Saint Vincent de Paul was born on 24 April 1581 in Pouy in the Landes, in the département of Dax (France): today he would be 443 years old, of which 80 have lived among us and 363 in heaven!
Saint Vincent de Paul was born on 24 April 1581 in Pouy in the Landes, in the département of Dax (France): today he would be 443 years old, of which 80 have lived among us and 363 in heaven!
He was a Christian who considered himself a useless servant and for this reason the Holy Spirit was able to work wonders through him: during his life in 17th century Europe and, after his entry into heaven, in the world through his daughters – the Daughters of Charity, his sons – the Priests of the Mission and the laity. It is also good to remember that alongside Vincent there was a great woman, we could say his interpreter, his feminine heart – as my great master of theology and one of the best interpreters of the Vincentian charism, Fr Giuseppe Toscani C.M., teaches us – St Louise de Marillac: together the two saints worked so that the Holy Spirit might build our international Vincentian world.
In fact, Luisa and Vincent – like all great founders – claimed that they had founded nothing, but everything came from God. They had understood that they had to follow the Christ who, for thirty years, had lived as an ordinary person in total secrecy in the despised region of Galilee and, in that, in the infamous town of Nazareth. In fact, we call him Jesus of Nazareth. This was the Christ of Vincent and Luisa!
St. Vincent used to remind his sons/daughters, when they found themselves unable to work for the Kingdom of Heaven: Honour the non-doing of Our Lord.
Vincenzo knew from experience what a life lived with the intention of self-fulfilment, to sit at the top, to always be in the middle: the life Christ did not choose!!!
Of course, being among people who used others and things for themselves, Vincenzo failed. In fact, he did not have sufficient support to stand out, so he moved even further away from the Lord who chose the last place: the cross! It was his good fortune, because he met the Risen One.
For him too, as for the prophets of yesterday and today, this experience happened in the silence of everyday life; in a moment we might say banal for a priest: in listening to a confession!
He realised he had got it all wrong: he realised, by grace, that the Spirit guides the Church and you are a useless servant! We are in the 1600s: in the culture of the appearance of The Betrothed!
Together, Vincent and Louise allowed the Spirit to work and he founded two communities that attracted many young people, at a time when Christians were killing each other and absolute monarchies, especially France and Spain, were starving their subjects and the clergy were alienating the people from God.
These two congregations (Priests of the Mission and Daughters of Charity) brought the people back to feel part of the Catholic Church: they re-evangelised them through simple catechesis, listening attentively to poverty and trying to meet it with love as well as professionalism.
In fact, St Vincent’s thought was: charity must be done with love, because a bread and a broth can be given by everyone but, the Christian with his love must make the poor forgive the bread he gives. This is the core of Christian charity.
Let us ask St. Vincent and St. Louise to intercede to the Holy Spirit so that He may give – to us Priests of the Mission and to the Daughters of Charity throughout the world, but especially to us who live in Western countries – a new way of life with which to traffic the talent (the charism) that the Holy Spirit has given us and continues to give us, to serve the holy Church and to ensure that the young people, whom the Holy Spirit still calls to be happy Christians as Priests of the Mission and Daughters of Charity, can realise their vocation within our local communities.
F. Giorgio Bontempi C.M.
