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News Roundup March 19 – March 25
News Roundup March 19 – March 25 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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Daily Prayers Week of March 21 – March 25
Daily Prayers Week of March 21 – March 25 940 788 SVDP USA

Monday, March 21:

In daily struggles, great and small,
Lord, help me.
In times of sadness, pain, or loss,
Lord, comfort me.
Above all these worldly cares,
Lord, save me.
Amen

Tuesday, March 22:

Father in heaven,
Lord of the angels,
Creator of heaven and earth
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus my savior,
Redeemer of sins,
Son of heaven and earth,
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit,
Breath of God,
Love of the Father and Son
Lord, have mercy.
Amen

Wednesday, March 23:

O God, I feel Your presence
In the stillness of the night
You comfort me, and bring me joy
In every quiet moment
In every passing cloud
In every drop of rain
You are here
Amen

Thursday, March 24:

I seek to do Your will, O Lord,
But not with a hanging head
Like an unwilling worker,
Whose eye is on the clock.
I seek to do Your will, O lord,
On earth as it is in heaven,
With the joy of the angels above,
Knowing no end but You.
Amen

Friday, March 25:

Lord, thank you for the gift of friendship
And for the friends you’ve given me
Who put my good before their own
Who ask my help without fear
Whose joy and pain I share
In whom I see Your face
Amen
Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director. 
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2022 Midyear Meeting Wrapup
2022 Midyear Meeting Wrapup 776 652 SVDP USA

Last week, nearly 200 Vincentians gathered together in St. Louis for the first in-person Midyear Meeting since 2019.

It was a wonderful opportunity for the National Board of Directors, National Council Members, Executive Directors, and other Vincentian leaders to come together and share ideas after a three year hiatus.

While it was very exciting to have so many Vincentians in one place, we realize there were still those who were unable to join in-person. In order to give those not in attendance the chance to see the various presentations from the Midyear Meeting, we have created a playlist of the video recordings from the meeting. You can access them by clicking here. You will find recordings of the following:

We thank all who attended Midyear or took part via zoom. We look forward to seeing you all in Baltimore for the 2022 National Assembly!

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03-24-2022 Disaster Services Update
03-24-2022 Disaster Services Update 990 667 SVDP USA

Disaster Service Corporation Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA (DSC SVDP-USA), is responding to the recent tornado outbreak and storm damage throughout the South Central and South Eastern United States. DSC SVDP-USA’s Regional Disaster Representatives and staff are working with Council Presidents to determine what level of support is needed to meet the needs of Vincentian communities across the region. DSC SVDP-USA is prepositioning staff and readying financial and in-kind resources to deploy to these disaster zones.

The path of destruction cut across Texas, where 25 tornadoes touched down Monday killing at least one person in Grayson County, TX, and at least two tornadoes that damaged about 1,000 homes in Williamson County, near Austin. Governor Abbott has declared 16 counties for emergency assistance. On Tuesday, a deadly tornado tore through the New Orleans area, killing at least one person. Widespread destruction was reported in the area. In South Louisiana the communities of Arabi, St. Bernard, and the Lower Ninth Ward were severely impacted.

The storm system that spawned deadly tornadoes across Texas and Louisiana this week will continue to push east Wednesday, leaving a large portion of the country under the threat of more severe weather.

More than 65 million people from central Florida to southern Michigan and east to the Virginia coast are under a slight risk for severe weather Wednesday, including the possibility of large hail, gusty winds and tornadoes. Cities in the threat area include Columbus, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Savannah, Georgia; and Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro in North Carolina.

DSC will be posting the needs of this community and ways you can help on our website and social media this upcoming week.  Also, please follow us on Facebook for our “Lenten reflection “through the Eyes of those suffering from disasters” @DisasterServicesCorp  and check our twitter feed @svdpusadisaster.

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3-24-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
3-24-2022 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1363 1363 SVDP USA

More than 200 Society leaders attended the first live Midyear meeting since 2019 last week in St. Louis. It was great to see so many of us in one place!  A few National Council Members (usually the Council Presidents) attended only the Business Meeting by Zoom, and this was good as well to participate. Here are a few highlights from our time together.

President Ralph Middlecamp opened the gathering with a discussion on Capacity. He specifically discussed the situation in Ukraine and surrounding countries, and how the global Society of St. Vincent de Paul is structured to help refugees and other impacted by the current violence. (Please see a separate article in this eGazette on how your Council/Conference can participate beyond what has already been collected in our annual Disaster appeal.) This process is also used for natural and manmade disasters that occur anytime during a year.

National Formation Director Tim Williams provided the spiritual retreat, engaging the audience to see the various faces of Christ in our work. This is recorded for your viewing and sharing!

Father Patrick McDevitt, C.M., the Provincial Superior for the Vincentians Western Province, gave an insightful keynote address on Vincentian Synodality. This address is also available as a video.

Much of the Midyear time was spent in National Committee meetings, National Region meetings, and National Subsidiary meetings that produce so many products and services to our members through out the year. The Business Meeting featured reports/presentations from many of these groups, which are all available to you as individual videos (see accompanying article on Midyear videos).

The Business Meeting was unique in that there was no new business to vote on this time! However, it was full of information from the committees, included a recognition of new National Council Members, reviewed our very positive National Council financials, and provided the process and schedule for the election of the next National President. The Call for Nominations opens on April 1!

We closed the Midyear with a Vincentian Mass led by Father Jim Cormack and a Recommitment Ceremony, both at the Old Cathedral where our first U.S. meeting of the Society was held in 1845.

We are thankful for the many sponsors and partners who help make a Midyear possible with their meal sponsorships, and their exhibits that are so helpful to our leaders in finding resources for Council operations.

Perhaps the greatest value of a Midyear meeting is not in the activities outlined above but what happens between these activities. Vincentians take full advantage to learn and share in the hallways, meals and free time. Coming out of a challenging pandemic environment, and with so few live meetings in the past two years, this opportunity to be with each other and express our Essential Element of Friendship together is worth the trip!

We are already deep into planning our next big meeting, the National Assembly to be held in Baltimore on August 31 – September 3, 2022. We expect more than 800 members to be with us at the Marriott Inner Harbor – will you please join us?

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

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Contemplation – From the Fullness of Our Hearts
Contemplation – From the Fullness of Our Hearts 940 788 SVDP USA

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a rash of people across the country who swore they’d seen the late Elvis Presley filling his gas tank or eating in diners. Some perhaps really imagined they’d seen him, while others just wanted to sell their story to the tabloids.

By contrast, Vincentians are called not to imagine Christ, but to see Him, and to serve Him exactly as He asked us to do. “There’s no need,” St. Vincent taught, “to represent Him to yourselves by certain mental images: it suffices for you to believe, since faith teaches you this.” [CCD X:473]

Or, as St. Augustine taught, “faith means believing what you don’t yet see, and the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” [Sermon 43] The reward of our faith can be seen on every home visit. If we go to the poor ten times a day, ten times a day we will find God there! [CCD IX:199]

If we believe what we profess, if we truly “see Christ in the poor and the poor in Christ” [Rule, Part I, 2.5], we will describe our neighbor with words honor our encounter with the true embodiment of Christ.

One way to check whether our words truly express this belief, is to replace the “Christ” in “Jesus Christ” with our word. For example, “Jesus Brother”, “Jesus Neighbor”, or “Jesus Friend” not only make sense, but are comforting to say. All of these are words Christ Himself used.

By contrast, “Jesus Client”, “Jesus NIN”, or “Jesus FIN” are quite unsettling to hear! After all, the Greatest Commandment is not to “love our client as ourselves.” Jesus did not tell the disciples He no longer called them servants, but FINs. He did not ask the young lawyer, “Who was the NIN?”

Indeed, that question would have made no sense, given that the answer was not “the one in need”, but “the one who showed mercy.” To have a neighbor, you have to be a neighbor. To have a friend, you have to be a friend. To have a brother or sister, you have to be a brother or sister. Our relationship with the neighbor is mutual, respecting and promoting their dignity, and serving Christ in their persons.

Elvis has left the building, but Christ is with us always, to the end of the age. We are “serving Jesus Christ in the person of the poor,” St. Vincent said, “And that is as true as that we are here.” [CCD IX:199]

This is what we believe in our hearts, and from the fullness of our hearts, our mouths speak.

Contemplate

Could the words I use to describe the neighbor also be used to describe Christ?

Recommended Reading

The Spirituality of the Home Visit

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Contemplation – Save Space for the Neighbor
Contemplation – Save Space for the Neighbor 940 788 SVDP USA

The spiritual dimension of our Vincentian formation is based on the understanding that we are created to live in community, to grow in faith together. This is why we always visit the neighbor in pairs, and this is why we share reflections on our service and our faith at our Conference meetings. We are a community of faith, growing closer to one another as we grow closer to Christ.

Just as the example of the Holy Trinity shows us that the divine life is a shared life, we see that our pathway to that life also is shared. “Following the example of the Blessed Trinity,” St Louise said, “we must have but one heart and act with one mind as do the three divine Persons.” [Sp. Writings, 771]

In our Conferences, we fill our meeting rooms, however few or many we may be. We build true Christian friendships, where “the strongest tie, the principle of a true friendship, is charity” as Blessed Frédéric wrote. [Letter 82, to Curnier, 1834]

Charity, the Catechism reminds us, is not merely to give things, but to “love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.” [Catechism, 1822] Charity is not our practice, but our gift; a love “which multiplies itself, which is present in many places at once, and whose intensity is increased in the measure that it gains in extension.” [Letter 107, to Curnier, 1835]

Our community of faith, then, is not meant to be a gated community! Just as we welcome new members to share in our works, our prayer, and our friendship, so our Rule reminds us to “establish relationships based on trust and friendship” with the neighbor. [Rule, Part I, 1.9]  It is vital to offer our material assistance, our works, but ultimately we seek to serve for love alone. [Rule, Part I, 2.2]

We Catholics have a habit, when Mass is sparsely attended, of spreading out to all four corners, from entrance to altar, from aisle to aisle, with ten feet and two pews between us. You could call it “Catholic distancing”, or you could see it another way: we fill the church as best we can, but always save space for more to join us, not in the back, but in our midst.

Contemplate

How can I better “save space” and welcome the neighbor into a community of faith?

Recommended Reading

Face of Holiness

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News Roundup March 5 – March 11
News Roundup March 5 – March 11 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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Weekly Prayers March 7 – March 11
Weekly Prayers March 7 – March 11 940 788 SVDP USA

Monday, March 7:

Lord, I will serve You where You are
In the homeless man on the bench
In the hungry child before me
In the forgotten neighbors living alone
In those who ask for help
Lord, I will serve You where I am.
Amen

Tuesday, March 8:

Father in heaven,
Whose Word I know,
Help me to do Your will;
To serve, to love, to forgive,
For Your sake alone, not mine.
Amen

Wednesday, March 9:

Of all the gifts You have given me,
All of them to be shared,
There are none greater than love,
That gives of self,
And knows no bounds.
Lord, knowing Your great mercy,
There is nothing I cannot forgive.
Amen

Thursday, March 10:

Lord, I bring many needs before You,
Knowing You are the source of all good,
And trusting in Your Divine Providence.
Father, do not give me what I ask for.
Rather, give me what it is pleasing to You,
In accordance with Your plan for my life.
Not my will but Yours be done.
Amen

Friday, March 11:

Two coats are in my closet, Lord,
For when it’s cold outside.
Two coats I bought to keep me warm,
And one of them is mine.
So many gifts from You, O Lord,
So many ways to shine.
I have so many gifts, O Lord,
And none of them are mine.
I have one life to live, O Lord,
No practice life before.
One life to give away in love,
And all of it is Yours.
Amen
Daily Prayers are written by Tim Williams, National Vincentian Formation Director. 
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03-10-2022 A Letter from Our Servant Leaders
03-10-2022 A Letter from Our Servant Leaders 1920 2400 SVDP USA

The Gospel for the first Sunday of Lent is always the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Immediately after His Baptism, the Holy Spirit leads the Lord into the desert, where He fasts and prays, preparing Himself for His upcoming mission of salvation. It is in that radical solitude where Satan tempts Jesus to turn aside from the Father’s will and to misuse His divine powers for His own comfort and glory. If the devil can already lead the Son of God astray at this early juncture, he will have scored a significant victory against the loving plan of the Father. Jesus rebukes Satan, refusing to even entertain the temptations, remaining true to His fundamental identity and purpose.

This experience of Christ in the desert teaches us that whenever power is not channeled in the service of love, it becomes selfish, inward-looking and even demonic. The tremendous gifts of knowledge, love, faith, time, energy, money and relationships that we have received are not meant simply for our private enjoyment or comfort. The Lord consecrates us to be servants of the Gospel, to proclaim the victory of the resurrection and to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters. Lent is a beautiful time for us to seek a deeper conversion through the ancient practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These spiritual actions open us up to deeper relationships with God, each other and our truest self.

Being a Vincentian allows us to put into practice on a regular basis the lessons which Jesus teaches us from His time in the desert. Our greatness does not lie in the trophies which this world offers us. Power, wealth, possessions, popularity, and comfort will all slip away from us, but what we do and who we become in the Lord and for the poor and suffering will endure forever. Treasure put at the service of love blesses the Church and the world. Time given to the poor will endure in the heart of God forever. Energy spent in the proclamation of Jesus’ saving Gospel produces eternal fruit.

How blessed we are to be in the Saint Vincent de Paul Society! We are a band of disciples, gathered in the vision of Saint Vincent and Saint Louise, formed by the thought of Blessed Frederic Ozanam, led by the Holy Spirit to put the Gospel into saving action. Every time we choose to love another person, especially those in most need of our time and attention, God powerfully uses us to unleash the glory of the Paschal Mystery, the wonder of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We may feel tempted at times to give up hope, when our charitable efforts seem to bear no fruit or are not appreciated, or when our work for justice and social transformation seems painfully slow. We bear in mind the Parable of the Sower, who lavishly casts seed even on the rough and barren ground, wanting to give every possibility for vibrant life and renewed hope. Remember that no sacrificial gift, act of charity or merciful word goes unnoticed by the Lord. It is for Him and the Kingdom of God that we set out in the service of God’s poor and suffering.  Thank you for your radiant witness to the power and love of the risen Christ, the One who turned away from comfort and glory to wash the feet of the disciples, to give Himself to us in the humility of the Eucharist and to die on the cross for our sins. We give witness to and extend all that He has done. Have a blessed Lent!

Sincerely,
Bishop Donald J. Hying
National Episcopal Advisor

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