Spirituality

A Week in Prayers January 16 – January 20

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Monday, January 16

My Lord and my God
My light and my hope
My rest and my strength
I give You my heart
I give You my life
I give You this day
Amen

Tuesday, January 17

Lord Jesus, strength of my arms,
I will share the neighbor’s burden
In Your name and for Your sake,
With no motive but God’s love,
With my gifts from You alone,
Filled with hope that I can share.
Amen

Wednesday, January 18

Lord, I lift my heart to you.
Who I am today is for You,
What I do today is for You,
When my day begins it’s for You,
Where I go today is for You,
Why I live today is for You.
Amen

Thursday, January 19

Lord, I bring my needs to you.
Protect me from harm,
Bless my efforts and my work,
Help me to be better,
In big things and small things,
For nothing is too small
For Your blessing
Or my prayer.
Amen

Friday, January 20

Lord, in serving the neighbor
I seek to serve You
With faith that reflects
Your abiding faithfulness,
In hope that is shared
With all who are hopeless,
For love of the neighbor,
In Your love alone.
Amen

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

Contemplation: The Heart of the Matter

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There are times when the demands of serving the neighbor can weigh heavily on us, sometimes because there are so many calls to answer, and sometimes because our efforts often seem to be in vain; the poor remain poor, the struggling continue to struggle. We are called to serve in hope, but how do we raise our own spirits? How do we return to what Bl. Frédéric called “the rays of charity which at the beginning came sometimes to illuminate and warm our souls”? [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1835]

Our own physical rest and health, of course, is not only for our own benefit. As St. Vincent once explained to St. Louise in telling her to get some rest, “Increase your strength; you need it, or, in any case, the public does.” [CCD I:392] And as our Rule reminds us, “Vincentians are available for work in the Conferences only after fulfilling the family and professional duties.” [Rule, Part I, 2.6]

Resting our bodies is often enough to restore our energy, but not necessarily our zeal when we feel weighed down by the feeling that our work is not accomplishing enough; when the neighbor continues to struggle, no matter how much we help. It is at these times that it becomes most important to reflect deeply upon the nature of our works, and the purpose of our Society.

We are not the Society of Rental Assistance or Food Pantries. We serve in hope not only of offering some material relief, we serve in the hope of eternal life in Christ, and we visit the neighbor to share that hope through our friendship, our prayer, and our love.

In the history and traditions of the Society, and of the whole Vincentian Family, our visits have been not only to the poor in their homes, but to hospitals and prisons. As Chaplain of the Galleys, St. Vincent de Paul brought prayer, and hope, and the love of God to thousands of prisoners without freeing a single one. For the rest of his life, he could hardly speak about the galley prisoners without weeping.

The emotional burden we carry with us from sharing our neighbor’s suffering is part of our expression of love, and we can take great solace in knowing that we truly lighten their burdens by sharing them. And just as we share the neighbor’s burden, we pray that the neighbor may share our hope. We visit to show them that God has not forgotten them; that they too may share in the hope of everlasting life.

Knowing this hope in our own hearts, serving in His name and for His sake, may our hearts not be burned out, but on fire, and our souls “in a continuous state of joy and happiness”. [SWLM, A.14b]

Contemplate

Do I always seek first to offer the suffering of the neighbor to God, and the love of God to the neighbor?

Recommended Reading

The Spirituality of the Home Visit

Contemplation — A Simple Aspiration

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We celebrate the great vision of our primary founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam who, along with six others, started that first Conference which has since grown to literally encircle the world, as he had envisioned. [Rule, Part I, 2.4] Lest we confuse vision with ambition, though, Frédéric’s oft-stated goals for himself and the Society were simply to become better, and to do a little good. On its face, this may seem to be a contradiction. After all, how does one reconcile a vision of charity and justice sweeping across France and the world, restoring the church, and making the world better with the humble personal aspiration simply to do a little good, or to become better?

In Frédéric’s estimation, the Society’s rapid growth was not the work of its members, least of all himself, but had grown so rapidly only through Divine Providence, through which it also had “been allowed to do a little good”. [Letter 141, to Ballofet, 1837] He understood, exactly as St Vincent had repeatedly taught, that any success we may have, or that our Society may have, is entirely the work of God, not ourselves. Indeed, the whole point of the work is not the earthly result, but our own growth in holiness; our “becoming better.”

While their works, as Frédéric hoped, may indeed “[erase] little by little the old divisions of political parties” and “make it a moral country”, it won’t because of a grand strategy, but because the members seek “to become better themselves in order to make others happier”. [Letter 290, to Amélie, 1841]

Remember, we seek “to help relieve suffering for love alone, without thinking of any reward or advantage for [ourselves]”. [Rule, Part I, 2.2] If the world changes, it changes – that’s up to God. We’re called to serve selflessly, to “do all the good we can, and trust to God for the rest.” [Baunard, 81] To become better, then, is not a matter of earning accolades; it is something we do for others, and for God.

Indeed, as Frédéric once advised his friend Ernest Falconnet, “it would be a thousand times better to languish in obscurity for half a century, edifying others with a spirit of resignation and doing some little good, than to be intoxicated for a few brief months with worldly pleasure”. [Baunard, 349]

Ours is “a vocation for every moment of our lives”. [Rule, Part I, 2.6] We seek to do a little good, to become better, because, as Frédéric wrote, as “a Christian, a believer in God, in humanity, in country, in family, never forget that your life belongs to them, not to yourself”. [Baunard, 349]

It may seem a simple aspiration, to become better, but simple does not necessarily mean easy. We grow in holiness together, each of us and all of us, seeking to fulfill God’s will by doing a little good, and there can be no greater aspiration than that.

Contemplate

How can I become better, and do a little good, today?

Recommended Reading

Apostle in a Top Hat

A Week in Prayers January 2 – January 6

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Tuesday, January 3

My Lord and my God,
You are my strength for the journey,
The light on my path,
The voice that speaks
To my innermost heart.
You lift me when I have fallen,
O Lord, and I am Yours.
Amen

Wednesday, January 4

Jesus Christ, Savior,
I seek only to follow Your way;
With love for the neighbor,
With hope for new life,
With faith in the Father above.
Amen

Thursday, January 5

Give rest to my heart, O God,
As I lift my eyes towards You.
Grant me the peace
Of knowing Your love
And of loving You in return.
Amen

Friday, January 6

Lord Jesus,
You clothed Yourself in our humanity,
Sharing our burdens as Your own
So that we might share in Your divinity.
Help me to share the burdens
Of all those separated from You
By poverty or sorrow
So that they may feel Your love,
See Your light,
And share Your hope.
Amen

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

Contemplation — At the Top of the Stairs

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The little Society of St. Vincent de Paul is alive and growing,” wrote Bl. Frédéric, “the extraordinary needs of this winter have reinvigorated the activity of our almsgiving.” [Letter 224, to Lallier, 1840] This was, he said, the way in which they strove to keep the fire of Christian brotherhood burning. But for this seven-year-old Society, “almsgiving” had already expanded to include the kind of works we now describe as “systemic change”.

Frédéric went on to explain that a “great many of our members have volunteered to help young ex-prisoners, and the excellent La Perrière is engaged in establishing preventive assistance.” [Ibid] Not content only to serve the needs of those already hungry and in poverty, the Conference at Lyon was working to help ex-prisoners make their way back into society and setting up other programs to help people avoid poverty in the first place. This only makes sense – as the old saying goes, we fight poverty, not the poor. So why would Vincentians not try to head it off at the pass?

Such approaches do not contradict our mission of person-to-person service, of seeing and serving Christ in the poor whom we visit. On the contrary, it is our home visits that give us the insights necessary to determine what sort of programs are most needed in our own communities. That is why the Rule explains that the “Society should work not only with individuals in need but also with families and communities.” [Rule, Part I, 7.9] Special Works and Systemic Change are, and have always been, the natural outgrowth of the home visit, and the regular practice of the Society. [Manual, p. 5]

Social scientists may do their studies, and offer insights in their publications, but it is as true today as it was in Frédéric’s time that “knowledge of social well-being and of reform is to be learned, not from books, nor from the public platform, but in climbing the stairs to the poor man’s garret, sitting by his bed side, feeling the same cold that pierces him, sharing the secret of his lonely heart and troubled mind.” [Baunard, 279] We are called not to simply drop the groceries at the top of those stairs and walk away, but to gain from our neighbors the knowledge Frédéric described, and put it to use beyond the home visit.

There is no act of charity that is not accompanied by justice,” St. Vincent wrote, “or that permits us to do more than we reasonably can.” [CCD II:68] Charity and justice go together in our church’s teaching, our Patron’s spirituality, and our founder’s example.

Justice places its demands on each of us and all of us, not just the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. And while justice and charity are inextricably bound together, Vincentians remain especially committed to solve those problems that we understand uniquely through the eyes of our neighbors, always “[making] charity accomplish what justice alone cannot do.” [Letter 136, to Lallier, 1836]

Contemplate

My Conference serves many individual needs. Can I add them up to a wider problem we can address?

Recommended Reading

Seeds of Hope

A Week in Prayers December 27 – December 30

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Tuesday, December 27

Lord Jesus Christ
Son of the Father, Son of Mary,
Help me to seek you in Your poor,
To imitate Your life,
To share in Your hope,
To be emptied of self,
And filled with You.
Amen

Wednesday, December 28

I walk in Your light, Lord Jesus.
In Your light is no darkness or sin.
You are the Savior, Light of the world,
That I seek my redemption within.
Amen

Thursday, December 29

Save me, Savior of the world,
Through Your sacrifice for all.

I will bear Your cross in suffering,
I will serve the poor as You,
I will love the Father above all else,
As You command, so shall I do.

Save me, Savior of the world,
Though I am unworthy and small.
Amen

Friday, December 30

Lord, bless my father and mother,
As they have blessed me in Your name.
May they live in Your love
For all of their days,
And rest in Your peace at the end.
Help me, in my weakness,
To honor them through my faith,
As Your Son honored You,
Along with His parents on earth.
Amen

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

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

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.

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

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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