Vincentian Family – Calling the Righteous – Irritations and Spirituality 

Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast September 30, 2014

Dear Vincentian Family: Pray for Pope Francis, all our Bishops, Cardinals, Priests, Deacons and Seminarians. Pray for Vocations and pray for our youth. We must forgive everyone with Christian Charity, remembering the example of our Redeemer, who forgave even those who crucified Him. We pray we grow deeper in love. We ask Christ to hold on to us as we cling to Him. He is our hope. We feel His praise and glory always. Help us to always feel your strength and love O Lord. Help us to serve and feed your lambs with love. Amen.

Vincentian Family – In community we see God in each other. It is like our family. As Vincentians we have many to work with and pray with. We are not all the same and we accept each other as we have the same goal; to love and serve Christ in the poor. We are there for each other and those we serve. God smiles and loves our family and communities united by prayer, as you are in your parish, city or town and around the world. Know He is always with us in our work. We are called to serve as a family, the Vincentian Family. We lean on each other to do the will of God. Recently I read a wonderful article by Jim Paddon, the President of the Ontario Regional Council, Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. He posed this questions which I think each one of us can reflect on. 1. Where is Jesus to be found? 2. How do we have personal contact with Jesus? 3. Do you really see Jesus in those we serve? I would add: Do we see Jesus in each other? 4. Did Vincent make systemic changes? And I also would add did Ozanam make systemic changes?

Calling the Righteous – Last Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 21-31) was to address those who think they are doing well, but fail to do the Father’s will. God doesn’t want us to be right all the time. He wants us to be righteous. Our actions should reflect God’s love and our actions can be righteous.  God wants obedience motivated by love and an enthusiastic attitude of serving those He places before us. This is our mission, we are called. Your surface self sometimes reflects holiness to the world, but is it God’s way. Doing what is right is the difference between heaven and hell. We can be at Mass each Sunday and ignore the poor or look down on those not as good as us. Attending Mass is important, but reaching out to others is the ultimate will of God. God asks us to do what is right for others and be righteous. He wants us to pray and go to Mass faithfully, but most important is to say “Yes” to His call by serving Christ in all.

Irritations and Spirituality – Do you ever get irritable over small things? Do you lose your composure and wonder why you get so angry? It really is funny how irritations make you feel small and you lecture yourself on looking at the more important things in life. We then turn to prayer and ask God to be with us. Our irritation over the simplest things still lingers in our prayer life. We should really thank God for the blessings of these irritants. They truly help us grow and know what the important things really are. God always loves us and we give Him many reasons to be irritable with us, but He seems to know we will get back on track and loves us always and is so patient. St. Louise de Marillac quote: “How obvious it is that God loves you since He gives you so many opportunities of serving Him.” Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of serving you in the poor and needy, whether directly or indirectly. May there always be room in my heart for the homeless, the displaced and the suffering souls of this world.

Have a great week. Pray always and be close to God. May you always feel His presence.

Blessings, Lynn

Lynn  L’Heureux is Special needs co-coordinator & Advisor of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Calgary Alberta Canada.

Her newsletter is translated into 3 languages, hopefully soon to be 4.  They have a group which brings the prayer into China and it is translated into Mandarin and other Chinese dialects.