The Thread
Each of us has at times, in our own way, felt a quiet thread running through our lives. A steady pull of love that stretches from Jesus’ simple command to love one another, to the personal encounters, phone calls, and conversations we share with our neighbors in need. Every time we sit at a kitchen table, listen to someone’s story, or offer a word of hope, we are taking hold of that same thread and helping to weave it into the fabric of another person’s life.
That thread has run through all of salvation history. It stretches from the first pages of Genesis, through the Gospels, into the letters of the early Church, and out across centuries into the visits, phone calls, and pantry lines of today. That thread is both simple and demanding; love one another as God has loved you.
From the beginning God created us not as isolated individuals, but as people who belong to one another. Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is really the question the whole Bible answers: ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, you are!’ The prophets cry out for justice for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. The psalms sing of God who “upholds the cause of the oppressed” and “gives food to the hungry.” This is the first strand of the thread: God’s love always bends toward those in need.
In the New Testament, that thread becomes more personal in Jesus. On the night before he dies, he gathers the Apostles and gives them “a new commandment”: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Not “love one another when it’s convenient,” not “love one another in theory,” but “as I have loved you” concretely, humbly, sacrificially.
The earliest Christian communities took this seriously. The Epistles are full of “one another” sayings that trace out what this love looks like in practice: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” “Through love serve one another.” “Bear with one another in love.” “Encourage one another … to love and do good works.” The early Church was, in a real sense, a network of friends bound together by this thread of love and service.
A ‘Coat of Many Services’
In the very well-known Genesis story (they even made a Broadway musical about it!), Joseph’s “coat of many colors” is a sign that he is loved and blessed, even when his brothers resent it. That coat, woven of many colors, can be a helpful image for the Society today. The Society might be said to wear not a coat of many ‘colors but a coat of many ‘services’: personal encounters, visits, food pantries, rent and utility assistance, disaster relief, prison ministry, systemic change, advocacy, mentoring, housing, and more. Each service is a different ‘color,’ reflecting a different need, a different story, a different family.
Yet what holds the whole thing together is not the list of programs or the amount of funds spent, but the single thread that runs through them all. Whether a Vincentian is sitting in a home listening to parents fears, helping a family keep the lights on, or working on legislation that protects tenants, it is the same love that is at work: a desire to see the face of Christ in the poor and to respond as Christ responds. Take away that thread, and the coat falls apart into disconnected patches. Keep it strong, and every service, no matter how small, becomes a visible sign of God’s love and our faithful care.
In this sense, the Society’s coat of many services is not primarily about what is done, but about how it is done. Paul insists that Christian love is patient, humble, forgiving, and encouraging. When Vincentians “outdo one another in showing honor,” especially toward those who feel forgotten or ashamed, then the many services of the Society shimmer with the colors of the Kingdom of God.
One Thread, but Many Faiths
This thread of love is not unique to Judaism and Christianity. Across history and the world’s great religions there is a shared conviction that true faith must show itself in compassion, especially for the poor. In Islam the Qur’an repeatedly links devotion to God with care for those in need, praising those “who give food, in spite of love for it, to the needy, the orphan, and the captive.” The Prophet Muhammad teaches that a community is “only given provision and support from Allah due to the weak among you.” Love for God is proven by solidarity with the vulnerable.
Buddhism speaks of loving-kindness (metta or maitri) and compassion (karuna) as essential to the path. Loving-kindness is defined as the desire to bring happiness to others; compassion is the willingness to relieve their suffering, extended not just to family or nation but to all beings. True love, in this view, is not possessive but deeply understanding. It seeks to know the suffering and hopes of others to help.
These traditions differ in many important ways, but they agree on this: a life turned inward, closed to the cry of the poor, cannot claim to be spiritually whole. When Vincentians serve, they therefore stand in solidarity not only with the Gospel, but with the best instincts of the human family.
One Society
The thread is also what makes us ‘One Society’ rather than thousands of individual Conferences, Councils, and Special Works doing good, but isolated work. The thread that Frédéric Ozanam, Rosalie Rendu, and the other founders of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul used in 1833 has been woven into a beautiful blanket of love and service that covers, and comforts, the world today.
That thread runs through every Vincentian in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people who live, believe, and serve. Each is a part of the whole. A seamless garment that has but one purpose. Not individual accomplishment, not isolated service, not self importance, but rather a heart and soul that strives to make the world a better place, and the lives others better.
The unity, the thread, of the Society is one of its great beauties and blessings. We are one single SVdP, present in different realities, cultures, and regions, yet guided by the same mission: to serve Christ in the person of the poor.
Don’t get me wrong. Unity does not mean uniformity, but communion. It is through listening, dialogue, and respect for each other and respect for the traditions and hierarchy of the Society that we strengthen the Vincentian mission here in the US, and across the globe.
Every Conference, every Council, every Special Work in SVdP USA is one small tile is a mosaic of love. Yes, each individual tile is beautiful and shiny and valuable in its own right; but until all the tiles are in place to create the mosaic, it is impossible to understand the power, the impact, and the absolute beauty of SVdP as ‘One Society’
Holding the Thread Together
These threads are not an abstract idea; they are something that must be held, day after day, in very concrete ways. The New Testament “one another” passages name the practices that keep the threads from fraying:
- “Bear with one another in love” when personalities clash or fatigue sets in.
- “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another” when misunderstandings and hurts arise.
- “Encourage one another … and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” when the work feels overwhelming or discouraging.
In the Society, this means that the thread is not only extended outward to neighbors in need; it must also be woven carefully among members themselves. A conference that prays together, listens deeply to one another, and supports each other through mistakes and growth is a conference in which the thread is strong. That inner fabric of friendship is what allows the outer “coat of many services” to be worn with joy rather than exhaustion.
Your Critical Place in the Fabric
Every Vincentian, volunteer, donor, staff member, or friend holds a part of the thread in their hands (and heart). Some hold it at a bedside, sitting with someone who is ill. Some hold it at a desk, managing paperwork or finances that keep the mission afloat. Some hold it in advocacy meetings, speaking for those whose voices are ignored. Some hold it in prayer, unseen but essential, asking God to bless and guide the Society’s work.
But the good news is that no one is asked to hold the whole fabric alone. In the Body of Christ, “we, though many, are one,” and each member has a role. When Vincentians cooperate, collaborate, and celebrate one another’s gifts, what emerges over time is something beautiful: a garment of mercy, stitched together from a thousand acts of quiet love.
I titled this “The Thread” as a reminder that God’s love is not a random collection of moments but a continuous line, running from Abraham’s hospitality to strangers to Jesus washing feet, from the epistles’ call to “love one another” to the Society’s encounters and visits today. To be Vincentian is to take that thread in hand and say, day after day, “Yes, Lord. Let your love be woven through my life into the lives of others.”
In this new year, may the God who first spun this thread of love strengthen our hands to hold it, our eyes to see it, and our hearts to trust that, in ways seen and unseen, it is drawing the entire world closer to His will.
Peace and God’s blessings,
John
