Here is another in our series of “Praying Our Heritage.” The series illustrates quotes from key figures in the Vincentian Heritage.

Vincent wrote to one of his priests, describing the situation,

“We have more troubles here than ever. Paris is swarming with poor persons because the armies have forced the poor country folk to seek refuge here. Meetings are held daily to see how they can be helped. A few houses have been rented in the outlying districts where some of them have been housed, particularly poor girls.”

Young boys were housed at Saint-Lazare until work could be found for them.

He added, “In addition, about eight to nine hundred girls have been placed in private homes, and all the refugee nuns living in the city – some of them in questionable places, so it is said – will be housed in a monastery prepared for this purpose.”

Vincent wrote that at Saint-Lazare “soup is distributed daily to fourteen or fifteen thousand persons, who would die of hunger without this assistance.”

Vincent not only recognized problems… he did something about them. What do I do to help people up?

For the more visually oriented among us, you don’t have to wait for the weekly image on Tuesday. You can browse for yourself. You can even search for images related to key words. Visit and search VinFormation’s database of prayer images.

We hope you will enjoy these time-release prayer capsules!

We would also welcome you sharing with all of us images that inspired you to prayer.