Society of St. Vincent de Paul

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Contemplation — Something of the Glory of God
Contemplation — Something of the Glory of God 940 788 SVDP USA

Our Rule tells us that our “journey together towards holiness” is made primarily in four ways: visiting the poor, attending our Conference meetings, praying, individually and communally, and transforming our concern into action. [Rule, Part I, 2.2]

Our visits to the poor are the central and founding activity of the Society; the activity that defines our particular way of being Christian. We don’t make our visits alone. Yet the visit itself is not our primary purpose. As Blessed Frédéric explained, “visiting the poor should be the means and not the end of our association.” [Letter 182, to Lallier, 1838] Our calling to see Christ’s face in the poor whom we visit is not a practical tool to facilitate material assistance, it is a reminder of Christ’s own teaching.

Few Conferences are small enough or busy enough that every single member has the opportunity to visit the poor every week, but that doesn’t mean growth in holiness is limited only to the home visitors! Instead, this is one reason that “Conferences meet regularly and consistently, usually weekly, but at least every fortnight (twice a month).” [Rule, Part I, 3.3.1] By meeting to share our encounters with the poor, we enable all the members of our Conferences to grow closer to Christ at every meeting.

We open and close our meetings with prayer, share in spiritual reflection, and support each other in our work. Our meetings ”are held in a spirit of fraternity, simplicity and Christian joy.” [Rule, Part I, 3.4] Beyond the Conference meetings, we also seek to live individual lives of prayer, believing, as St. Vincent taught, that beginning our days with prayer, our “mind may be filled with God for the rest of the day.” [CCD IX, 29] We pray the rosary together, and celebrate Mass together, especially on our Vincentian Feast Days.

Finally, true to the spirit of our Patron Saint, we seek to transform our prayer into action, our contemplation into effective love. This commitment is the fruit of the relationships we form with the neighbor and with each other. It is the zeal with which we pray for, and work for “the full flourishing and eternal happiness of every person.” [Rule, Part I, 2.5.1]

We journey together towards holiness because God creates us as social beings, whose relationship with God is reflected in our own social relationships. [CSDC, 110] United with each other and the poor, we recognize that “something of the glory of God shines on the face of every person”. [CSDC, 144]

The four aspects of our shared Vincentian journey are not separable. Through them, “we strive to develop a three-fold relationship with God, the poor and one another”. [Rule, Part III, St. 5]

Contemplate

To which of these four things (visits, meetings, prayer, action) can I seek to more fully dedicate myself?

Recommended Reading

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Chapter 3

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SVdP News Roundup October 22 – October 28
SVdP News Roundup October 22 – October 28 3600 3600 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 October 24 – October 28
A Week in Prayers October 24 – October 28 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Monday, October 24

Lord Jesus, make me small,
Make me the least
Make me the last
Make me the servant
Make me the one who follows
Let me be Your disciple.
Amen

Tuesday, October 25

Lord bless my small works of charity,
So that they may be like the seed
Whose roots are planted firmly
And whose branches reach skyward.
Though I may never see it grow
Help me plant the seed,
And bless the neighbors that I serve.
Amen

Wednesday, October 26

Lord Jesus,
Help me to suffer as You did,
With gentle resignation
To the will of the Father,
And love for Your people
Your neighbors, Your friends.
You turned the humility of the cross
Into the glory of the resurrection.
Lead us to glory, O Lord!
Amen

Thursday, October 27

O Jesus, my Jesus,
Alone on the cross,
How can I serve You today?
With humble devotion,
With love for the Father,
With troubles enough for the day.

O Jesus, my Jesus,
The way, truth, and life,
How can I serve You in love?
By serving my neighbor,
Loved as myself,
For the sake of the Father above.
Amen

Friday, October 28

God the Father,
Lord of all,
Give me the strength to serve.
Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
Show me the way of life.
Holy Spirit,
Come to me,
Light my heart on fire.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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10-27-2022 A Letter from Our Servant Leaders
10-27-2022 A Letter from Our Servant Leaders 1080 1080 SVDP USA

We often take modern conveniences for granted. How life has changed from just a century ago in the United States with air travel, television, the microwave oven, the computer, and the Internet. Some of it has even been good!

Let’s look back further to 400 years and to Paris, France. We see none of the items above. Heck, we don’t even see indoor plumbing, penicillin, or widespread literacy. Heating and cooling meant opening and closing a window and starting a wood or charcoal fire and cutting blocks of ice. This is the world of Vincent de Paul (before he was a Saint) and it makes his works all the more remarkable.

Imagine now if Vincent had a cellphone.

In his day, Vincent ran several businesses, raised funds, recruited volunteers constantly, and otherwise organized like the dickens the numbers, the meals, the fuel, the people, and the buildings to feed the hungry and serve God’s neediest across Paris and rural France. Distances were “longer” then because you either walked them or, if you were fortunate, you had a horse or carriage to carry you at a whopping five miles an hour. If Vincent needed someone, he either sent a runner or had to go get them; he couldn’t send them a text or pick up the phone. Leave a message? Ha! Maybe a note on the door or with a neighbor, and even that with hopes that the recipient knew how to read!

Saint Vincent gives us so many examples in which to lead our Vincentian lives. He used the resources of his time to do the best he could with what God gave him. No excuses, just the use of the blessings he had to do all he could to serve. How did he recruit others to help? He rang the church bell, went door to door, preached in the pulpit and met people where they lived and worked to ask for their time and resources to help their neighbors. He delegated, encouraged, and then organized the laity (the Ladies) the religious (the Daughters) and the clergy (the Congregation of the Mission). He then provided the structures (the Rule) and prayed. A lot.

As Vincent’s organizational descendants we have many more tools at our disposal, including relatively more discretionary time and money, than most of the Parisians of Vincent’s day. We have communications and transportation technology that make the loads lighter and the distances shorter between our volunteers and people we serve. We have only modern-world problems!

This month as we consider our Fall activities and start of our alumni gatherings, church festivals, and holidays, please think of St. Vincent for a moment. How would he utilize these days of friends getting together to recruit – in pairs, face to face? How would he organize an evening of Vincentians in a Conference meeting, each with the modern-day miracle of a cellphone and a roster of inactive members, to hold an old-fashioned phone-a-thon to make some calls to invite them back, celebrating with each “new-found” friend? How would he inspire a Conference President or young adult to give a brief Invitation to Serve address at Mass, followed in the school hall or elsewhere nearby by other Conference members welcoming prospective members into our ranks? As his example inspired a young Frederic Ozanam and his friends nearly 200 years ago in Paris, how can that same zeal demonstrated by Vincent inspire us today here in our community?

Technologies change over time. Yet history reminds us that many of the needs of our world are timeless and universal. Fortunately, so too are our Church’s eternal examples of the Saints, none so more than our Society’s patron, St. Vincent de Paul.  Let us learn from, and live by, the examples with which he has graced us.

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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Stores Corner — How To Use Facebook To Your Advantage
Stores Corner — How To Use Facebook To Your Advantage 1200 628 SVDP USA

By: John Thelen
Mideast Region, Council of Lansing, MI

Our St. Vincent de Paul Store’s Facebook Page is used as an informational tool to educate and inform followers about our mission and how our store helps us to achieve our mission. To increase our followers, we’ve posted signs throughout our store, (dressing rooms, restrooms, donation intake, store entrance, cashier counters, etc.) inviting people to LIKE our Facebook Page. We list our Facebook Page on business cards that are available at various places throughout our store that show our store and donation hours and the telephone number to request assistance.

Each week, we will advertise our color sale for the week. We use Facebook to show case unique, higher value items to draw customers into our store. Our community has several trader pages, so we will post items to pages that we feel will help us reach our targeted audience for the particular item we have available. We post pictures of the item, along with the price and indicate our address where the item can be seen. We’ve had good success bringing new people into our store that otherwise would not have visited. 

We also use Facebook to further the work of our mission to serve our ‘Neighbors in Need.’ During Covid, when our store was forced to close, we used Facebook to show how we collaborate with other agencies within our community. We would share links to mobile food pantries and the food banks that are available in our area. We’d take pictures as we partnered with agencies to collect care bags for those that had to quarantine in motel rooms so they didn’t expose other family members still at home. We used Facebook to promote the collection of blankets and sleeping bags for the homeless. Facebook followers could see what we really were all about. That we were doing the work of St. Vincent’s even though our store was closed.

As you watch your Facebook LIKES increase, you can see when followers share your posts, which helps communicate important, timely information. Be sure to continue inviting your staff members, volunteers, fellow Vincentians, church members, collaborating agencies, etc. to LIKE your page which will continue to grow the number of people that can help tell our story. It has been said that St. Vincent de Paul is the “best kept secret” within many parish communities. Let’s help to change that. Our work with ‘Neighbors in Need’ should be discreet, but sharing about the greater good that we do needs to be shared. 

If we don’t share it, who will?   

The National Stores Committee is a group SVdP store folks that represent each SVdP Region and are committed to best practices in support of SVdP thrift stores for success across the nation. Find great topical articles from the Region Reps here in the Stores Corner of the E-Gazette on the last Thursday of each month.

Connect with a Region Rep to learn more about what they are doing in your area – list of committee members can be found under the Resources drop down at https://www.svdpusa-thriftstore.org/

Check out the SVdP Stores webpage! You’ll find tons of great information regarding all things stores!?

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Contemplation — Enough
Contemplation — Enough 940 788 SVDP USA

We are called to see the face of Christ in those we serve. In imagining His face, it is easy to imagine the peaceful face portrayed in so many great works of art over the years, or the glorified Christ, or even Christ crucified on a clean cross at the front of our churches.

Which Christ, then, are we called to see? Christ, our Lord, risen in glory? Jesus of Nazareth, carpenter? Jesus the condemned, bloodied, and humiliated? For St. Vincent, the great lesson of the incarnation was that “Since Christ willed to be born poor … he made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty.” [Manual, 54] Through Vincent’s vision, we are called to see the carpenter, the unemployed, the single mom – all those neighbors who so regularly call our Conferences for help. He is there.

Blessed Frédéric’s vision reminds us that in the poor before us “we can put finger and hand in their wounds and the scars of the crown of thorns are visible on their foreheads…and we should fall at their feet and say with the Apostle, ‘Tu est Dominus et Deus meus.’” [Letter 137, to Janmot, 1837] We serve Him, and we also share in His suffering.

Who is Frédéric’s Jesus in our neighborhoods today? In whom can we see Christ’s scars? Who is wrapped in tattered clothing, wounded, unwashed; who sleeps in the cold, and on the street? From whom is it sometimes easier to turn away?

Do we “[speak] about them with euphemisms and with apparent tolerance”? Do we “look at those who suffer without touching them”? [Fratelli Tutti, 76] Do we offer them our prayers but not our hearts, wishing them to go in peace, but not providing for their needs? Are we sometimes paralyzed into inaction not by lack of charity, but by the fear that their needs are too great for our efforts?

As he walked towards Golgotha, Jesus stumbled under the weight of His cross. Veronica stepped forth, offered Him a cloth with which He wiped away the blood, sweat, and tears, and then continued on His way. Should she have held back, knowing she could not save Him from the cross?

There is not a Jesus of Frédéric or of Vincent. There is only one, and if we seek to see and to serve Him, we must remember that our smiles, kind words, handshakes, consolations, and prayers [O’Meara, 177] are not an extra thing for the neighbor without electricity, they are the most important thing we offer – especially to the neighbors who have nothing.

Do not be afraid. As He promised He will be with us to the end of the age.

Contemplate

Do I believe in my heart that my friendship, prayers, and love are enough?

Recommended Reading

500 Little Prayers for Vincentians

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SVdP News Roundup October 15 – October 21
SVdP News Roundup October 15 – October 21 3600 3600 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 October 17 – October 21
A Week in Prayers October 17 – October 21 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Monday, October 17

Lord, lay Your hands
Upon my weary head
Give me peace in my heart
And strength for the journey

Amen

Tuesday, October 18

Lord, You have sent me in Your name
To bear wordless witness
Through works of charity
Help me to find Your blessed poor
And to bring them comfort and hope

Amen

Wednesday, October 19

O Lord, you have called me,
O Lord, You are here
Watching me always
Removing all fear
Walking beside me
Drying my tears
O Lord, I have sought You
O Lord, You are here

Amen

Thursday, October 20

Lord Jesus standing before me
In poverty and deprivation
With hands outstretched
To offer and to receive
I, Your lowly servant
Stretch out my hands to You
To join in Your poverty
To give for love alone
Receiving Your grace in humility
And gratitude

Amen

Friday, October 21

O Lord, I long to see Your face!

Greet me in Your doorway,
Greet me on the street,
Greet me in the face and heart
Of everyone I meet.

Greet me with Your poverty,
Your sadness, or Your fear.
I’ll see Your face at last, O Lord,
And know that You are here.

Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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10-20-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
10-20-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Any parent knows that time is elastic. The days can be long, but the years fly by quickly. The moments in emergency rooms are like eternity, and the joyous celebrations of graduations, birthday parties, and weddings go by so quickly. Such is life for all of us.

Our daily lives are also so full of work, family, and personal obligations as well that it is easy to forget about events that take place more than a few miles away from our routines. If it isn’t a part of our life today, then out of sight, out of mind.

It’s only been a few weeks, but the hurricane and affiliated storms and surges in Florida and the Carolinas are largely out of the news cycles except in the immediate areas. While local residents in Missouri, Kentucky, California, Texas, and elsewhere are still reeling from major disasters this past year, many of us have moved on.

Yet while both time and distance can hamper our personal ability to remember and to respond to tragedy, God provides nonetheless through the collective care and organization of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.  We are blessed to be a part of this long-term approach to provide for the victims of disasters through the Society’s Disaster Services Corporation, our international Society, and through the cooperation of our National Council and local Councils and Conferences throughout the United States.

When you donate to the annual Disaster Relief Campaign, currently underway, you provide funds that will be available to help all year for both large and small disasters, many of which never make it into the news. Local Conferences and Councils can apply to the USA National Council for disaster grants to help their neighbors, while preserving their traditional funds for the usual Home Visit needs.

The Disaster Services Corporation (DSC), a subsidiary of our National Council and recipient of some of the campaign’s funds, provides disaster preparedness and response skills training for Vincentians nationwide. As a member of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (NVOAD), DSC also responds to major disasters nationwide to provide for long-term disaster relief and is in place weeks and even months after a disaster to help neighbors rebuild their lives. Your contributions help pay for the infrastructure costs that often are not reimbursed by FEMA and other federal or other grant funds for DSC’s work, and which are needed between the specific disasters when things quiet down just a little, but the work goes on.

Your contributions to the Disaster Relief Campaign help internationally, too. When a major disaster such as a typhoon, earthquake, or fire strikes another country, especially in a poor nation, the Society’s International Council is asked for assistance from the local National Council. An established international fund helps year-round when needed instead of trying to raise funds when the disasters hit.

All in all, then, this single annual appeal recognizes our human nature to tend not to keep track of events, even major ones, that are far away, and after weeks or months go by. Our Vincentian hearts care even if our minds sometimes forget. This appeal helps us to plan ahead for the inevitable disasters, and to have funds ready to help our fellow Vincentians to serve our neighbors.

Your giving today says that just as Vincentians know that God is always with us, our beloved Society is with us as well, in good times and in bad times, ready to help. Just reach out, we are standing by, prepared with financial resources to help your local Vincentians in support of your neighbors in need to rebuild their lives after major disruptions, even if it takes weeks or months. We will continue to be the Face of Christ along with you, and we have prepared for this moment to help you just as the Lord has always been at your side.

If your community has not been hit by floods, fire, earthquakes, major storms or other disasters, say a prayer of thanksgiving. By the grace of God, it wasn’t your turn. Please help others whose turn has come, or whose turn may be next, by giving on your own and with your Conference and Council to the Disaster Relief Campaign.

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

P.S. – Please send appeal gifts to the National Council SVDPUSA to “Disaster Relief Campaign.” Please DO NOT include the names of states, countries or individual disasters. If you would like to give online, click here.

Thank you!

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