“We will see how Vincent de Paul, his teaching and his life were centuries ahead of the Church’s magisterium.” Thus writes  Sister María Pilar López, DC and she offers proof in a very insightful and challenging article “The Prophetic Dimension of the Vincentian Charism in the light of the social doctrine of the Church.”  After a brief introduction she follows with sections devoted to.

•  What do we mean by prophecy?
• Saint Vincent and the dignity of the person
•  Saint Vincent and justice
• Saint Vincent and the management of material goods
•  Saint Vincent and solidarity
• Saint Vincent and human promotion
• By way of conclusion: visions and dreams

She concludes… “We can say with Mother Guillemin that there is nothing more noteworthy than the spirit of Saint Vincent. For her this was one of the great discoveries and one of the greatest marvels that occurred during the Council. She expressed this idea in the following manner: Each time that a seemingly new idea was put forth, I told myself with deep personal and filial satisfaction: “Saint Vincent taught us that” … perhaps he did not use the same words since he expressed his ideas using the language of his era. But his thinking had a purity and clarity and authenticity so that it was never contradicted or censured by the teaching of the Church … Let us rejoice in the fact of being children of such a father.”

Reflections:

• What can you say St. Vincent taught you about the dignity of the person, justice, management of material goods, solidarity and human promotion.
• Do we dare “to dream with God, to dream the dreams of God for his people, to foresee a better world and to work with all our strength so that this dream becomes a reality”?
• Do we respect the dreamers in our midst?

(This article was translated for famvin from the Spanish source  with the permission of the author.)