Vincentians

“I’m too busy” is a thing we sometimes say when we really mean that this activity or that person is just not important enough to us. As Vincentians, we have come to learn that this can never be the answer when we are interrupted by a call from the neighbor.

It’s a lesson many learn as parents. We might enjoy nothing more than to watch our favorite team play on TV, but if it conflicts with the ballet recital or the Little League game, well…we can check the score later.

It’s never really a matter of time; it’s a matter of priorities.

Like parenthood, our calling as Vincentians is “a vocation for every moment of our lives.” [Rule, Part I, 2.7] Our moments, and how we spend them, are driven by love, not by the schedules we’d planned. That’s easy to remember when it is your child tugging at your sleeve, but it sometimes slips our minds when it is a neighbor in need interrupting dinner.

This was the exact point St. Vincent made when replying to one of the missioners who had apologized for sharing his troubles. “Brother,” Vincent replied, “have no fear that you’re bothering me. You should realize that someone appointed by God to serve others is no more put out by the demands made on him than a father would be in regard to his children.” [CCD XII:392]

It is not that we view the neighbor as a child, but rather that we always remember we were called first by God, and that He calls us from time to time in the person of the neighbor in need. We don’t have to make time for our neighbors, because being Christ to us, the time is already theirs.

None of this is to say that we are not allowed to get tired! St. Vincent constantly reminded his followers not to allow their zeal to make them do more than they were able. [CCD II:375] More importantly, as he once told St. Louise, we must rest to regain our strength, because even if we don’t need it, the neighbor in need does. [CCD I:392]

In our memories, the joy of the ballet recital or the Little League game entirely wash away whatever else we thought was important at the time. We can clearly see that there were no better things to do; that we received a greater gift than we ever could have given.

In a similar way, we thank God for the blessings we receive from those whom we visit. In the fullness of time, in union with Christ and with each other, we will rejoice in the memory of every interruption.

Contemplate

Where is the neighbor in my list of daily priorities?

Recommended Reading

Faces of Holiness (especially Vincent, Father of the Poor)

We can sometimes feel frustrated, even guilty, when our works don’t seem to achieve the results we’d anticipated, forgetting for a moment that we are called to serve our neighbors for love alone. We can take solace and learn from the example of St. Louise de Marillac, who also was often burdened by feelings of shame and anguish at coming up short in her works.

Louise had many great gifts – artistic and intellectual, she was a natural leader and great organizer whose imagination in works of charity seemed unbounded. Louise once served as president of the Confraternity of Charity at her own parish, Saint Nicolas-du-Chardonnet. She had a deep religious devotion, formed in her earliest years. Yet still, she sometimes fell into despair when she did not achieve all she had set out to do.

In was in one such instance that Vincent reminded her not to “think that all is lost because of the little rebellions you experience interiorly. It has just rained very hard and is thundering dreadfully. Is the weather less beautiful for that?” [CCD I:62] In other words, we serve God first, before and above our goals. And if we seek to make His will our own, we should never despair. After all, God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

It was her “lumière” of 1623 that led Louise to Vincent, and that reassured her of her calling to religious life. She wrote down that divine vision and kept it in her pocket throughout her life. No doubt it reminded her from time to time of the peace that had washed over her that Pentecost Sunday and reassured her that God “had a plan…from all eternity, for [her] soul.” [Sp. Wri. 691]

When we are open to it, each of us has such moments of conversion in our lives; a time when God speaks, or winks, or gives us a glimpse of His plan for us. Going back to re-read them can ease the frustrations we sometimes feel along our path, giving us peace, and reassuring us of the great hope in which we serve.

Our formation is a lifelong process, and along the path we will sometimes falter. Through wealth and poverty; as wife, mother, widow, and servant, Louise devoted her entire self to the will of God, growing in peace at every step. In turn, she became a wise teacher, and model of holiness, to many others.

“Oh! what a tree you have appeared to be today in God’s sight,” declared Vincent, “since you have borne such a fruit! May you be forever a beautiful tree of life bringing forth fruits of love, and I, in that same love, your servant.” [CCD I:46]

Contemplate

What is my lumière? Am I a gentle voice, reassuring others to trust in providence?

Recommended Reading

Praying with Louise de Marillac