Reflection:

1. Socrates and Plato already proposed not to elect anyone who were ambitioning for power. Mademoiselle Le Gras wanted the opposite: to have no power. Several times she asked her Superior Vincent de Paul to relieve her of the government of the Company, but he was opposed: The Sisters “will elect, by a plurality of votes, one among them to be Superioress for a period of three years; she may continue in that office for a further three years, but not beyond. M. Vincent said this was to be understood to be after God had called Mademoiselle to himself, who thereupon knelt down and begged him to begin it right now. Your Sisters and I, Mademoiselle, have to ask God to give you many more years of life, he replied. It’s God’s usual method of acting to preserve by extraordinary means those who are necessary for the accomplishment of His works; and if you think about it, Mademoiselle, you really haven’t been alive for more than ten years now — at least in the ordinary way.” (CCD IX, Conference 30).
2. It is a doctrine that must be active at all times, because if we choose those who seek power, it is easy for them to take advantage of it, to be served rather than to serve others. And this —which parents have in mind when exercising their authority for the sake of the children and the family as a whole— must also be taken into account by the leaders of any branch of the Vincentian Family.
3. Parents have not been elected, but if they are accepted by the children for their love, affection and “good work,” it becomes the most precious choice.
4. The whole family without paternal and maternal authority becomes chaos and falls apart, but with a paternal or maternal despotic authority, the rebellion of the other party and the children, turns the house into a nightmare.