thank God, facing mobs with weapons at our doors. No one is threatening us with death if we continue to make personal encounters or operate food pantries. And it would be wrong (and frankly absurd) to equate the risks we face in ministry with the suffering of those martyrs.

But their story does offer us a moral framework, a kind of X‑ray of what it means to hold fast to the Gospel when strong pressures push us in other directions.

Those priests and bishops were not perfect men, but in that decisive moment they refused to say with their lips what they did not believe in their hearts. They would not sign away the truth of the Church’s life and their identity as shepherds, even under enormous duress. In the words Pope Benedict XVI would later use, they understood that “to defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity.”

That is the connection I kept coming back to: charity and truth. Our Vincentian vocation is not just to “be nice” or to perform good works. As Benedict also wrote, “Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell.”  The martyrs of Carmes refused to empty their faith of truth. In our very different circumstances, we are called to refuse to empty our charity of the Gospel.

For us, the pressure is usually quieter and more ordinary: fatigue, bureaucracy, misunderstanding, conflict, or just the slow drift toward discouragement. No one is asking us to renounce our faith, but many small forces tug at our commitment.

Think of moments like these:

• When a neighbor we’ve helped many times returns again, and everything in us wants to say, “Not this time,” simply out of frustration.
• When a fellow Vincentian disagrees with us about how to help a family, and resentment threatens to take root.
• When a foundation, corporation, or individual tempts us to compromise our Catholic identity or our respect for the dignity of every person, in order to make things easier or more efficient.

In those moments, the example of the martyrs can strengthen our spine; not to become combative or rigid, but to be quietly faithful. They remind us that it is possible, with God’s grace, to say: I will not betray what I believe about who God is and who the poor are, no matter what the circumstances are pushing me toward.

Saint Paul told the Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” (Rom 12:2). The priests at Carmes paid for that non‑conformity with their lives. For us, it may mean paying with our time, our comfort, our reputation, or our preferences. But the logic is the same: our charity flows from the Gospel, not from convenience or public approval.

When I read the words of Saint Vincent de Paul, I hear the same tough‑minded realism about charity. He acknowledged how demanding this vocation is: “You will find out that Charity is a heavy burden to carry… But you will keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give soup and bread… You are the servant of the poor… And the uglier and the dirtier they will be, the more unjust and insulting, the more love you must give them.”  That is not sentimental. That is a form of martyrdom of the ego, a daily dying to self so that Christ’s love can live in us.

Frédéric, too, understood that our service has to be rooted in something deeper than our own goodwill. He reminded his companions that “our main purpose is not merely to help the poor – this is but a means to an end. Our true aim is to preserve in ourselves the Catholic Faith in all its purity and to communicate it to others through the channels of charity.”  In other words, we are not just social workers with rosaries. We are disciples trying to let Christ’s truth and love pass through us to others.

Pope Francis, speaking on the World Day of the Poor, said that “the poor… are not one, two, or three, they are a multitude,” and that the Gospel calls us not to bury the gifts the Lord has given us but to “spread charity, share our bread, multiply love.”  He calls poverty a “scandal,” not to shame those who are poor, but to stir the rest of us from complacency. That word, scandal, reminds me that indifference and cowardice are also forms of “bending” under pressure: pressure to look away, to stay comfortable, to protect our time and resources.

So how do we live this out concretely, in the spirit of Carmes and Ozanam, but without drama?

• By telling the truth in love when we advocate for our neighbors, even if it complicates relationships with institutions or public officials.
• By refusing to let anger, gossip, or division take root in our conferences, even when we strongly disagree, because our unity is itself a witness to the Gospel.
• By making decisions that prioritize the dignity of the person in front of us over metrics, statistics, or efficiency.
• By praying, (really praying, not just checking off a box), before and after our visits, asking the Lord to purify our motives so that it is truly His love we bring, not our own agendas.

These are small, hidden acts of fidelity. But that’s where most Christian heroism actually lives.

Standing Together at the Tomb

As I picture that day in Paris, I see myself again moving from the tomb of Blessed Frédéric to the memorial of those martyred clergy. They did not know each other in earthly life, but in that space their witness converges.

From Frédéric we receive the pattern of organized, thoughtful, incarnate charity: “Let us do without hesitation whatever lies in our hands.”  From the martyrs, we receive a bracing reminder that the truth of the Gospel is worth our whole life and cannot be negotiated away. From St. Vincent, we receive the challenge to carry the “heavy burden” of charity with gentleness and joy, even when people are “unjust and insulting.”  From our recent Popes, we hear that authentic charity always walks hand in hand with truth and courage.

My prayer for all of us, as Vincentians across the country, is not that we might face persecution like those martyrs – indeed, we pray to be spared that – but that we might share their inner freedom. May we be men and women who, by God’s grace, will not surrender our deepest convictions: that Christ is present in the poor, that every person has an inalienable right to respect, and that love in truth is stronger than any fear.

As we go about our ordinary, sometimes exhausting, sometimes beautiful service this week, I invite you to remember that courtyard at Carmes and that quiet tomb of Frédéric. Ask the Lord to give you, in your own setting, the courage to be faithful to the mission He has entrusted to you: to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those who are poor, even when it is hard and challenging.

And then, simply, like good Vincentians, let us do whatever lies in our hands.

Peace and God’s blessings,

John

“No” Is Not in the Vincentian Vocabulary 

My 91-year-old father recently told me the older you get the faster time flies by.  The Lenten Season is a special time for all of us Vincentians. That is why it’s important that we cherish this precious time to reflect on our spiritual lives.

I often say to myself, “How am I growing?”  Sometimes I love my answer and sometimes I am disappointed.   Lent gives us time to reflect on how we are doing spiritually in this light-speed world we live in.

What do I love about the Society?  Simply put, it is my Vincentian friends.  In the Baton Rouge Diocese, it was hundreds of Vincentians.  Since becoming a part of the National Council, it has become thousands of friends across the country.

Last April, the International Board of Directors for the Society visited the United States, and I was able to make international friends.

As you read this article, I am in Paris, France with our National President, John Berry, visiting the International Office and Vincentians from all the English-speaking countries.  I am blessed to build friendships with them too.

Whether it’s Baton Rouge, another city in the U.S., or Paris, our Vincentian relationships are priceless because they help us to grow to say yes to our Christian call to seek, find, and encounter Christ in those in need.

How do we get through the stress of being so overwhelmed? Our Vincentian friends strengthen us when we get disappointed or distressed.  We are all encountering record levels of requests for assistance with food, rent, utilities and the essentials.

It’s our friends and faith in God that help us say yes to helping or yes to a relatively new special work concept, like motel-to-home, or yes to innovative ideas.

As Vincentians, “no” is just not in our vocabulary!  We embrace the “yes” in our vocation because we have Christ and our friends on our side which makes all things possible.

Vincentians around the world look at what we accomplish across the United States and they are inspired!  We have thousands of active and successful Conferences and special works that embrace Blessed Frédéric’s innovative spirit.

Friendship is, of course, an essential element of our Society, and was very important to Frédéric Ozanam. In his letters, he frequently wrote with great tenderness and affection, addressing his recipients as “friend” and thanking them for their friendships.  In a letter to Francois Lallier, one of the co-founders of the Society, Frédéric wrote, “…Friendships formed under the auspices of faith and charity, in a double confraternity of religious discussion and benevolent works, far from languishing as the result of prolonged absence, look inward and focus in some way; they feed on remembrance” (Letter 175, to Lallier, 1838).

It’s wonderful to think that our Vincentian friendships thrive, no matter the distance between us, because they have been formed in faith, love, and service to our neighbors in need!   Even though, for the moment, I am thousands of miles away from my American Vincentian friends now, our friendship is sustained as I remember the great work we have done together through Christ and the prayers and worship we have offered together.

Thank you for living and breathing our mission. Most of all, thank you for being a friend to me, your Conference members, and to our Brother and Sister Vincentians across the world!

Best wishes in Christ,

Michael

How Is YOUR Lent Going?

On the First Sunday of Lent, my Pastor, Fr. Eric, began Mass with the question, “How’s your Lent going?” It’s a question we ask often this time of year, and it’s worth pausing to really answer it. Lent is a sacred invitation to go into the desert with Christ; to fast, pray, and face our temptations honestly. Those forty days in the wilderness were not just about hunger or isolation; they were about clarity. Jesus confronted the temptations that could have drawn Him away from His mission. During the liturgical Lenten season, each of us is asked to do the same: to see what distracts us, what drives us, and what tempts us to rely on our own strength instead of God’s.

For those of us who serve with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Lent can also be a time of reckoning with a very particular temptation — the temptation to take on too much.

Service to the poor, by its very nature, stirs deep compassion. When we see a family suffering, when we meet a neighbor sleeping in a car, when we hear yet another desperate plea for help, our hearts respond at once. We are Vincentians after all; people whose vocation is to bring the love of Christ to those in need. Yet here lies one of the devil’s most subtle tricks, one that St. Vincent himself warned against.

In one of his letters to the early Vincentians, St. Vincent de Paul cautioned his followers about what he called “the ruse of the devil.” He wrote that the evil one sometimes tempts good people not by urging them toward sin, but by pushing them to do more good than they can manage. Overactivity, he said, can exhaust the servant of God, leading to frustration, discouragement, and eventually spiritual dryness. What begins as zeal for doing good can end in weariness of spirit.

That warning feels as relevant today as it must have in 17th‑century France. In our busy modern world, being “overcommitted” is almost a badge of honor. In ministry, it can even feel holy. We tell ourselves that we can rest later, that the poor can’t wait, that saying “no” is selfish. But in truth, overextension is not sacrifice.  It is a distortion of our call to serve.

Consider Jesus in the desert as described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The devil tempts Him with immediate solutions: “Turn these stones into bread,” “Throw yourself down and the angels will save you,” “All the kingdoms of the world can be yours if you worship me.” Each temptation is essentially the same: Do more. Be more. Prove yourself. Yet Jesus resists, not through might, but through surrender to the Father’s will. He chooses patience over performance, obedience over urgency.

That same wisdom applies to our Vincentian service. We are not asked to do everything. We are asked to do what God asks, nothing more and nothing less. As Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, “Time is greater than space.” In other words, genuine transformation takes time. We plant seeds and trust God to bring the harvest. When we rush or take on too much, we begin trying to occupy spaces that belong to God alone.

And in his recent exhortation, Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV reminds us that authentic love of Christ always leads to service, but never to self‑destruction. He insists that the Lord does not ask us to exhaust ourselves in a way that closes our hearts to prayer, community, and joy. Love, he teaches, must be ordered: it begins with receiving God’s grace and only then overflows in generous action. When our service to the poor is rooted in this ordered love, it remains a path to holiness rather than a burden that crushes our spirit.

Many volunteers have felt the creeping weariness that follows overcommitment. It doesn’t happen overnight. It begins with saying yes a few too many times; one more call, one more personal encounter visit, one more meeting. Then comes the fatigue, the frustration, the resentment (“Why isn’t everyone doing as much as me!”), and the quiet thought: “No matter how much I do, it’s never enough.”

When that thought takes hold, we’ve lost sight of the essential truth that the poor are not projects, and we are not saviors. We are companions. We walk alongside our neighbors, offering what we can, trusting God to do the rest. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, reminded Catholics that works of charity must always flow from “a spirit of Christian moderation” and be guided by prudence. Charity, when fueled only by emotion or urgency, becomes unsustainable.

In our time, Pope Francis spoke just as clearly about this. In his address to pastoral workers at the Vatican, he warned of a “spiritual burnout” that comes from confusing mission with activity. “We must learn to rest in the Lord,” he said, “to take time to pray, to recover, to be with our families.” Service that exhausts the heart ceases to be service, it becomes self‑sacrifice without grace.

St. Vincent de Paul understood balance as a sign of humility. He told his missionaries, “Do not be upset if you cannot do everything you would like to do, as long as you do what you can as you ought.” That phrase, “as you ought,” is key. It means discerning what God actually asks of us, and not what our pride or guilt demands.

Lent invites us to rediscover that discernment. When we fast, we learn restraint. When we pray, we relearn dependence. When we give alms, we remember that our resources, our time, talent, treasure, are not infinite. They belong to God and must be used with wisdom. That same wisdom should guide our volunteering and our ministry.

A few practical questions may help us in this Lenten reflection:

• Am I saying yes to everything because I’m afraid of disappointing someone?
• Has my prayer time suffered because I’m always serving?
• Do I mistake busyness for holiness?
• Am I leaving space for God to act, or am I trying to control the results myself?

If any of these questions stir your conscience, you’re not alone. Lent isn’t a season for guilt; it is a season for realignment and the joy of renewal.

The Society is not strengthened by the number of activities we perform, but by the depth of the love we bring to each encounter. Think of the early Church described in the Acts of the Apostles: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Their strength came not from doing everything but from doing the essentials together — worshipping, listening, sharing.

Our Councils and Conferences can live that same spirit by pausing, praying, and discerning together. Sometimes the holiest decision a Vincentian can make is to slow down, to focus on fewer works done with more love.

As we move through the remaining weeks of Lent, let’s make spiritual balance part of our discipline. Set aside intentional time for rest and reflection. Seek quiet moments of gratitude for the work God allows you to do. If you sense exhaustion creeping in, don’t see it as failure, see it as an invitation from the Spirit to renew your strength.

Consider making your personal Lenten task this: instead of adding something new, consider releasing something that has become too heavy. Step back from one commitment to make room for prayer. Turn one “yes” into a gracious, faithful “not this time.” Let that act of restraint become your offering.

When we serve with peace, with balance, and with dependence on God’s grace, our ministry bears fruit that lasts. We become not just helpers of the poor, but witnesses to hope. And that, after all, is the heart of the Vincentian vocation.

May this Lent bring you clarity, renewal, and the joy of serving as Christ served; lovingly, humbly, and always in harmony with the will of God.

Peace and God’s blessings,

John

Our Vocation Is Unique

What is it that makes the Society of St. Vincent de Paul unique? What is our purpose? Or, to borrow from Simon Sinek – what is our “WHY?” Is it our focus on good works? There are many organizations, both faith-based and secular, that do good works. Is it our focus on friendship? There are many fraternal organizations that offer the chance for friends to gather together. Is it spirituality? There are many groups that provide a spiritual focus for their members.

So, what is it? Our focus on growing in holiness in fellowship with our brother and sister Vincentians all pointing to serving our neighbors in need gets us closer to the answer. You might even call these the “Essential Elements” of being a Vincentian! Blessed Frédéric and the other founders could have just focused on being very efficient in delivering wood to the homes of the poor. Good work for sure; but if that was their only focus, their “WHY,” then none of us would be Vincentians because the Society of St. Vincent de Paul would not exist and millions of the faithful around the world would not have had this opportunity for spiritual growth. Tens of millions of our neighbors in need likely would not have witnessed Christ’s presence in their lives. It is the emphasis on growing in holiness, to empty ourselves so that we are able to see Christ in our neighbors in need (and our fellow Vincentians), added to the fellowship we have with one another, all leading to our corporal and spiritual works of mercy that makes us unique. We are called by Christ to be His disciples in this Vincentian vocation. Isn’t that wonderful!

Pope Saint John Paul II alludes to this in his Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici (“Christ’s Faithful Laity”), where he says, “We come to a full sense of the dignity of the lay faithful if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation that the Father assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity.” This combination of our vocation to holiness leading to “the perfection of charity” is what sets us apart as an organization. It is my belief that the uniqueness of our vocation is that the Society offers us a means to capture a tangible, authentic, “real world” experience of this call to holiness and perfection of charity (our “WHY”).

Formation

But this vocation isn’t something we experience once and forget about. This is something we will spend the rest of our lives figuring out – being changed in ways we do not yet understand. This is God’s plan!

It is, therefore, critical to not only continue to open ourselves to this call through our prayer life, fellowship and service, but also to continually work on our formation. In fact, the Rule tells us that “It is essential that the Society continually promote the formation and training of its members and Officers, in order to deepen their knowledge of the Society and their spirituality, improve the sensitivity, quality and efficiency of their service to the poor and help them be aware of the benefits, resources and opportunities that are available for the poor. The Society also offers members higher training in order to better help to raise the cultural and social level of those who request this support. [3.12]”

But we need to always help each other understand this vocation we have and, frankly, the challenges involved. We can reassure one another that we are together and that staying with formation prepares us for our mission – to meet Christ in those in need.

I recently had the pleasure of being one of the presenters of an Ozanam Orientation for a brand new conference in South Carolina. Not only is this a new conference but it is also a relatively new church parish that was looking for a way to do outreach – and they decided to form a St. Vincent de Paul conference! What a blessing to see new Vincentians on fire as they begin their vocation!  It is up to us as “experienced” Vincentians to help them and all newcomers grow in holiness; to grow in our perfection of charity, to grow in our Vocation.

Your National Council, through the leadership of Aldo Barletta (National Vice President of Vincentian Spiritual Growth and Enrichment) and others, want to help you in this process by broadening and expanding available formation and training material, programs, and tools for our Vincentian Pathways. This includes exploring revising the Ozanam Orientation and its delivery, Invitation for Renewal, highlighting a Formation Day at the National Assembly, emphasizing training of Spiritual Advisors (English and Spanish speaking) across the country, utilizing Fred Talks and the Ozanam Institute (https://www.ozanaminstitute.org/), and more. Your Technology Committee is also working to implement modern technologies to facilitate delivery of formation materials to you when you need them. I hope to have more to come on that later this year.

Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), wrote, “We need to help others to realize that the only way is to learn how to encounter others with the right attitude, which is to accept and esteem them as companions along the way, without interior resistance. Better yet, it means learning to find Jesus in the faces of others, in their voices, in their pleas.” And so it is, my Vincentian brothers and sisters, that the essence, the uniqueness – the “WHY” – of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is that it provides you and me a way to personally encounter Jesus in a real, tangible manner.

May we help one another remain formed in this message!

Yours in Blessed Frédéric,

Brian