In the book Louis Abelly wrote about Vincent’s Trust in God’s providence, he mentions a conference which Vincent gave to his priests (CED XI:38-39). Vincent referring to the beginning of the Congregation and the various ministries they were doing he tells his priests: Have trust in God, my brothers and have it completely and perfectly. You can be sure that having begun this work in us he will bring it to fulfillment. I ask you, who begun this Congregation? Who called us to the missions, the ordination retreats, the clergy conferences? Was it I? Not at all. Was it Monsieur Portail whom God sent to join me in the beginning? Not at all, for we were never thought of these things, we never even considered them. Then who is the author of all this? It is God in his paternal Providence and his goodness.

If everything we do has it beginning and end in the providence of God, we should be persons of humility and who seeks God’s glory in all we do. Vincent tells us: We are but wretched and poor workmen. Among us there are few or none of the nobility, no one powerful, learned, or capable of anything. God alone does everything, and he does it with people like ourselves. So all glory should be given to him alone.

Vincent warns us if we don’t depend on God and his providence in whatever we work we do, God will withdraw from us. And if God withdraws from us we will fail in whatever we do.  This is to make us aware of the fact that, no matter how talented one may be, but one can do nothing without God. For Vincent the only thing really mattered is to trust God and his providence. He was sure that, once God has begun to do good in and through us, he will continue to do so, till the end, unless we make ourselves unworthy of His help.

About the Author:

Fr. Binoy Puthusery, C.M. is a Vincentian priest belonging to the Southern Indian Province. He was ordained as priest on December 27, 2008 and soon after served as an assistant parish priest in Tanzania.  In 2011, after two years of ministry, he was appointed as Spiritual Director to the Vincentian Sisters of Mercy, Mbinga Tanzania. He currently lives in Barakaldo (Spain), and is a teacher in the Masters in Vincentian Studies.