FEAST OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL
We want to share with all of you the joy that we experience as we draw near to the feast of our holy founder: Saint Vincent de Paul.
Thank you, Lord, thank you! is the exclamation that flows from our heart on this feast of Saint Vincent de Paul.
Thank you, Lord, thank you! because on September 23rd of this year we celebrated the 406th anniversary of Saint Vincent’s ordination. On September 23, 1600, he received the sacrament of Orders in the Church of Château-l’Évêque.
Thank you, Lord, thank you! because today the Vincentian charism continues to be alive in the Church and in the world. Through countless Vincentian missionaries, Daughters of Charity and lay Vincentians throughout the world the Good News is proclaimed to the poor.
We wish to renew our commitment to serve and evangelize the poor in whatever place we might find ourselves. We want to sing hymns of praise to God through handing ourselves over to and serving those who live on the margins of society.
The proclamation of Good News to the most needy, both those in material and spiritual need, continues to be an urgent necessity. Evangelization is a responsibility that makes demands on all those who have been baptized and on the whole Church.
Saint Vincent accomplished his first great works through collaboration with the laity, with men and women. He realized that the benefits of the mission would not endure unless the flame remained lit as a result of the action of zealous and well-formed priests, who established their lives and their ministry on an intimate encounter with Christ. For Vincent there is no substitute for priests when he considered their role in regard to the souls that had been entrusted to them.
From a missionary perspective his commitment to forming and serving priests was expanded to include retreats for ordinands, the Tuesday Conferences, and the development of seminaries. Therefore the Congregation of the Mission was established to preach the good news of salvation to poor people, especially in rural areas, and also has as an objective to help seminarians and priests grow in knowledge and virtue so that they can be effective in their ministry (cf. Common Rules I, 1).
Vincent de Paul’s vision of priesthood is based on a personal experience of the mission which takes on a universal dimension when he says to his missionaries: We have been chosen by God to be instruments of the immense and paternal charity that he wishes to be established and expanded … therefore our vocation does not consist of going to just one parish or one diocese but rather our vocation is to go to the whole world. Why? To set the hearts of people afire, to do what the Son of God did when he came to set fire to the world so that ultimately people might be enflamed with his love. Therefore it is true that I am sent not only to love God but also to help others love God. It is not enough that I love God if my neighbor does not love God (SV XII, 262).
The celebration of the feast of Saint Vincent is an occasion to renew our Vincentian vocation. Vincent sensed that the incarnation of Jesus Christ was the foundation of his commitment to the poor. Throughout his life Vincent knew how to translate this intuition into concrete gestures. It is necessary to conform ourselves to Jesus in regard to his relationship with the Father and others, with the poor and the needy to whom he was sent: It is necessary to strip ourselves in order to clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ (SV XI. 343). In this way we conform our lives to that of Jesus Christ who handed himself over to God and humankind. From this apostolic perspective of Saint Vincent, the Incarnate Word occupies the central place: Remember that we live in Jesus Christ through the death of Jesus Christ … and that our life should be hidden in Jesus Christ and overflow with Jesus Christ for to die like Jesus Christ it is necessary to live like Jesus Christ (SV I, 295).
We hope that for the whole Vincentian Family this feast might be an occasion of spiritual and missionary renewal and a stimulus for apostolic service.
Saint Vincent de Paul, the man who encountered God and his sisters and brothers, the man who was open to the movement of the Holy Spirit — this man invites us to take a renewed look at the mission in the present world. Hopefully, through generous collaboration and constant mutual support, priests and laity, respecting their proper vocation, might go with greater courage to meet the women and men of today and proclaim the gospel to them. May Christians build communities that are alive and open to all, especially those who are most in need or most alienated and may they give witness of God’s personal love for them. May they be concerned for the human and spiritual growth of individuals and groups. May they contribute to the messianic mission of Jesus Christ that because of their vocation they ought to continue.
As was true during the time of Vincent so too today, in order to be authentic witness of Jesus Christ, priests and laity need a solid human, doctrinal, pastoral and spiritual formation. The efforts that have been made in this area and that ought to continue, especially among young people, are a source of hope for the vitality of the Church and the credibility of her witness. I hope that the sons and daughters of Saint Vincent continue to renew the commitment that they received from their founder, namely, to contribute to the formal and spiritual support of the priests and to do this with an ecclesial and missionary spirit.
Today we want to give thanks to the heavenly Father for having given us these teachers of holiness who pointed out to us the way of Christ’s love and the consequent apostolic commitment, namely, that of leading souls to God.
Lastly we implore the Father in heaven to send abundant graces upon the Vincentian Family so that they might become holy and so that their ministry might be fruitful.
Thus, this commemoration constitutes an hour of grace for the whole Vincentian Family and impels us to new apostolic zeal in proclaiming Christ to today’s poor.
We pray that just as during the time of Jesus, all of us might receive the light and the strength to fulfill this mission.
Therefore we lift up our prayers to God for the Vincentian Family so that all the members might continue to generously fulfill their mission of proclaiming to the Gospel to today’s world and take upon themselves the founding spirit and apostolic zeal of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac.
From heaven may the Blessed Mother under the title of our Lady of the Miraculous Medal intercede for us. May she obtain from her Son the divine grace that enables us to continue with new dedication this sacred service of the Lord. Amen.
(Charles T. Plock, C.M., translator)
