Spirituality

Of our five Vincentian Virtues, the one that first comes to mind in considering the life and works of our founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, is humility, which our Rule teaches us is “accepting the truth about our frailties, gifts, talents, and charism, yet knowing that all that God gives us is for others and that we can achieve nothing of eternal value without His grace.” [Rule, Part I, 2.5.1]

As a young man, he clearly recognized the blessings with which he had been bestowed, saying that “There does not exist perhaps in the vineyard of the Eternal Father, a single vine to which He has given so much care and attention.” Recognizing his own many gifts, he also recognized his obligation to share them for the benefit of others, to answer the call of “the mysterious voice from within.” And yet, while he “recognized God’s gift” he believed himself “incapable of willing or of acting.” [Baunard, 98-99]

At the Sorbonne, Frédéric certainly made great use of his formidable intellectual gifts. He quickly earned a reputation for his bold defenses of the faith in the face of attacks from students and professors alike. He was a skillful debater, unafraid in offering arguments that at times caused even his professors to rethink their own arguments.

And yet, when challenged in the Conference of History to show the good of the Church, Frédéric did not leap to impassioned argument. One of his chief goals in that debating club had been to win over the unbelieving students to the faith, and yet, when directly asked “what are you doing … to prove the truth of your faith?” he had no ready answer. [Baunard, 64] Surely such a brilliant debater could have launched a devastating argument; in modern parlance, he could have “owned” the Saint Simonians.

Instead, he and his friends left in silence. They could see not that their arguments had been defeated, but that words alone were not sufficient. Indeed, words had so far seemed counterproductive. Rather than rely upon their own intellect to show the good of the faith, they saw instead that they had to humbly follow upon the example of Jesus, and use their gifts to serve His poor.

It was the same thing taught by St. Vincent de Paul, who had two hundred years earlier advised one of his missioners to be “more humble and devout toward God, and more charitable toward your neighbor so that they may see the beauty and holiness of our religion and be moved to return to it.” [CCD VIII:209]

Our gifts are sufficient if we use them as God wills, for the benefit of others and the glory of His name, “without thinking of any reward or advantage for [ourselves].” [Rule, Part I, 2.2] The Society’s very founding was an act of humility. How can we do otherwise?

Contemplate

What personal ambition or desire is the “mysterious voice from within” calling me to set aside?

Recommended Reading

Apostle in a Top Hat

As Christians, we are called to perfection, which we seek to attain through formation. We are formed in mind, body, and spirit in a lifelong process of attaining the fullness of our humanity, revealed to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In the Society, we recognize four different dimensions of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, and ministerial. These four overlap with each other, of course, but the one that can be easiest to neglect is our intellectual formation.

Intellectual formation encompasses training and skills development, such as poverty research and servant leadership training, but at its core, intellectual formation has to do with our efforts to understand our faith traditions and our church’s teachings. We do this through reading our Rule, Holy Scripture, and the writings of our own saints and founders, just as they did before us, but above all to focus on the life and words of Jesus as our model for a life of holiness.

Indeed, one of the books held dear by Vincent, Louise, and Frédéric was The Imitation of Christ written by Thomas à Kempis in the 1420s. St. Vincent recommended the use of this book in personal retreats, suggesting taking short readings from it and “stopping to reflect a short time on each sentence.” [CCD I:373] In offering spiritual direction to one of the priests of the mission, he advised him especially to “read Chapter XV of the third book of the Imitation of Christ. You will see there that not every desire, however good, is always from the Holy Spirit and that you are far from the indifference or resignation that it teaches.” [CCD VI:146] Much of this letter, and other writings of Vincent, reflects the thoughts of Kempis.

For her part, St. Louise considered the Imitation, along with St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life and their Rule to be “the books necessary for the Daughters of Charity” which should be read monthly. [SWLM, L.383]

And in the early days of the Society, the Imitation remained a central text for study and reflection in conference meetings, and for personal reflection. As he noted once, he “had taken the precaution of reading a certain chapter in the Imitation” in order to guard against putting too much stock in compliments, even from greatly respected people; to remind him of his humility. [Baunard, 87] In 1838, the conference began reading, “in place of the Imitation, the Life of St. Vincent de Paul, so as to better imbue ourselves with his examples and traditions.” [Letter 175, to Lallier, 1838]

Today we have, in addition to Vincent, the life and words of Bl. Frédéric to read and to imitate, but even 600 years after they were written, the words of Thomas à Kempis have as much to offer us as they had for Vincent, Louise, and Frédéric. “Let it be our most earnest study,” wrote Kempis, “to dwell upon the life of Jesus Christ.” [Imitation, I, I, 1]

Contemplate

What great Christian books can I incorporate into my intellectual formation?

Recommended Reading

The Imitation of Christ