Two themes — continuity and renewal — emerge from a study of the lives of St. Vincent de Paul and Frederic Ozanam, says Jaime Corera, C.M.. The Second: RENEWAL.

Frederic Ozanam was extremely sensitive to the idea of social change. Not only was he sensitive to this idea but he also saw this idea as enabling Christians to revise their manner of understanding their faith so that their faith could continue to act as a leaven in the new society: The question that agitates the world around us is not a question of individuals or a question of political forms, but rather a social question. It is a struggle between those who have nothing and those who have too much. It is a violent clash between opulence and poverty … Our duty as Christians is to place ourselves between these two irreconcilable enemies to make equality as operative as is possible among people and to make charity accomplish what justice alone cannot do.

Are you listening to the signs of the times, and helping to renew the Vincentian spirit?

Read the from the “renewal” section to the end of Corera’s article, “Continuity and Renewal of the Vincentian Spirit: Blessed Frederic Ozanam,” and reflect on this question during your time of personal prayer. To say “#IamVincent or #IamFrederic means you have to meditate on their lives.