I often heard two seemingly contradictory thoughts about parents in “real families.”
Formation
Lenten Video Series, Day 8: No Greater Love
Deacon Ryan Nguyen recounts how, on the night before his crucifixion, Christ prayed for joy.
When Did We See You…
The article and photo are by Sister Susan Smolinsky, a Sister of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Halifax. She serves as a county jail chaplain in New York.
A New Reality is Born! • “Contributions” #1
This is the first of a series of formation packages meant for individual or group study which was introduced last week in “The Contributions of the Vincentian Charism to the Mission of the Church: A Formation Journey.” In that article, we also suggested a “Lesson...
Could You Survive in Poverty – 18 Quick Questions
“Could You Survive in Poverty?” This checklist was developed by Ruby K. Payne, an author and researcher in the field of socioeconomics whose work I’ve followed for years — but it’s a perfect gauge for how well you’d do if worse literally came to worse. It’s not at all...
Louise de Marillac: The need for Respect, Understanding and Tolerance
“I can no longer hide the sorrow of my heart at hearing that much is to be desired in you. [...] Where is the spirit of fervor which animated you when you were first established in Angers and which led you to esteem your directors so highly? You looked upon their...
Mercy and the Spirit of St. Vincent de Paul
The Church’s Year of Mercy will draw to a close on November 20… about 1 month to go. As Vincentians we are constantly learning how to be vessels of God’s mercy for others.
Stories of what being a Vincentian means
How many of us fully understand what a Vincentian is or does? Being a student at Niagara University, I was assumed to have known what the mission of my school is for its student body. After attending NU for three years now, I've come to notice that not many people...
A Social Conscience: #IamVincent
A Vincentian has a deeply rooted social conscience that informs her actions. Vincent had that, too. Vincentian Father Greg Cooney writes: ...the call of conscience becomes a call to personal conversion, requiring a re-orientation of convictions and patterns of...
Vincent de Paul: From God’s gaze
"I ask Our Lord to grant us the grace of considering those matters as they are in God and not as they appear apart from Him; otherwise we might deceive ourselves and act other than He wishes." (CCD VII, to Phillippe Le Vacher, December 6, 1658). "O my Savior and my...
Prayer and Management
Prayer and Management (Luke 6:12-19) In this section of Luke, we find Jesus continuing a ministry that’s spreading out further into the society, and in the process selecting 12 people from the group around him to be his “apostles”, i.e., the sent-out ones. You might...
The difference a lens makes
"Seeing" calls for "judging." But judging presupposes a lens! “Two men looked out from prison bars, one saw mud, the other stars!” This quote, variously attributed, seems to express that what one sees depends greatly upon one’s mental model and expectations. An...
