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SVdP News Roundup September 30 – October 6
SVdP News Roundup September 30 – October 6 1080 1080 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 2 – October 6
A Week in Prayers October 2 – October 6 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Monday, October 2

Lord Jesus, help me serve the neighbor
For the love of the Father alone.
May the bread that I bring be forgiven,
And my words be words of hope.
May the hand that I clasp
Clasp mine in return.
Help us know You are present with us.
Amen

Tuesday, October 3

Soften my heart, Lord Jesus,
Let me see with the eyes of love.
Help me hear the cry of the suffering.
Send me to do Your will.
Amen

Wednesday, October 4

In times of joy or sorrow, Lord,
I long to see Your face.
I know that You are present, Lord,
In every time and place;
In every neighbor, every friend,
In every flower and tree,
Broken and shared in bread and wine,
Enter now, Lord, in me.
Amen

Thursday, October 5

Help me to trust in your providence, Lord;
To give as You call me to give,
Not limited by my human judgment,
But generous beyond reason
With my time, my talents, my possessions,
And myself.
Amen

Friday, October 6

You are with me, Lord.
In the darkness before the dawn,
Hear my prayer.
You are for me, Lord.
Against all trials and temptations,
Be my hope.
You are within me, Lord.
When I empty myself of self,
For Your love alone.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Disaster Services Offers Aid to Northern California Fire Victims
Disaster Services Offers Aid to Northern California Fire Victims 938 943 SVDP USA

When massive wildfires hit Northern California without warning, entire towns were destroyed, thousands were left homeless, and 16 people were killed. But thanks to your generosity, the St. Vincent de Paul Disaster Services Corporation was there to help the Sacramento Diocesan Council respond and rebuild.

Survivors were living in RVs, leaving them vulnerable to the elements, while waiting for delayed state assistance to help them rebuild. Thanks to help from donors like you, DSC and the National Council were able to:

  • Assist 15 Households: The grant provided essential materials and supplies for survival and recovery.
  • Weatherize RVs: By equipping 10 RVs with roof coatings and caulking materials, the project protected families against the elements.
  • Solarize: Solar panels provided heating and cooling needs for a household living in an RV.
  • Provide Hot Water and AC: Families received hot water heaters and window AC units, restoring essential comforts.
  • Control Erosion: Supplies including paint rollers, caulking guns, gloves, fans, flashlights, batteries, and jack pads, were distributed to address pressing safety concerns.
  • Build Community: A poignant remembrance event connected 150 survivors with vital community resources and distributed 400 trees for reforestation and erosion control, fostering a sense of unity and renewal.

But the impact didn’t stop there. The second half of the grant helped volunteers complete vital solar repairs, bring damaged RVs up to safety standards, and distribute gravel, as well as providing fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors, and smoke detectors.

Program Manager Simona Gallegos can’t thank donors enough. “Without this funding, these wildfire survivors would have remained stuck in a never-ending loop of destruction. This funding has equipped them to better deal with extreme weather situations and made them more sustainable in their recovery.”

To donate to the Annual Disaster Campaign, visit www.svdpusa.org/disaster

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10-5-2023 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
10-5-2023 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 900 900 SVDP USA

This past weekend, I was in New Jersey to attend the Sunday Night NY Jets game at the Meadowlands (sometime in the past I must have done something really bad to have been burdened with the unique torture of being a committed NY Jets football fan). While there I attended Mass at St. Joseph’s Parish is East Rutherford, NJ. Waiting for Mass to begin, I was looking over the parish bulletin.

I was struck by their Mission Statement, prominently displayed on the cover page. It read: “A community of communities where each person can encounter Christ and lead others to him. Our vision is what you do for the least one, you do for Me.” What a beautiful expression of faith, friendship, and service.

It certainly occurred to me that it was a statement that could apply to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. We are truly a community of communities; diverse in our backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, ages, genders, and races, yet united in our faith and our commitment to serve the least of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We lead people to Christ not by our words, but by our actions. To paraphrase St. Francis, we “Preach the Gospel at all times through our service, and when necessary, we use words.”

I am truly honored and blessed to be able to serve you over the next six years as your National President. It is my hope and my prayer that I will have the opportunity to meet you all in visits to you or at National and Regional meetings. I want and need to hear from you about what you think and what you need from me, our new Board of Directors, and our tremendous National staff to support your efforts to live out our three essential elements of spirituality, service, and friendship.

To that end, and as I discussed in my inaugural remarks at the National Assembly in September (you can view the video here), I am asking us, as a Society, to embark on a two-year period of conversation, discernment, and prayer to look at our future and adapt to the changing world we are in. Our Rule calls us to periodically do just that. We will model our discussion on a synodality process. Synodality is a Greek word that comes from ‘journey’ and ‘together.’ We will journey together is a conversation and discernment that will guide us as we build a bridge to the future so that our community of communities can and will continue to encounter Christ through our service and help lead others to him through our example.

You will hear a lot more about this exciting journey in the months to come.

Peace and God bless,
John

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SVdP News Roundup September 23 – September 29
SVdP News Roundup September 23 – September 29 1080 1080 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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Contemplation — Our Universal Mission
Contemplation — Our Universal Mission 1080 1080 SVDP USA

At the heart of Vincent’s charism was a deep passion for the universal mission of the church. It was, after all, his taking of the general confession of the old man at Gannes, followed by his homily at Folleville which marked the beginning of the Congregation of the Mission. That, and every mission that followed, was designed to feed both body and soul, to nourish both individuals and communities.

With the founding of the Confraternities of Charity, the missions also included the foundation of a new Confraternity in each town visited, involving the laity in both the initial, and more importantly, the ongoing corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The people, rich and poor, could live their faith through their actions, and to encounter Christ in each other.

Vincent’s zeal drew him to offer the priests of the Mission to the church’s service not only in France, but in far flung lands where Christ’s word was yet unknown. The Vincentians not only ministered to the slaves of the Barbary pirates in North Africa but ransomed the freedom of twelve hundred of them, all the while showing the church’s beauty through their humble prayers and actions.

Vincent’s special zeal for these foreign lands was partly driven by his fear that “that God might gradually do away with {the church] … because of our depraved morals, those new opinions’ which are spreading more and more, and the general state of affairs… in another hundred years we may lose the Church entirely in Europe.” [CCD III:40-41]

Two hundred years later, young Frédéric Ozanam and his friends faced a world which, in his words, had “grown cold”, and it called “us Catholics to revive the vital beat to restore it, it is for us to begin over again the great work of regeneration…” [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1835]

This is the “good of the Church” that the founders were challenged to show, and their answer was not a debating response, not merely words, but actions, not merely actions but a way of living; of living their faith in every part of their lives, bearing witness to Christ’s love in their actions, and “by showing the vitality of their faith, affirm its truth.” [Baunard, 65]

This work was, and is, at the heart of the “new evangelization” Pope Saint John Paul II describes in Redmptoris Missio, reviving, as in Frédéric’s time, “a living sense of the faith.” Like the communities Vincent visited 400 hundred years ago, it is we who are first evangelized when we encounter Christ’s suffering in the neighbor. May they in turn see His love not in the bread we offer, but in its bringing; not in our works, but in our love; not in our presence alone, but in the presence of Him who is among us on each home visit, as He promised, when we gather in His name.

Contemplate

Will they know we are Christians by our love?

Recommended Reading

Praying with Vincent de Paul

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Contemplation — In the Vincentian Spirit
Contemplation — In the Vincentian Spirit 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Because it is the heart of our vocation, and our primary means of serving the neighbor, Conferences and Councils offer training for the Home Visit. As important as this training is, it really comes down to one thing. As our Rule puts it “visits to the poor are made in a Vincentian spirit.” [Rule, Part III, St. 8]

It is important to note that the statute quoted above doesn’t actually say “Home Visit,” it only says “visits to the poor,.” This is important to keep in mind, because as central and indispensable as the Home Visit remains, there always have been other Vincentian encounters. And just as the Home Visit is the source of all of our other works (systemic change, special works, advocacy, and more) the spirit, and spirituality of the Home Visit must be a part of every Vincentian encounter.

We cannot visit the homeless in a home, yet we bring the same humble, kind, patient deference to the encounter that we would when entering a neighbor’s home. When people visit our food pantries, we are not clerks in a store, but servants of Christ, who is hungry. When shoppers, rich or poor, patronize our Thrift Stores, we offer more than retail “best practices,” we offer our hearts.

While it may be only Active or Associate Members who go on Home Visits, volunteers and staff of the Society also encounter the neighbor in the course of our many works. They often are the only face of the Society some people will ever see. This is why we do not jealously hold onto the word “Vincentian” only for Active Members. All of us who do the work of the Society are serving Christ in serving the neighbor. All of us are Vincentians.

From the earliest days of the Vincentian Family, the priests of the Mission, the Daughters of Charity, and the Confraternities of Charity sought out the poor wherever they were – in hospitals, in the streets, rowing the galleys, or in prisons. To serve them, they enlisted help from others throughout society. Indeed, this was the origin of the Daughters of Charity, formed from poor farm girls who assisted the mostly upper-class Ladies of Charity.

Just as Members bring our Vincentian spirit to every Home Visit, our Vincentian spirit grows as a result of them. The Vincentian spirit animates everything we do, every encounter we have; it is meant to be shared not only with the neighbor, but with each other. Not all volunteers will become Members, not all employees will join Conferences, but then again, not all Members will become Popes or Saints… but John Paul II did.

Our Vincentian Pathway has many starting points, and many routes, but on each of them we will find Vincentian encounters, and all of them lead us to Christ.

Contemplate

Do I welcome volunteers and staff to prayer, reflection, and training with the Members?

Recommended Reading

A New Century Dawns

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SVdP News Roundup September 16 – September 22
SVdP News Roundup September 16 – September 22 1080 1080 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 September 18 – September 22
A Week in Prayers September 18 – September 22 1080 1080 SVDP USA

Monday, September 18

I sit silently, Lord, in Your presence,
My mind and my spirit kept still.
Speak to my soul if You wish it.
I seek only to do Your will.
Amen

Tuesday, September 19

Unburden me, Lord, of my worries.
Free me, O Lord, from my cares.
Wash away all the sorrows,
And all of the pride,
That crowd You out from
My mind and heart.
Fill me, O Lord, with Your Spirit.
I am Yours.
Amen

Wednesday, September 20

Help me to see You, Lord,
In the shivering neighbor,
Created in Your image,
Created by Your hand.
Help me to give, O Lord,
My time, my possessions, myself;
Given to me to share, Lord,
Given from Your hand.
Amen

Thursday, September 21

Lord, in my heart,
Lord, in my mind,
Lord, in my soul I love You.
Lord, in my words,
Lord, in my thoughts,
Lord, in my acts I love You.
Lord, in my family,
Lord, in my friends,
Lord, in the neighbor I love You.
Amen

Friday, September 22

Help me to walk the narrow path, Lord,
My eyes upon Your kingdom.
Help me to walk in faith.
Ease my concerns and worries, Lord,
About all the things of this world.
Help me to see with hope.
Help me to make more room for You, Lord,
Fill my heart ‘til it overflows.
Help me to share Your love.
Amen

Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director.
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Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month 438 314 SVDP USA

Written by Tai Jackson — SVdP Seattle

Hispanic Heritage Month is an annual celebration lasting from September 15 thru October 15, but originally traced back to President Johnson, who first introduced Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968. The week-long celebration was later changed to a month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. During this month-long event, we recognize and honor the cultural, historical, and societal contributions of our Hispanic and Latino communities.

Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to acknowledge the diversity within the Hispanic and Latino communities and their contributions historically in the United States. It’s important to remember the influence they had in shaping the nation’s history throughout various fields. The contributions of figures like Cesar Chavez in the labor movement and Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court highlight the lasting impact of Hispanic Americans in society.

Another aspect of Hispanic Heritage Month is to educate and raise awareness about the socio-economic, political, and educational challenges that are faced in the Hispanic and Latino communities; and the work needed towards addressing such disparities.

With this idea in mind, for the last 10 years, our St. Vincent de Paul Centro Rendu program has been dedicated to lifting spirits by partnering with families, churches, schools, government, and local businesses to create a community center that provides essential tools and resources needed for the Hispanic and Latino community to learn, live, work, and thrive.

Many celebrate by participating in festivals, parades, and cultural events that showcase the Hispanic and Latino traditions. This month is a time to celebrate, reflect upon, and honor the contributions of the Hispanic and Latino communities to the United States. It’s a moment to embrace diversity, learn from history, and work towards a more inclusive future.

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