Society of St. Vincent de Paul

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News Roundup August 27 – September 6
News Roundup August 27 – September 6 1200 1200 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:

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Daily Prayers August 29 – September 2
Daily Prayers August 29 – September 2 940 788 SVDP USA

Monday, August 29

Thank You, Lord,
For all that You have given me
So that I may in turn give
To my brothers and sisters
In Your name
Amen

Tuesday, August 30

Lord Grant me the virtue of simplicity
So that I may always speak honestly,
With complete sincerity,
With no pretense or ulterior motive.
By Your grace may my words
Always deserve complete trust.
Amen

Wednesday, August 31

Lord, grant me the virtue of humility
Grant me the knowledge of the truth
That all that I have and all that I am
Is from You, through me, and for others.
By Your grace,
Use me to serve Your people
For Your glory and Your sake.
Amen

Thursday, September 1

Lord, grant me the virtue of gentleness,
A kindness that shines through my smile,
A patience that waits in silence
Good cheer that warms the heart
Of the suffering neighbor
Tireless good will that comforts the mind
Of the neighbor in need
Amen

Friday, September 2

Lord, grant me the virtue of selflessness
Empty me of selfishness
Empty me of self
So that it may be You
Who lives in me, and loves through me.
By Your grace, make me an instrument
Of Your Holy Will
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.

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Contemplation — Our True Friend
Contemplation — Our True Friend 940 788 SVDP USA

When we think back to the times in our lives when we have needed some help, or advice, or a shoulder to cry on, those are the times we learned who our true friends were. If we were blessed already to know who our true friends were, those are the ones we called to help, to advise, or to offer their shoulder.

Of course, we know there are certain things you can ask only of a friend – when you are in an embarrassing predicament, your true friend is the one who will not only help, but will do so without laughing (at least not until you can both laugh about it later).

Blessed Rosalie once wrote back to a friend who had asked her for a favor so she could thank him for the request, saying: “I cannot tell you how you please me in giving me the opportunity to do something for your interests. Always act this way with me, without any hesitation. It is the proof of friendship that I hope for.” [Sullivan, 237]

And isn’t this how we react to requests from our friends, too? We might not say the words, but inside we are proud and grateful to be the ones who are trusted to help, and to share the burden. We also share our friends’ secrets; the troubles they will only confide in their closest friends. Bl. Frédéric wrote about home visits, explaining that when we visit the neighbor, “we share the lonely secret of his lonely heart and troubled mind”. Just like any good friend, we listen and we keep those secrets, without being asked.

Our Rule calls us to “form relationships based on trust and friendship” with the neighbors we serve. [Rule, Part I, 1.9] The neighbors who have called us, who have asked us for help, even though it may have been embarrassing for them to do so, have taken the first step of friendship. By confiding in us their stories, their secrets, and their struggles, they have treated us not only as friends, but as true friends; the closest of friends.

There are times when our Conferences may be short on money and may not be able to offer the material help that the neighbor needs, but that is never a reason not to visit. If we truly believe that “giving love, talents and time is more important than giving money” [Rule, Part I, 3.14] then our treasuries are always full!

The friendship we share with each other, we are bound to share also with the neighbor, welcoming them into our community of faith. After all, our true friends are the ones who ask for help.

Contemplate

Have I inadvertently withheld my friendship from a neighbor, focusing too much on the “transaction?”

Recommended Reading

Mystic Of Charity

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Contemplation — Experts In Their Own Situation
Contemplation — Experts In Their Own Situation 940 788 SVDP USA

To “offer humble advice” is a natural part of the home visit. [Manual, 2.1] Bl. Frédéric even listed “good advice” among the things we offer to the poor that we may ourselves one day stand in need of, rendering our help mutual, and therefore honorable. [O’Meara, 229]

Yet, at the same time, we are cautioned to “not be quick to advise” and to offer advice only when it is “wanted and appropriate.” Above all, we must never make our assistance dependent upon the neighbor taking our advice. [Conference President Handbook, 35]

To offer advice humbly is to acknowledge that we do not necessarily know what’s best; that ours is only an opinion based on our own experience. In the course of building “relationships based on trust and friendship” [Rule, Part I, 1.9] we will learn more about the neighbor’s experience, but they will always remain the experts on their own situation.

Advice between friends is always better received than advice from a stranger. Yet even between friends, advice must be given humbly. As Frédéric once described his own advice it in a letter to a friend, “they are not counsels, for I am not capable of counseling anyone; they are reflections I have had, and I pass them on to you for you to do whatever you wish.” [Letter 82, to Curnier, 1834]

The poor, like any other friend, are free to do whatever they wish with our advice, and that can’t be a condition for continued assistance. After all, what if they took our advice and it turned out badly for them? To offer advice humbly is to accept that this is entirely possible, and that it is therefore just as reasonable to reject our advice as to take it.

Frédéric once described the poor as “beaten souls, who always receive us the same way, always with the same reserve at the end of a year as on the first day, who are very careful not to contradict a single thing we say, but who for all that change none of their ways.” He went on to explain that this is one of the very reasons that we choose to assist them, even though “we could go to others who would listen and understand!” [Letter 107, to Curnier, 1835]

We sometimes talk about the poor becoming “dependent” on our assistance, but we should also be mindful that they can just as easily become dependent on our advice, particularly if we demand that they follow our advice as a condition of our assistance.

The poor are and always will be the experts in their own situations. Advice offered humbly is not an expression of expertise, but of love and encouragement as neighbors develop their own solutions, while we walk alongside them as friends.

Contemplate

Do I sometimes become impatient with neighbors who do not take my advice?

Recommended Reading

Serving in Hope, Module VII

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Stores Corner — Centralized Processing
Stores Corner — Centralized Processing 1200 628 SVDP USA

Do you know about the SVdP Stores webpage through the National website with tons of great information regarding all things stores!?

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.

Centralized Processing
By: Lori Malcolm — The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Archdiocese of Boston

Clothing sales are one of the largest revenue streams for our thrift stores. A centralized processing system can be an efficient and cost effective alternative for demographics that may not be able to support the volume and quality necessary for a successful retail operation.

The supply of product and its continued rotation is the corner stone to increased sales.  Donations of textiles at the retail site is one method of product supply.  However, it may be limited in volume and quality by the retail store’s demographic. Consequently, supplemental means of supply are often times required.  These include clothing drives, corporate donations, or a collection bin system. Each should be reviewed locally for feasibility purposes.

The sorting process is the most important element of a centralized processing system. Determining the necessary labor and standards expected are most important in establishing a training regimen for staff. The site location, building, physical set up of workstations, and the material handling equipment required for efficient production also need to be carefully considered. In addition, an exit strategy for all store returns and donations which do not meet standards must be established.

Lastly, product distribution and its logistical requirements must be addressed. Standard retail store order quantities and delivery frequency must be determined based on the size of the retail store and its rotation cycle.  Delivery logistics, including transportation labor, trucks, and hours of operation must be determined and accounted for fiscally. Careful consideration must also be made for trash, both fiscally and logistically. Finally, an effective hangar management system (storage) with its associated material handling equipment requirements should be carefully considered in order to assure the most efficient and cost effective operation.

Please contact your local National Store’s Committee representative for examples of successful centralized processing retail operations. More detailed information and tours can be arranged.

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 by clicking here.

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Final Winner of Youth Award Announced!
Final Winner of Youth Award Announced! 470 640 SVDP USA

This year, the National Youth Committee hosted a Society-wide search for young people doing amazing work in their community. Vincentians from around the Country nominated youth from their Councils for the new Alice Garvey Excellence in Youth Award which will be presented at the National Assembly in Baltimore.

The committee would now like to spotlight the winners of this prestigious award. “Each and every single one of our nominees we have shared with you over the last few weeks displayed hope for the future of the Society. Youth from all over the country are doing amazing acts of charity on behalf of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul,” said John Paul Brissette, National Youth Committee Member.  “Although they were all deserving of this award, two nominations stood out. The winners of this award showed how they are embodying the Vincentian charism of faith, friendship, and service in their daily lives through the works they do. The Youth Committee is proud to introduce you to the first of our two winners.”

The Youth Committee hopes the stories of each youth spotlighted over the last few weeks has encouraged and motivated you to inspire youth to get involved in your local Diocese.

Brandon Patrick Davis — San Antonio Southwest Texas Council

In the middle of the pandemic (2020), Brandon Patrick Davis, began a campaign called Find Five Friends for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. When Brandon learned about the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He was moved by the story of Frédéric Ozanam and how he started SVdP with the help of his friends. In the spirit of Frédéric Ozanam, he felt called to do something. Brandon called five of his friends from different Catholic schools and asked them to join him on a Zoom call to see how they could help people in need. It was during the call that Brandon created the campaign Find Five Friends. The campaign formally launched in June of 2020. This group of Catholic freshmen began asking other Catholic youth in San Antonio to each find five friends that could give $5, 5 cans of food, and recruit 5 more friends to help the SVdP. Brandon felt that even if he and his friends couldn’t be together in person, they could use the power of social media and “going viral” to support people suffering. The campaign is still going today. It has even caught the attention of two local universities and they are planning to meet with Brandon to see if they can bring Find Five Friends to their college campuses.

Brandon’s hope is that Find Five Friends will become a national movement (with the help of the national office) and more young people will learn about the great works of SVdP in their community and in communities across the world. Brandon is now a sophomore at Antonian College Preparatory. He has become the campus spokesperson for SVdP and even presented on the works SVdP. Brandon has also shared the story of Frédéric Ozanam to ten local Catholic elementary, middle, and high schools in an effort to recruit students to serve. It is our Council’s recommendation that Brandon Patrick Davis be considered for the Alice Garvey Excellence in Youth Award. He not only embodies the Vincentian charisms of spirituality, friendship, and service…he is calling others his age to live out these charisms as well.

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08-25-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
08-25-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1368 1387 SVDP USA

It’s easier to see when someone else does it.

Let’s call this the Annual Backpack Explosion. Every year at this time, schoolchildren are given the opportunity to pick up a free backpack, often stuffed with free pencils, crayons, pads of papers, and other school supplies. They can go with their parents to a convention center, a school, a shopping mall, an automobile dealer, or some other place that usually has lots of parking for families and of course some media to watch the lines of kids getting their selection of the free goodies. Sounds great, right?

At one level, of course this is a good thing, as we hope that every child is adequately and equitably prepared for the first day of school. However, on a large level, there is usually little or no coordination or communication with the groups organizing this chaotic attempt to do good. One result can be more, perhaps many more, backpacks than are needed, or certainly an uneven distribution than where the need is across a region.

Another unintended consequence is that expectations often change with repeated behaviors. What do the children and their parents now expect next year? Will they make plans to buy what they need for school, or wait for another handout? Will a simple backpack be enough, or will only a designer brand or the one with that year’s more popular superhero be the only one they will accept? Will generic crayons be good enough, or will that box of only eight colors satisfy them?

To any Society food pantry, dining hall, or Home Visit worker, the above examples might feel, well, familiar. We wonder sometimes if the families we see every week at the pantry are trying hard enough to find other solutions, and then we feel guilty about feeling this way. We try as Vincentians not to judge others. Then we judge ourselves when we work really hard, but the people we serve don’t always appreciate our service and even demand more than we gave them last time.

We must also ask ourselves, and we can see this with the backpack program as well, does this program really help the intended beneficiary audience all that much, or is it more about helping the volunteers or donors feel good about helping others? The answer can change over time, and this can be a bitter pill to swallow!

When we create a program, we often forget to create an exit plan, or even an evaluation plan. We get so excited to start something that we forget to think about its consequences, intended or unintended, on the people we serve, the community, and even on ourselves. We might notice an impact on our wallets! But what about the impact on the way people’s behaviors change because we changed ours? Have we created not only a new resource, but a new dependency? Is the resource we think of as a temporary fix viewed by others as a continuing benefit in time, money or other advantage?

We also forget in our rush to start something to tell others, especially our friends, that we are about to do something good. Sure, we have a grand opening announcement. However, we often do not tell other nearby Conferences parishes, other faith groups, government agencies, and others about our programs, our resources and especially our limitations. Then we wonder why that family shows up in the middle of the night asking for our help, telling us they were sent by our “friends” across town.

Sometimes we think we are just a few good people doing a few good things from the church basement. In truth we are a lot of great faith-filled people, doing many good and Holy things all over the country. People notice, as do other agencies, churches, community groups, the media, you name it. People in need talk to each other, and they have our name as a trusted friend on their lips to tell each other who they can go to for help.

We owe it to our neighbors, especially those in need, our partners and funders, and ourselves, to re-assess our work constantly in light of its impact today and tomorrow. We may be making a difference, but is it still the one we wanted? Is it the one Christ would want us to make with what we have?

Yours in Christ,
Dave
CEO

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Contemplation — Independent of My Will
Contemplation — Independent of My Will 940 788 SVDP USA

St. Vincent taught that we are called to submit entirely to God’s will; indeed, to make His will our own. Even when we seek to discern the best way to help each neighbor, we are called to fulfill God’s will – to make our feeble human judgment His instrument in that particular circumstance.

Sometimes it is easy to know His will, because He stated it explicitly: go and do likewise, I have given you a model to follow, serve the least of us, turn the other cheek, do unto others, etc. We can further learn God’s will by the example and words of our Vincentian Saints and Blesseds.

But ours is a “vocation for every part of our lives”. [Rule, Part I, 2.6] How can we know His will when it seems less obvious? Are we in the right place? Are we in the right jobs? As a young man, Blessed Frédéric asked himself such questions, wondering whether “exterior circumstances” might be a sign of God’s will that he should not ignore, for “a crowd of circumstances independent of my will assail me, pursue me, turn me aside from the path I have laid out for myself.” [Letter 67, to Falconnet, 1834]

There is a short answer, of course: prayer. In prayer we place our needs before God, we ask for Him to make His will known to us. Yet prayer itself requires first that we trust in Divine Providence, that we are willing to accept that “He knows what is good for us better than we do, what He sends us is best, even if it is disagreeable to nature and contrary to our wishes,” as St. Vincent once explained. [CCD VII:255]

St. Vincent taught that we should accept everything that happens in this world, good and bad, “because God wills it, since He sends it … peace of mind will be one of the many great benefits that will result from [this].” [CCD VI:493] Our doubts are removed, in other words, when we choose to remove them, to face life with what Vincent often called “holy indifference”, letting the day’s own troubles be enough.

It is easy to confuse seeking God’s will with seeing the future, rather than “go[ing] in simplicity where merciful Providence leads us, content to see the stone on which we should step without wanting to discover all at once and completely the windings of the road.” [Letter 136, to Lallier, 1836]

Our lives are often better understood in reverse, like the early chapters of a mystery novel whose clues we understand only when going back to re-read them after we begin to surmise the conclusion. Despite his youthful doubts, Frédéric would later write that he had become “more than ever convinced of my vocation, a conviction reinforced by all the events of recent years.” [A Heart with Much Love to Give, 144]

The certainty that we are where God wills us to be is perhaps less important than the comfort of knowing that it cannot be otherwise, which enables us to trust that “you are serving God very effectively where you are. If it does not seem so to you, all the better.” [CCD IV:364]

Contemplate

Am I uncertain of God’s will, or am I distracted by my own will?

Recommended Reading

Amélie Ozanam, A Heart with Much Love to Give

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Daily Prayers August 15 – August 19
Daily Prayers August 15 – August 19 940 788 SVDP USA

Monday, August 15

Holy Mary, Mother of God
Pray for me
That I may follow your example
Of humility, obedience, and faith
Following God’s will
And fulfilling His plan

Amen

Tuesday, August 16

Lord Jesus, empty me
Make me last
Take away my pride
Any gifts you leave me with
My talents, myself, my time,
I will share in gratitude
In Your name,
And for Your sake.

Amen

Wednesday, August 17

Let me labor, Lord, in Your vineyard
For a moment, if not for a day
I seek the reward of the labor
And not the reward of the pay
In Your providence I will trust fully
I do not fear hunger or thirst
I worry not whether I’m lowly
For I know that the last shall be first

Amen

Thursday, August 18

Lord Jesus by Your invitation
You have opened the door to the feast
In the clothing of faith I approach You
To dine where the greatest are least

Amen

Friday, August 19

I love You, O God, with all of my soul,
I love You for Your sake alone.
Your image shines forth
From each person I meet
And I love them for Your sake alone.
With all of my heart,
And with all of my strength,
I love You for Your sake alone.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.

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SVdP News Roundup August 13 – August 19
SVdP News Roundup August 13 – August 19 1200 1200 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

Help us share the good news of the good work being done in your local Conference or Council! Email us at info@svdpusa.org with the subject line Good News.

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