network
What is most important to you – your nation, culture, class, race, gender — or first and foremost being in God and a new and international community of God’s people?
Is the Church a Closet?
Is the Church like a closet where we wistfully keep things from the past, a dreary chamber filled only with us, our problems and our disappointments? Then it will be impossible to recognize God’s silent and unassuming presence.
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent XIII
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “Before dinner, make the examination of conscience… on the resolutions you took at meditation…”
Writing Straight With Crooked Lines
Vincent and Louise were at best an improbable couple. We are blessed to know the outcomes of the 35-year intersection of these two lives.
Do We Understand “Body of Christ”?
Do we understand “Body of Christ”? If we do would it challenge our way of thinking and the systems we live with?
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent XII
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “The practice of your vocation consists in the frequent remembrance of the presence of God.”
Trinity – Problem To Be Solved Or Mystery to be Lived
For me, it has been a journey from thinking of the Trinity as a puzzle to be solved to realizing the Trinity is a model for my life.
Are We Ministerial “Rip Van Winkles”?
For over twenty years we have been living in the very early stages of a “digital revolution.” We are just now beginning to realize how this digital revolution is impacting every facet of our lives.
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent XI
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “Remember that when you leave meditation and Holy Mass to serve poor persons, you lose nothing…”
The Spirituality of “Nouns and Adjectives”
It could be said that we are living in a culture of adjectives that forgets about the nouns that name the reality of things. But also a culture of the insult as the first reaction to any opinion that I do not share.
First Aid or Long-term Solutions?
Magdalena puts a face on the problem. But where is that place and is it possible to follow the guidelines we have been hearing. The story of one woman who is affected.
Unrecognized Experts
People experiencing poverty have an expertise that can not be taught in a classroom. They know their situation from the inside. They understand many dimensions of poverty that may not occur to us.
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent X
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “Go to Holy Mass every day, but do so with deep devotion…”
The “Before” and the “After” of the Ascension
The question “why are you looking at the sky?” is addressed to us today. Today, we are those dazed apostles looking up rather than within and around ourselves.
A Daring Prudence – Systemic Change
“… create a Family that looks to the past for inspiration, but is also eager to create a vibrant innovative collaborative future in the service of the most abandoned.” Fr. Robert Maloney
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent IX
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “Take care to give an account of your prayer as soon as possible after making it.”
Mary and the Mommy School
Three words sum up Mary’s attitude: listening, decision, action. They are words that point out a way for us too as we face what the Lord asks of us in life. Listening, decision, action. (Pope Francis)
Wide-angle View of the Vincentian Family
We are people with a mission…to do what Jesus did. Pople who use the skills of their profession in frontline “field hospitals” or mobilize those who are committed to “seeking long-term solutions.”
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent VIII
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “Another means of placing ourselves in the presence of God is to imagine ourselves before the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar.”
St. Joseph – Patron of “Saints Next Door”
Can we recognize Joseph, “the quiet one,” as the model for far more than just carpenters?
A Challenge is in the Air
Think about the hot button issues of the day: Police reform, Climate change, Poverty, Homelessness, Election reform, Systemic racism, #metoo… Tou name it. People are calling for more than just quick but temporary fixes. People are calling for systemic reform.
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent VII
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “You see, Sisters, even though we don’t see God, faith teaches us that His holy presence is everywhere…”
Can You Put Yourself In This Picture?
I am not an Ethiopian at the beginning of a thousand-mile journey. Actually, I am on a lifelong journey of trying to “put on the mind of Christ,” to see things as Jesus, the stranger in my life, sees them.
Systemic Change Calls For Paying Attention
There are things we see but don’t pay attention to.
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent VI
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “When you’ve finished dressing and have made your bed, you’ll begin your mental prayer.”
What Can We Learn From Anniversaries?
Whatever the anniversary, it gives us a chance to look back over the years since the event we’re marking, and reflect on how it has shaped us.
Systemic Change – What My Mother Taught Me
When will we really buy into the systemic change of thinking Jesus came to show us?
Vincentian Prayer Images: Walking Through Each Day with St. Vincent V
St. Vincent told the Daughters of Charity: “The first thing you should do when you’ve risen and have begun to dress is to kneel down and adore God.”
Reacting to Different Ways of Thinking
Looking at Jesus through the eyes of a Jewish person or a Gentile.
Acts of the Apostles, Systemic Change and Polarization
Over the next several weeks the liturgy, drawing from the Acts of the Apostles, presents selected stories of ordinary people who coped with severe polarization some 2,000 years ago.