Could it be a life that is “conscious”? What does it mean to be “Vincentian?” Katherine of the Vincentian Mission Corps tells us what she thinks it means!

Living a life that is conscious… and compassionate. The Church reminds us why.

When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her prayer: “Today!” – a word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the call of the Holy Spirit. This “today” of the living God which man (sic) is called to enter is “the hour” of Jesus’ Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history:

Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of orients pervades the universe, and he who was “before the daystar” and before the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical Passover.[St. Hippolytus, De pasch. 1-2 SCh 27,117]

Living a conscious life is not enough. This smacks of an overly individualistic and psychologized approach to Christianity (and Vincentian spirituality) that ends in narcissism of popularized and minimized Buddhism. We’re called to enter into His dying and rising TODAY. Katherine nails it by wedding consciousness with compassion. With these two working in sync can we encounter “the great Christ, shines over all beings,” and shines from the faces of the poorest of the poor.

• Do you practice conscious compassion, or is your service routine?
• Are you preoccupied with self, or do you trust that acting compassionately will have an impact on your life, not just on the lives of those you evangelize?

Thanks, Katherine!