Vincentians

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Stores Corner — Recession Benefits and The Need for Long-Term Planning
Stores Corner — Recession Benefits and The Need for Long-Term Planning 1080 1080 SVDP USA

During a recession, the thrift industry seems to thrive. Although shoppers tend to cut back on spending for non-essential purchases, sales for thrift shops like ours tend to boom. This is a great opportunity for our stores.

The Offer Up Recommerce Report 2022 suggests that the secondhand shopping economy will grow 80% in the next 5 years. Will our stores be ready for this potential growth?

Since consumers tend to hang on to their possessions much longer during a recession, this could pose a dilemma for some thrift stores. If fewer donations are received, yet the demand for our merchandise is growing, how might we plan for this? We need to be creative and use some forward thinking to get ahead of this.

As we know, our donation locations must be convenient for our donors. We might explore targeting specific donation drives where we bring donation receptacles to our donors, i.e. organize community events such as “Fill the Truck” at churches, targeted neighborhoods, or civic organizations.

We can increase social media efforts to target specific age groups, donation sites or specific merchandise needs. Promote special donation locations in church bulletins, on social media, Homeowner Association newsletters, and the like.

We might consider offering a store coupon to donors as an incentive for them to come in and shop at our store. If they don’t use the coupon, perhaps the donor might share the coupon with another prospective customer.

If you don’t already do so, maybe explore purchasing new product and selling the purchased merchandise at a markup. This might bridge the gap, as needed, to fill the stores when donations are low and provide cost-effective merchandise for our customers.

The SVdP National Stores website has a listing of National Partners that could be a resource in this area. For a list of National Partners, visit: https://www.svdpusa-thriftstore.org and select SVdP National Partners under the Resources tab. These vendors have shoes, clothing, bedding, and much more.

As always, if you have questions or would like to reach out to a National Store Committee Member, their names and region can be found here.

If you have a topic that you would like addressed in a future Stores Corner article, please e-mail our Jeff Beamguard, Director of Stores Support at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.

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March 2 — A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
March 2 — A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 900 900 SVDP USA

Sometimes the sign is right in front of you.

The hotel staff would come by to clean the room unless I put the Do Not Disturb sign on my door. Since I had work papers all over the place, I didn’t want the risk of having some or all of them tossed away. While still in the room, imagine my surprise when I heard the knock and “Housekeeping” call at my door. I answered and politely declined the service. I then left for a couple of hours. When I returned, with the sign still on the door, the phone rang. The friendly hotel person said they were doing a “wellness check” on me. Why would they do that? Because the Do Not Disturb sign was on my door for hours. I said that I was okay, thanks, and didn’t want to be disturbed. “Oh, we didn’t know,” she replied. “That’s why I had the sign, the one that says, you know, Do Not Disturb on it.”

Sometimes we read the signs and move ahead anyway.

Joe was pulled over for a traffic stop. “You didn’t stop at the Stop sign,” the officer politely told Joe. “I need to give you a ticket.” “But I know I slowed down,” replied Joe, “What’s the difference?” The officer pulled out his steel baton and began tapping it on the windshield. “Hey, what are you doing? You might chip my glass. Please stop doing that!” implored Joe. The officer smiled, kept tapping, and replied, “You sure you don’t want me just to slow down?”

Every day, we see signs of God’s graces in our lives. We wake up, which in itself is a pretty good start! We see the sunrise. As Vincentians, we get to serve the Lord and our neighbors and feel good about doing so. We make and continue friendships to make life worth living. We have food and drink to nourish ourselves, blessings from God’s goodness. If we look each day, and sometimes we need to look more closely than on other days, we see signs of God’s miracles all around us. Let’s be intentional in our being thankful, instead of focusing on the negatives we let control our spirits without our permission.

Sometimes to see the signs, we need a little help.

When we celebrate Mass in communion with our family and friends, we are reminded through the Gospel and readings of God’s presence in our lives. If we just allow it, faith flows into our hearts. We leave the church refreshed.

So many of our neighbors, and even our family members, have left their faith. For the first time in our country’s history, those expressing “no faith” regardless of their family’s history are nearing the majority. The signs of God and Heaven are all around them, but they either believe that all those blessing don’t flow from a divine presence, that “science” explains everything, or that they make their own luck. They believe that even the miracle of their own human birth is just something that happens in nature by random coincidence; they could have been a blade of grass or a parakeet.

Even the explorers needed a trail guide.

Yes, the signs of a living God are all around us. Maybe, though, some need help to see them. Explorers often use a guide to see what they can’t, the hidden signs and clues provided by others that their destination was ahead of them. Edmund Hillary didn’t ascend Mt. Everest on his own; the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (look it up) showed him the signs along the way.

At some times in our life we are the explorers, and at others we are, or can be, a guide for others. Often, when we serve as guides we learn a little bit more ourselves, don’t we? What can we do today, even right now, to be a guide for someone we care about? How can we help others to see the signs of Christ we see often? We are blessed to be Vincentians and to undertake a life journey of greater holiness. Who can we bring along with us, if even for a little while, on our journey?

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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Contemplation — Between Vincent and Francis
Contemplation — Between Vincent and Francis 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Writing to his friend Auguste Materne, a 17-year-old Frédéric Ozanam tried to sum up his good points and his bad points. The bad side he reduced to “four predominant faults: pride, impatience, weakness, and an extreme meticulousness” which he went on to explain in more detail, then closed with an odd self-assessment: “Add to these faults that of despising the neighbor a little too easily and you have my bad side.” [Letter 12, to Materne, 1830] Less than three years before founding the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, whose members are dedicated to loving and serving our neighbors, this man, this role model of holiness, admitted to “despising the neighbor a little too easily”?

The younger Frédéric recognized his own pride and impatience, which sometimes led him to intolerance. He concluded that he thought he “could become either a very wicked or a very virtuous man.” Ozanam’s frankness may be a reminder that each of us has a saint within us, struggling to be set free from our human weaknesses, whatever they may be, and in order to achieve the holiness we seek, we all need help. As our Rule puts it, “Vincentians are aware of their own brokenness and need for God’s grace.” [Rule, Part I, 2.2]

Frédéric, whose beatification attests to the holiness he ultimately attained, found the grace to go beyond his own brokenness in the very place that we may find it, too – in the Society he founded for this very purpose. Indeed, only nine years after delineating his own weaknesses, he would write to Father Lacordaire, saying “I greatly fear to lose in useless efforts time I could more modestly and surely employ for my salvation and the service of the neighbor.” [Letter 211, to Lacordaire, 1839] His impatience had reversed itself, and he now urgently sought to serve the neighbor.

Each of us, Frédéric wrote, “carries within his heart a seed of sanctity”. [Letter 137, to Janmot, 1837] It is in the poor that we see God, and are able to serve Him and thus grow closer to Him; to nurture that seed. This is both the lesson of Frédéric’s life, and the example he leaves for us; an example of holiness attained, but more importantly, an example of growth in holiness.

Beyond even that, Frédéric shows us how to grow in holiness together, asking his fellow Vincentians to “not allow yourselves to be stopped by those who will say to you, ‘He is in Heaven.’ Pray always for him who loves you dearly, for him who has greatly sinned. If I am assured of these prayers, I quit this earth with less fear.” [Baunard, 386] In return, Léonce Curnier would say after his lifelong friend’s death that “I never think of Frédéric without an inclination to invoke his assistance… I seem to see him in Heaven between St. Vincent de Paul and St. Francis de Sales, whose faithful disciple he was.” [Ibid, 406]

May we continue to serve Christ, and to pray for each other’s salvation. Pray for us Blessed Frédéric!

Contemplate

Do I always pray for my fellow Vincentians, living and dead, and ask also for their prayers?

Recommended Reading

15 Days of Prayer with Blessed Frédéric Ozanam

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SVdP News Roundup February 18 – February 24
SVdP News Roundup February 18 – February 24 1080 1080 SVDP USA

With 100,000 Vincentians across the United States and nearly 800,000 around the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provides person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering. Read some of their stories here:

INTERNATIONAL

NATIONAL

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A Week in Prayers February 20 – February 24
A Week in Prayers February 20 – February 24 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Monday, February 20

Turn my heart, O Lord,
Give me the faith that never doubts,
That never complains,
That never expects.
Give me the faith that knows,
The faith that loves,
The faith that is shared.
Amen

Tuesday, February 21

Lord bless those who are in need
Who thirst in the heat
Who shiver at night
Who ache with hunger
Who long for work
Whose voice is unheard
Let me be Your blessing
Amen

Wednesday, February 22

I praise You, Lord, in my heart,
I pray from the depths of my soul.
With the strength of my arms,
I profess Your truth.
With all of my back,
Every drop of sweat,
May my works be done
For Your sake.
Amen

Thursday, February 23

Lord Jesus, for my salvation
You have suffered, died, and risen.
Help me to serve
In memory of Your suffering,
Live in the light of Your sacrifice,
And share the hope of eternal life.
Amen

Friday, February 24

My Lord and my God,
I seek only the glory and the beauty
Of Your Word and Your works.
Your great light guides me, Lord,
So that I no longer wander lost
In this valley of tears,
But walk in hope and in joy
To You.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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02-23-2023 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
02-23-2023 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Every Christian should visit the Holy Land at least once.  Called the “Fifth Gospel,” Israel’s holy sites make the Scriptures come alive, reminding us that the story of our salvation, culminating in Christ, is not a myth or a beautiful idea, but actual events in specific places at particular historical moments. Having just returned from there with 116 pilgrims, I felt once again the magnetic power of Jesus Christ, whose life, death and resurrection is the center and source of our Catholic faith.

The Garden of Gethesemane, just outside Jerusalem, is a spiritually powerful place for me. The garden contains six olive trees which were there the night Jesus sweated blood in His agony. Inside the church, immediately in front of the altar, is the rock on which tradition says Jesus threw Himself down and prayed that the cross would pass Him by. Of course, we know the Lord accepted His Passion and death on that rock in the end, handing His will over to the Father, and winning forgiveness and salvation for the entire human race.

Whenever I pray in front of that holy rock, I ask the Lord for the grace to hand my will completely over to Him. I must confess I always feel a twinge of fear when I pray that. I am happily willing to give 90% of my will to God, but I also want to keep some back for myself, hanging onto a parachute or an exit strategy, just in case God’s will is too difficult or frightening. We indeed can get ourselves to a spiritual place where we grit our teeth and white-knuckle our way to accept God’s will in our lives, but such a place of joyless, resigned surrender is not good enough.

What I want is to want what God wants because He wants it, to will the will of the Father. That spiritual place is one of freedom, acceptance, peace and docility.  Jesus willed His Passion and death, freely accepting it, embracing the pain, lifting all to the Father, and He did so generously and completely. The Lord’s embrace of the cross in Gethsemane is the fulfillment of His entire path of obedience, which we will hear beautifully on the First Sunday of Lent, when, at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus rejects the temptations of the devil, renouncing any self-seeking or misuse of power, always handing His life over to the will of the Father.

Lent is a spiritually opportune time for us to grow in our obedience and docility to the will of the Father, to reject the temptations of sin and self-absorption, and to expand our heart and spirit through the traditional actions of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. By being generous with God and others, we grow in our ability to transcend our own narrow limits and to apprehend the infinite mercy and compassion of the Lord. When I contemplate what Jesus has done for me, when I hold a crucifix and remember that the eternal Son of God traded His life for mine on the cross and has won eternal life and mercy for me, my heart expands and my spirit soars. How can I be stingy when God has been infinitely kind to me? How can I measure what I give to the Lord, when He has blessed me without limit?  How can I reduce my faith to some heavy fulfillment of obligation, when I come to understand that everything in my life is a gift, an undeserved grace?

We do none of our Lenten actions to impress God, to demonstrate our spiritual greatness, or to win the approval of others. Such arrogant attitudes Jesus condemns in the Gospel for Ash Wednesday. (Matthew 6: 1-8) So why do give up things, try harder to be virtuous, and spend more time in prayer during these 40 days? I think of Lent as a clearing out of inner space, so God can act more freely in my life, so there is more of Him and less of me, that my heart is more supple and generous, that I have surrendered my will in little things, and hopefully that will make me more able to be generous and docile in the bigger challenges.

If I can see and accept God’s plan in my life through every detail of events, people, tasks, joys, tragedies, and opportunities that crowd my days, then I am free to live in union with Him, to be His instrument, to serve as His messenger, to be an extension of Christ in the world.

When we look at life through that supernatural lens, we powerfully realize that our work as Vincentians is an extension of the presence and action of God in the world. The Lord powerfully uses us to bring the Good News to the poor, to witness to the radiant dignity of every person, to alleviate suffering with compassion, and to build up the Kingdom of God. Our Vincentian witness is evangelical for it is a proclamation of the Gospel, certainly in word, but most profoundly in deed. For all the good that God accomplishes through us, we give glory and thanks to God!

This Lent, consider inviting someone to join your Vincentian conference. Many people simply need a friendly nudge to consider such a possibility of service. Many Catholics want to serve and love more, but just do not know how. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a beautiful way to live the Gospel and embrace the social teachings of the Church in a very practical and specific fashion. Imagine if every Vincentian brought one other person into the Society!

“For those who believe in the love of God and love him, the most varied circumstances that condition one’s existence are not seen as simply dictated by chance or by the blind laws of nature, but they are all guided by this love. They are occasions and means by which God serves to bring his work of sanctification to completion. He conceals himself behind all the events of one’s life: a given health condition…or some particular cause for disappointment, an unexpected change…He lies behind the particular state of life one has set out on, a sudden trial of a moral nature, or any kind of difficulty found at work. He hides himself behind the fact that we find ourselves to be at a specific place, next to a specific person. Everything, for the one who loves God…acquires positive meaning, because through all these circumstances, one can experience the love of God who wants to guide us toward sanctity.”

Servant of God Chiara Lubich, as published in Magnificat, February, 2023

Bishop Donald Hying

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Black History Month: There is Nothing Wrong with Resistance
Black History Month: There is Nothing Wrong with Resistance 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Written by: Doris M. Barrow, III, Director and Campus Minister at the Texas Southern University Newman Center and Vincentian at St. Monica Conference

Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you of two minds. James 4:7-8

Resistance can sometimes become and appear politically charged in our present-day lives and unfortunately bear negative and unchristlike connotations within the Church. Some mislabel resistance by calling it disobedience to authority, and unnecessary, but in my estimation, as I reflect on verses 7-8 from the Letter of James chapter 4, true resistance is against the evil one, the liar and father of lies. (Cf. John 8:44)

True resistance as St. Paul extols to the church in Ephesus, is a battle against evil. In chapter 6:10-17 in the Letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle explains that in order to battle the evil one and to resist the devil,  we must draw the strength to do so from God’s power. Working under our own power to foster resistance is not sufficient nor sustainable. True resistance requires the supernatural power of Almighty God to combat the evil one, his works, and all his empty promises.

When the baptized disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ put on the full armor of God, we are better equipped to stand up to the tactics of the devil. Sometimes, these tactics, unfortunately, take root in the hearts of men, and manifest in the language and work of believers and stand in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ. The corporal works of mercy (charitable actions by which we help our neighbors in their bodily needs) and the spiritual works of mercy (helping our neighbor in their spiritual needs) are found in the teachings of Jesus Christ and this is where we are afforded the blessed opportunity to resist the tactics of the evil one by loving others as God loves. You see friends, God provides a blueprint through the teachings of Jesus and the power to carry out all works of mercy, which I believe is true resistance of the evil one.

Sisters and brothers, I have offered for your consideration a reflection on how Sacred Scripture provides guidance to true resistance. In light of that reflection, I would like to share the story of a group of college students attending a Historically Black University in Houston, Texas that demonstrated the true resistance I believe God gives the strength to facilitate.

On March 4, 1960, members of the Progressive Youth Association (PYA); students at Texas Southern University (TSU), gathered at the flagpole near Hannah Hall, they prayed, lined up in pairs, and 13 Texas Southern University students marched to the Weingarten Supermarket, about a mile from campus. According to TSU journalism professor Serbino Sandifer-Walker, during a television interview, 60 Years ago today, students protested to end segregation, the students “went into this supermarket and they sat at this lunch counter determined to be served.” “But they weren’t served. But they weren’t discouraged. They stayed there until they were ushered out.”

These brave young souls joined a long-standing and ongoing fight of resistance against the structures of Houston’s legal segregation laws. These laws not only applied to where people dined and shopped, but they also applied to higher education. The creation of the university, these young protestors attended, was established in 1947 for black Texans in Houston. Dr. Alvia Wardlaw, Curator of the University Museum at TSU, in her article, Heart of Third Ward: Texas Southern University, stated that the reason the university was created, was due to the “outgrowth of the bittersweet Sweat v. Painter ruling that denied Herman M. Sweat, an African-American college graduate, and World War II veteran, admission to the University of Texas Law School in Austin.” It seems fitting that the college students at TSU helped to desegregate the city of Houston.

There is nothing wrong with resistance.

The preface to the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium Et Spes (Hope and Joy), are fitting as a conclusion, and these words come to mind when I think of the TSU college students who made a conscious decision to resist segregation and I am a beneficiary of it. Approximately 5 years after the sit-in, Gaudium Et Spes was promulgated by Pope St. Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council in 1965 and the first sentence of the document, in my humble opinion, speaks to the experience of the Texas Southern University students and offers an invitation to the disciples of Jesus Christ to engage in true resistant when it is needed.

The preface to Gaudium Et Spes reads,

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.

In what way is God calling you to a ministry of true resistance?

Mary, our Mother of Mercy, pray for us.

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Black History Month: Good Trouble
Black History Month: Good Trouble 90 135 SVDP USA

Written by: Fr. Perry Henry, C.M. Provincial

Black History Month is the annual celebration of the achievements and essential role African American individuals and communities have played throughout the history of our nation. It traces its origin to “Negro History Week” the brainchild of the noted black historian Carter G. Woodson in the early 20th century. In 1926 the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Black Americans and other people of African descent sponsored a national Negro History week, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The event inspired schools and communities throughout the country to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs and host performances and lectures.

Since then, the month of February has been set aside to remember, lift up, and celebrate the many achievements of African Americans throughout our nation’s history — much of which, sadly, has gone without notice in official telling of the story of our country. It is an inspiring and affirming story of faith and courage, resilience, and resistance.

The theme given to this year’s Black History Month is ‘Black Resistance’, inviting us to examine how African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression. In setting the theme for this year’s celebration the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) asserted that ‘By resisting, Black people have achieved triumphs, successes, and progress as seen in the end of chattel slavery, dismantling of Jim Crow segregation in the South, increased political representation at all levels of government, desegregation of educational institutions, the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, and in recent years the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History in Washington, DC. Black resistance strategies have served as a model for every other social movement in the country, thus, the legacy and importance of these actions cannot be understated.’

This month I was honored and delighted to address the young people of my home parish of Our Mother of Mercy Church in the city of Beaumont in east Texas for their annual Black History Month celebration. I am the first and only African American priest ordained from the parish since its establishment as a mission church in 1927 and a full parish in 1937. The parish was established to serve the rapidly growing black catholic community, many of whom migrated from southern Louisiana, into the black subdivision of the city of Beaumont called the Pear Orchard.

I shared with them my own story of growing up in that same racially divided city where the Southern Pacific railroad tracks clearly defined the boundaries between black and white neighborhoods. The black community on the southern side of the track where I lived — with our own schools, churches, businesses, medical clinics, community organizations, and cemeteries — provided a safe, affirming, and nurturing environment for its residents. I also shared with them my own story of the discomfort and insecurity I felt deep inside on those occasions when as a youth I had to cross those tracks for routines as simple as picking up grocery items at the supermarket on the other side of the track. On those occasions I was always aware that I was moving into a space where I might not be safe or accepted.

Our community in the Pear Orchard provided that safe, affirming, and nurturing space for those of us who lived there. It also served as a space of resistance to push back against the forces of racial indignity, discrimination and injustice that pressed against blacks.

Since my childhood in the Pear Orchard our nation has made many advances in racial equality and justice, but the task isn’t completed. In setting the theme of ‘Black Resistance’ for this year, the ASALH acknowledged that for Black Americans “…every advance, improvement in our quality of life and access to the levers of power to determine our destiny has been achieved through struggle.” And our society continues to struggle to resist old and new racial challenges. I concluded my address to them by recalling the words of ex-congressman and civil rights activist, John Lewis, “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not a struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year; it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

As we celebrate Black History Month this year, let us recommit ourselves to that noble struggle by getting into good trouble.

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Contemplation — Hearts Filled with Joy
Contemplation — Hearts Filled with Joy 1080 1080 SVDP USA

The primary purpose of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is the spiritual growth of its members. We seek, by serving the poor, to see His suffering and to grow closer to Him and welcoming the neighbor into His love. All this suffering serves a purpose in God’s plan, but that does not mean we serve in sadness!

Vincentians receive many dimensions of God’s grace as a result of our home visits, but perhaps the most important dimension is joyful grace. We are like children who have just cleaned up their rooms without being asked, racing to tell our parents what we have done! We are bursting with pride not only because know this will please our parents, but because in the course of our cleaning we saw for ourselves that it was good.

Similarly, we have sat in the pew and listened to the words of Gospel of Matthew many times, and many times we have nodded along as Christ explains the Judgment of Nations. It all makes sense – serve the least among us, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger…probably most of us can recite it by heart. But as Army General Norman Schwartzkopf once said, “You almost always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”

And so we are filled with joy as we fulfill God’s will through our works. But our hearts are doubly filled with this joyful grace of God as we realize that we have encountered Christ Himself – exactly as he told us we would.

We go to the homes of the poor and, as Vincent explains, we “find God there!” [CCD IX:199] This is a source of wonder not because it is so surprising, but precisely because it is not. Christ’s word is fulfilled through our actions and our hearts are filled with joy!

When we think about finding new members to join with us in our Conferences, or to form new Conferences, extending this worldwide network of charity, no “recruiting pitch” should be necessary. We have been in the presence of a loving God and have in turn shared His love with others. This joyful grace fills us to overflowing – why would we not want that for all of our friends? Why would we not invite them to share in our joy? Why would we keep it to ourselves?

Contemplate

Do I hesitate to share this great joy of God’s grace with my friends?

Recommended Reading

‘Tis a Gift to be Simple

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SVdP News Roundup February 11 – February 17
SVdP News Roundup February 11 – February 17 1080 1080 SVDP USA

With 100,000 Vincentians across the United States and nearly 800,000 around the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provides person-to-person service to those who are needy and suffering. Read some of their stories here:

INTERNATIONAL

NATIONAL

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