Three Essential Elements of Vincentian Life

Among the essential elements to our work and life as Vincentians there are, at least, three. The most obvious of these, in the public eye, is our ministry to the poor and vulnerable. This is the one that gets measured and reported on. It is also very easy for us to see the spiritual value attached to this ministry as when we read St. Matthew's gospel, chapter 25, about the judgement between the sheep and the goats when Jesus returns in glory as King. However, there are two other essential elements which we neglect at great risk to our very mission and ministry. I compare them to gasoline and oil in a motor car.

The first of the other two elements, which I compare to gasoline for a car, is our personal spiritual life - our connection with God our Father, with Christ our Lord, and with the Holy Spirit. This is the source of our power to minister to the poor. Without a spiritual life of regular prayer, Scripture and the sacraments our tank gets empty. You can only run on fumes for a very short while before you sputter and stop. Frederic Ozanam's spiritual life included daily reading and meditating on the Bible and regularly going to mass and communion. (His wife gives us this testimony: Despite his grave illness he never put aside his time of prayer. I have never seen him go to bed at night or rise in the morning without making the sign of the cross. In the morning he reads the Bible in Greek and meditates for half an hour. During the last days of his life he attended Mass on a daily basis and found support and consolation in doing this.)

Third World Day of the Poor - Vatican Announcement

Pope's message:  they are not parasites of society

"I have come to set the earth on fire" - Jesus of Nazareth

Here is the Pope's address before the Angelus today...

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In today’s Gospel (Lk 12:49-53), Jesus warns the disciples that the time to make a decision has come. His coming into the world, in fact, coincides with the time to make decisive choices: choosing the Gospel cannot be postponed. And to better understand His call, He uses the image of fire that He Himself came to bring to earth. Thus, He says: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing”. These words are intended to help the disciples abandon any attitude of laziness, apathy, indifference and closure, to welcome the fire of God’s love; that love which, as Saint Paul reminds us, “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5). Because it is the Holy Spirit that makes us love God and makes us love our neighbor; it is the Holy Spirit that we all have inside.

Spiritual Reflection, Summer 2019 - Attitude

When a person first learns to fly airplanes, this pilot-to-be is trained to fly under what is called VFR. This is an acronym for Visual Flight Rules where the pilot relies on being able to see the horizon in front and on the sides. Only later do they learn IFR, Instrument Flight Rules, whereby flying is purely with reference to flight deck instruments and navigation under direction from Air Traffic Control.

Visual Flight Rules provides a good analogy for many life circumstances, but a particularly beautiful one for Christians and, in particular, for Vincentians and people in ministry to others. This is because VFR is all about two basic words: attitude and power.

Feast of the Ascension

Feast of the Ascension

How about we try this? Let's read this reflection on the Feast of the Ascension by Sr. Mary McGlone and then, between now and up to the Feast of Pentecost next week, we pray daily for our Vincentian Conference - as a community and for each and every individual - that the Holy Spirit fall afresh on us with new power, wisdom and courage.

As an aid, you might like to pray this prayer to the Holy Spirit of St. Pope John XXIII which he prayed upon opening the Second Vatican Council:


We stand before you, Holy Spirit,
conscious of our sinfulness,
but aware that we
gather in your name.

Come to us, remain with us,
and enlighten our hearts.
Give us light and strength
to know your will,
to make it our own, and to
live it in our lives.

Guide us by your wisdom,
support us by your power,
for you are God, sharing the
glory of Father and Son.

You desire justice for all:
enable us to uphold the rights of others;
do not allow us to be misled by ignorance
or corrupted by fear or favour.
Unite us to yourself in the bond of love
and keep us faithful to all that is true.

As we gather in your name
may we temper justice with love,
so that all our decisions may be pleasing
to you, and earn the reward promised to
good and faithful servants.

You live and reign with the Father
and the Son, One God, forever and ever.
Amen.

May 13 - "Do you love me?"

On the 3rd Sunday of Easter we heard the Gospel reading from St. John where Jesus, risen from the tomb, appears to the apostles on the shore of the lake where they had been fishing all night without a catch. In that gospel reading there is the well-known interchange between Jesus and Peter where Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. Preachers and scripture scholars tell us that this is the point where Peter is not only forgiven for his triple denial of his Lord - also beside a charcoal fire - but that it is also the very point where Peter is given his apostolic mission as chief shepherd of the flock of Christ.

This is all described very poignantly in a reflection by Sr. Mary McGlone SSJ where she points out how we cannot really be used by Jesus in the mission he has for us until we are confronted by our sinfulness and weakness, and brought to a place where we experience forgiveness by the Lord's gratuitous love. She actually titled her post, "Only sinners need apply"