Our Vocation Is Unique
What is it that makes the Society of St. Vincent de Paul unique? What is our purpose? Or, to borrow from Simon Sinek – what is our “WHY?” Is it our focus on good works? There are many organizations, both faith-based and secular, that do good works. Is it our focus on friendship? There are many fraternal organizations that offer the chance for friends to gather together. Is it spirituality? There are many groups that provide a spiritual focus for their members.
So, what is it? Our focus on growing in holiness in fellowship with our brother and sister Vincentians all pointing to serving our neighbors in need gets us closer to the answer. You might even call these the “Essential Elements” of being a Vincentian! Blessed Frédéric and the other founders could have just focused on being very efficient in delivering wood to the homes of the poor. Good work for sure; but if that was their only focus, their “WHY,” then none of us would be Vincentians because the Society of St. Vincent de Paul would not exist and millions of the faithful around the world would not have had this opportunity for spiritual growth. Tens of millions of our neighbors in need likely would not have witnessed Christ’s presence in their lives. It is the emphasis on growing in holiness, to empty ourselves so that we are able to see Christ in our neighbors in need (and our fellow Vincentians), added to the fellowship we have with one another, all leading to our corporal and spiritual works of mercy that makes us unique. We are called by Christ to be His disciples in this Vincentian vocation. Isn’t that wonderful!
Pope Saint John Paul II alludes to this in his Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici (“Christ’s Faithful Laity”), where he says, “We come to a full sense of the dignity of the lay faithful if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation that the Father assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity.” This combination of our vocation to holiness leading to “the perfection of charity” is what sets us apart as an organization. It is my belief that the uniqueness of our vocation is that the Society offers us a means to capture a tangible, authentic, “real world” experience of this call to holiness and perfection of charity (our “WHY”).
Formation
But this vocation isn’t something we experience once and forget about. This is something we will spend the rest of our lives figuring out – being changed in ways we do not yet understand. This is God’s plan!
It is, therefore, critical to not only continue to open ourselves to this call through our prayer life, fellowship and service, but also to continually work on our formation. In fact, the Rule tells us that “It is essential that the Society continually promote the formation and training of its members and Officers, in order to deepen their knowledge of the Society and their spirituality, improve the sensitivity, quality and efficiency of their service to the poor and help them be aware of the benefits, resources and opportunities that are available for the poor. The Society also offers members higher training in order to better help to raise the cultural and social level of those who request this support. [3.12]”
But we need to always help each other understand this vocation we have and, frankly, the challenges involved. We can reassure one another that we are together and that staying with formation prepares us for our mission – to meet Christ in those in need.
I recently had the pleasure of being one of the presenters of an Ozanam Orientation for a brand new conference in South Carolina. Not only is this a new conference but it is also a relatively new church parish that was looking for a way to do outreach – and they decided to form a St. Vincent de Paul conference! What a blessing to see new Vincentians on fire as they begin their vocation! It is up to us as “experienced” Vincentians to help them and all newcomers grow in holiness; to grow in our perfection of charity, to grow in our Vocation.
Your National Council, through the leadership of Aldo Barletta (National Vice President of Vincentian Spiritual Growth and Enrichment) and others, want to help you in this process by broadening and expanding available formation and training material, programs, and tools for our Vincentian Pathways. This includes exploring revising the Ozanam Orientation and its delivery, Invitation for Renewal, highlighting a Formation Day at the National Assembly, emphasizing training of Spiritual Advisors (English and Spanish speaking) across the country, utilizing Fred Talks and the Ozanam Institute (https://www.ozanaminstitute.org/), and more. Your Technology Committee is also working to implement modern technologies to facilitate delivery of formation materials to you when you need them. I hope to have more to come on that later this year.
Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), wrote, “We need to help others to realize that the only way is to learn how to encounter others with the right attitude, which is to accept and esteem them as companions along the way, without interior resistance. Better yet, it means learning to find Jesus in the faces of others, in their voices, in their pleas.” And so it is, my Vincentian brothers and sisters, that the essence, the uniqueness – the “WHY” – of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is that it provides you and me a way to personally encounter Jesus in a real, tangible manner.
May we help one another remain formed in this message!
Yours in Blessed Frédéric,
Brian
