On Thursday, December 8, the AIC began their Jubilee Year to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of their foundation and the birth of the Vincentian charism.
Below is an excerpt from a letter to volunteers from the Executive Board and Permanent Committee, Alicia, Aliette, Anne, Babeth, Gayle, Maru, Selina, Sumaia, Laurence and Tayde:
We invite you to renew your commitment to serve God through contact with people who are living in poverty.
Being an AIC volunteer means getting out of our comfort zone to enter someone else’s world, the world of those who live on the peripheries where there is another reality, set of values, culture and means of religious expression. As such, being an AIC volunteer means going where the people in need are and adapting to their reality. It’s not about giving what we think they need, but about first listening to how they feel, what they’re thinking and what they require, so that we can support them in the process of discovering the strengths that each of us has and so be able to achieve our dream of building a world of love, peace and justice.
We hope that each country will celebrate this great accomplishment with activities to deepen our charism and communicate it to others, as well as by reflecting profoundly about how we can do our work better, always hand in hand with our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
PRAYER FOR THE JUBILEE YEAR COMMEMORATING THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR FOUNDATION
With all our hearts, we give thanks to you, Lord, Father of mercy.
You have chosen us to be members of AIC and to continue the mission of the Confraternities of Charity that were established by Vincent de Paul some four hundred years ago.
Grant us the grace we need to continue this marvelous collaborative work together with those who are living in poverty so that we might build a more just and equitable world.
Help us communicate your love to our brothers and sisters with enthusiasm and hope so that they, in turn, might become active in their own development.
Teach us to be obedient to your will.
Give us the strength we need to be authentic and hardworking within the Church and to be a force of transformation in society.
May our numbers increase, so that each day, there can be more AIC volunteers in the world all convinced of Jesus’ words:
“Whatever you do for one of these least brothers or sisters of mine, you do for me” (Matthew 25:40).
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
Download the full letter by clicking here.
Download the Jubilee Prayer by clicking here.
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