Listen – Fasting & Forgiveness – Vincentian Life Journey – Vincentian Charisma

Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast – Tuesday October 27, 2015

Dear Vincentian Family.  It is always a wonderful blessing to share and pray for family.  I hope you will pray for each member and level of our family around the world.  If you are like me and many other Vincentians, you get many prayer requests and you often do not remember the name.  A Vincentian friend told me to place all the names in the palm of your hands and during your prayer time lift the hands to our Lord and He will know who they are.  Please pray for our youth, priests, bishops, deacons and dear Pope Francis.  I ask for special prayers for 2 dear people who are suffering:  Kama and Marisol and family.  Please also pray for the repose of the soul of a dear friend and benefactor for SSVP Judith in Calgary.  For our willingness to be His broken witnesses to the world and each other, we pray to the Lord.  Receive God’s Grace; it will rock your world.  Amen!

Listen – Set time aside each day for quietness. It is in the stillness that you can hear the voice of God. Take five minutes a day to unplug, logout, and disconnect. Simply put, rest in the presence of God and you will be rewarded with His word. About all you can do in life is to be who you are. Take the time to listen to God.  Deepen yourself daily in His wondrous being and ask Him to lead you.  The clue is to take the time to listen.  We learn from our silence and closeness with Him.  Nothing is too big or difficult.  He loves us unconditionally and He wants to teach us to love others unconditionally.  While you are listening in your peaceful prayer corner, talk to His mother and our mother Mary.  Ask for her intercession and the intercession of the Saints.  My favorites are Blessed Frederic Ozanam, St. Augustine, St. Francis, St. Theresa and St. Vincent de Paul.  Listen quietly for your answer to your burning needs.  Enjoy the silence and conversation of our heavenly family; you will be blessed abundantly by this silence.

Fasting & Forgiveness – Wanting and needing Forgiveness is a journey to holiness.  Fasting for our holiness goes side by side with forgiveness.  These two ingredients are different but bring great results.  When fasting, make it a holy experience, not a holier than thou experience.  You can fast from whatever you want, but a good one in praise of our Lord is fasting from anger, insults and gossip.  A good fast for family and friends is putting the cell phone down to have a real conversation.  See the good in others and forgive always even your worst enemy and pray for them.  This is the way of the Lord.  We really are a holy people, called to serve and striving to be more holy each day.  No one said it was easy.  Remember we are all sinners.  By the mercy of God, what was bad is redeemed. Our sins, when we regret them, lead us to Christ’s redemption. Our need for forgiveness, like our need to forgive becomes our path of holiness.  Turn all to our Lord and Redeemer and see how good He is at taking care of things.  The more we fast and forgive our faith increases.  The more we rely on Jesus, the closer to holiness and Salvation.

Vincentian Life Journey – When we go forth to visit and serve those in need we are journeying toward Our Lord.  God is with us every step of the way.  A part of the journey is collecting gifts from our benefactors.  Each one, large and small is important.  We gather these gifts to distribute to all in need who are before us.  We do not hoard and we give willingly and generously.  We do not judge and our main role is to lift them from their poverty.  Everything we have comes from God and our journey takes us to help the broken, torn, helpless Jesus.  We must see Jesus and we must be servant as He was.  We may not approve of some things we see in the home, but the important thing is we see the face of Jesus and bring His gifts with love.  This journey we take to visit prisoners, those who are suffering from addiction, the homeless and those dwelling in poverty, is like a pilgrimage.  It is an evangelical journey which is essential to our Vincentian calling to serve Christ in those in need.  He is calling us on this journey to service.  Enjoy the journey.

Vincentian Charisma – A charism is a gift that achieves God’s purpose. Charisms build up the body of Christ and give us the strength and power to evangelize. Charisms help others to know, love, and serve God. They are gifts given to each of us for the salvation of others. How beautifully relational that is!  We take the attention off our own suffering by entering into a friendship of service to all in need.  We serve Christ in the poor and He serves the poor through us.  It is by God’s grace.  We offer ourselves for service and He is with us always.  Only under God’s grace can we successfully do the opposite of what we’re tempted to do. Only under God’s grace are we able to be victorious in our walk of holiness. By the grace of God, we live in righteousness and change the world around us.  We would be nothing without His intervention.  One of our charisms is to fast and pray.  We pray for help from the Trinity, Mary our Mother, our Vincentian saints and all the saints in heaven to help us care for and love those we serve.  It is so right to ask them for their prayers.  The credit for all we do comes from God. Stand strong, you are never alone.

Remember Pope St. John Paul 11 as his first feast day was last week. Oct.22 He truly cares about our work.  We need to cease asking what the future has in store, and take each day as an amazing gift from God; whatever the day brings forth.

Blessings,

Lynn