Patience like the Patience of a Farmer
Jesus is the patience of God. God is, undoubtedly, great and does wondrous deeds. Yet he is merciful at the same time. We need patience, those of us who are in a hurry. So, little wonder we love fast food. We do not like, besides, long lines of people at the bank...
Bloom Where You Are Planted – You Are the Bounty
Bloom Where You Are Planted – You Are the Bounty – Servant’s Rules – We Are Fam-ily! Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast: Re-post from July 15, 2014 Bloom Where You are Planted This is a phrase many of us use. My grandmother used this and many phrases often to solve any...
July 19, 1813: Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s Pronounce Vows
This Wednesday is the anniversary of the date when St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the first Sisters of Charity made vows using the Vincentian vow formula.
Am I a Person of Desire?
Finally we ask, are we persons of desire, swept up and swept away by the call God gives?
Updating the Vincentian Family • A Weekly Reflection with Louise
The Procurator General "asked me if we considered ourselves regular or secular. I told him that we aspired only to the latter. He told me that such a thing was without precedent [...]. He said many good things about the Company and added that he did not disapprove of...
July 16: First Sisters of St. Martha Arrived in Antigonish, Nova Scotia
This weekend is the anniversary of the arrival in 1894 of the first Sisters of Charity in Nova Scotia, who would become the Sisters of St. Martha. In this video, Sister Brendalee Boisvert, a Sister of St. Martha, talks about her call and her congregation....
Unbreakable: Vincentians of Wherever
I composed this poem thinking about the ties to service and those less fortunate that my service with CVV instilled in me. There are so many things in the world that try to pull us out of our purpose of being companions on the journey and so many circumstances in the...
A Vincentian View: The Childlike
A Vincentian View: The Childlike Some time ago I read a quotation from William Makepeace Thackeray and its truth holds a firm place in my mind: “‘Mother’ is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children." Whenever I am around small children—whether in...
Systemic Change Lessons We Can Learn From Ozanam
In his lifetime Frédéric Ozanam neither heard nor uttered the phrases “systemic change” or “systemic thinking.” Yet an incident in his life illustrates a compelling argument that he was committed to helping people move from poverty to a sustainable life, a key element in changing systems that entrap people in poverty.
Things Ordinary, Yet Eye-Opening
In Jesus dwells bodily the fullness of God. He is the fullest meaning of things, which he uncovers for us to see. Being on top of things and aware of what is going on, Jesus tells the parable of the sower. He turns the sower of people’s experience into a “Gospel...