Some Preliminaries:
This month, we continue our series of reflections on the Final Document of the II International Convocation, held in Rome in November 2024. This time, our focus is on the first and second sections of the text: “Eyes Seeing the Past and Praising the Providence of God” and “Eyes Beholding Our Collaboration: A bond woven by unseen threads.” We invite you to read these sections beforehand so that your group discussions and shared prayer may be even more meaningful. As in previous months, each confraternity is encouraged to appoint a secretary to take notes during the reflection and post them in the “Comments” section of the reflection published on famvin.org (in both English and Spanish). In this way, we continue to build together a space of shared learning and communion in the spirit of the Vincentian Family.
Click on the following image to download the full document in English:
Text for Reflection:
1. Eyes Seeing the Past and Praising the Providence of God
Since 1995, the expression “Vincentian Family”[1] has been used broadly to indicate all lay and religious groups and individuals inspired by Saint Vincent de Paul’s Charism. Over the past four centuries, the complex enterprise of organizations and communities sparked by Vincent de Paul’s life and experience has grown. Its exciting and complex history is one that we cannot ignore. The Vincentian Charism has inspired men and women, lay, religious people, and priests, who have formed different groups to advance the agenda of the original intuition the Spirit seeded in Saint Vincent’s heart.
Therefore, in this broad sense, today, the Vincentian Family includes Institutes of apostolic life, religious and lay, Congregations or Religious Institutes for women and men, confraternities, foundations, and groups or movements, as well as individuals inspired by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac. It also includes an ample richness of saints and founders/foundresses who give us a vast range of possibilities for living our common vocation: Vincentian Holiness.
In 2015, it was decided to give a more organized form to this growing Vincentian fabric, and the International Office of the Vincentian Family [2] was established to promote structures of communion, build capacity, and share our spirituality for mission collaboration so that we might speak with a more unified voice in the midst of the world and the Church.
From the beginning, the Vincentian Charism has been actively present and has tried to respond with creativity and innovation to all the layers of poverty [3] in different cultures and geographies confronted with the realities of exclusion and marginalization resulting from the intersectional alienation in which so many are left behind: violence, inequity, systemic injustice, violation of human and environmental rights, political and ecological crisis, etc.
We are immersed in a planetary, institutional, and humanitarian crisis that impacts our values, lifestyle, and personal and collective decisions. This constellation of uncertainties is our field of mission. It is at this “crossroads of grace” where the Spirit of God, the one who continually renews the face of the earth (Ps. 104:30), is inviting us to keep our eyes and ears wide open to be able to respond to the signs of the times of today as Vincent and Louise did it in 1617.
2. Eyes Beholding Our Collaboration: A bond woven by unseen threads
The International Vincentian Family, without prejudice to the character, autonomy, and competencies of how each branch or individual tries to live our Charism, has intensely worked in the past 26 years,
- To promote ongoing formation in Vincentian history, theology, spirituality, and practices so that we can embody these principles in our daily lives, relationships, and ministries. The goal of formation is for our Charism to one day shape how we live, think, pray, act, and perceive
- To promote and communally implement collaboration in various initiatives and activities to expand the outreach of our common Charism: celebrations of our tradition, shared projects, mission ad gentes and inter-gentes, vocational ministry in which our primary call is to our Vincentian Charism (culture of vocation), initial and ongoing formation, support to build capacity, development of the sense of belonging and institutional sustainability.
- To promote, accompany, and support common organisms (National Councils, regional and continental structures with their Statutes approved by the International Office on behalf of the Executive Board).
- To revive the spirit of communion and our shared mission, we implement ecclesial equity (lay, consecrated, and clergy, always walking side by side) to engage in new relational ways, live out the “mysticism of we,” and realize and become a sign and witness of the Synodal Church so passionately and prophetically promoted by Pope Francis.
- To maintain alive our charitable fabric focused on protecting and defending life, recognizing and defending human and environmental rights, and promoting systemic change.
- To be an ecclesial organization grounded in the gospel of justice with a multifaceted planning and action approach that understands and confronts the intersectionality of structures generating poverty at all levels.
Notes:
[1] Father Robert Maloney, CM, invited, in 1995, the heads of the four historic branches of the Vincentian Family (International Association of Charities 1617, Congregation of the Mission 1625, Daughters of Charity 1633, and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul 1833) to meet every year. He then invited them to attend the General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission in Rome further to discuss this initiative in the summer of 1998.
[2] Father Gregory Gay, CM, with the support of the Executive Board of the Vincentian Family, created this office on Pentecost Day, May 24, 2015, and named Father Joseph Agostino, CM, the first Director.
[3] A sign of this commitment was the establishment of the Vincentian Family Haiti Initiative in 2009.
REFLECTION … REFLECTION … REFLECTION … REFLECTION … REFLECTION
This month we reflect on the first and second sections of the Final Document:
- Eyes seeing the past and praising the Providence of God,
- Eyes beholding our collaboration: a bond woven by unseen threads.
Here we are reminded that the expression “Vincentian Family” entered our vocabulary in 1995 when Robert Maloney, CM invited the heads of the four historic branches of the Vincentian Family to meet every year, namely, the International Association of Charities, the Congregation of the Mission, the Daughters of Charity, and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. This invitation marked a new beginning.
When I first became associated with the Congregation of the Mission in my country of origin, the members would often offer pray for vocations to the Double Family. Here they were referring to the Company of the Daughters of Charity and the Congregation of the Mission. Such prayers, however, seemed to ignore the fact that Vincent de Paul established the Confraternities of Charity (now known as the International Association of Charities) before the Daughters of Charity or the Congregation of the Mission. Furthermore, such prayers were totally oblivious with regard to all the various lay and religious groups and individuals who have been inspired by Saint Vincent de Paul’s charism. Now, in 2025 we have a family composed of 180 branches ministering in 167 countries … a truly incredible reality.
So let us pause here for a moment. When you gather together this month, begin to list the number of branches that your members are familiar with. When you do your list, the Congregation of the Mission, the Daughters of Charity, the Miraculous Medal Association, the International Association of Charities, the Vincentian Marian Youth, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, and the Lay Vincentian Missionaries [MISEVI], these are given … how many other branches can you list?
Certainly, part of our on-going formation should include becoming familiar with the multiple branches of our worldwide family, especially those branches present in one’s country. Each week, famvin.org introduces one of the branches that make up the Vincentian Family. You can explore the ones published so far by clicking here.
In a few weeks (November 22, 2025) the Executive Board of the Vincentian Family will gather in Philadelphia to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of this office. At the same time a new Executive Director of the Vincentian Family Office will most probably be installed. That individual will be tasked with leading the Family into the future … and this document that we now take under consideration for our reflection will serve as a guiding light.
Yes, there is much to celebrate:
- Multiple initiatives in collaboration have taken place in many nations around the world;
- There is a growing awareness of the need for on-going formation (in many places, people are demanding this formation;
- We have strengthened relationships among the branches and have come to know and understand and minister with one another in a collaborative manner;
- Systemic change and collaboration have become ministerial approaches that define us;
- We walk together and accompany one another on our common journey.
All of these are significant advances in our approach to ministry and represent a “newness” that has been poured forth upon us as branches and as individuals. So, yes, there is much reason to pause and rejoice and celebrate and give thanks.
Then, without much delay, we must continue our journey. As we celebrate the past, we are immediately mindful of the fact that the present moment is call upon us for a response.
While we rejoice and give thanks for the blessings and achievements of yesterday, we are once again reminded of the pain and suffering that our lords and masters experience today.
These realities demand that while we pause to celebrate, we are also mindful of the need to move forward and to support our brothers and sisters as they struggle to confront the ever present crises of the present time.
In light of all of this, let me pose the following questions:
- Why do you raise your voice in gratitude today?
- What can you do (individually and as a group) to confront the crises of the poor in your area?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus,
deepen our Vincentian spirit of friendship during this meeting,
make us responsive to the Christian calling
to seek and find the forgotten, the suffering or the deprived
so that we may bring them your love.
Help us to be generous with our time,
our possessions and ourselves in this mission of charity.
Perfect in us your love
and teach us to share more fully in the Eucharistic Sacrifice offered for all.
Amen.
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