There’s an instinct to idealize the saints as entirely different from the rest of us, off in another league at some unattainable level of holiness and favor with God.
Reflections
Are You a Vincentian Cricket?
It is only in my later years that I have realized how he has influenced the Church of today!
Widow who Offers All She Has to Live on
Jesus wholly offers himself to take away our sins. In this sacrifice shares the widow who gives all she has to live...
A Mystic? #IamVincent
The newly elected Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission, Fr. Tomaž Mavrič, is fond of the image of St. Vincent de Paul as a mystic of charity. A regular contributor to famvin.org, Fr. Thomas McKenna, C.M., has written, Authors write about Vincent’s...
A Vincentian View: The Cross and the Crucifix
A Vincentian View Fr. Patrick J. Griffin, CM “The Cross and the Crucifix” How close are you to a cross at this very moment? Could you reach into your pocket and find the cross on the end of your rosary? Is one attached to your collar or around your neck? Is there...
Mystic of Christ’s compelling charity
Jesus is the Lord of the harvest. To work with him means to be a mystic of charity. To be a mystic of charity supposes, in the first place, that one is like Abraham or Martha. Both avail of the moments of grace. Abraham opens his tent to travelers who are such...
Take up the Cross – Angry at God – Finding the Hidden Jesus
Take up the Cross - Angry at God - Finding the Hidden Jesus Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast – Tuesday, July 12, 2016 Take up the Cross - What is the cross to us who believe? Among many other things, it is a sign of our lowest point, our sufferings joined with...
Saint Vincent de Paul: a Turkish perspective
by Burak Özdoğan Overture: the Magnet and the Old Man “Who is that man, Burak?” Marcela, Misa’s mother, asked me in a curious tone of voice.... A grandmother in her sixties, sitting in the armchair with a cup of Turkish coffee, squinting her eyes, and pointing her...
Vincent – balancing basics
After 50 years of priesthood I still struggle with the issues of balancing basics. Having been ordained in 1965 I was quickly exposed to a spirit of activism. I remember being very caught up with the concept of “leaving God for God.” After all, Vincent expressed that...
Who Do We Represent?
It is no secret that we tend to label people very quickly. No doubt there is some utility to labels even if today they are used like arrows of insult. Labels try to identify who we represent. To my mind labels lead a question for followers of Vincent and Louise. "Who...
For the poor, it is always “Night”
"Elie Wiesel was brought up in a closely knit Jewish community in Sighet, Transylvania (Romania). When he was fifteen years old, his family was herded aboard a train and deported by Nazis to the Auschwitz death camp. Wiesel’s mother and younger sister died at...
You Are Somebody
“You Are Somebody…” (John 15) (Homily at the Farewell Mass for the departing members of the 2015/16 Vincentian Mission Corps, St. Louis) Jesus confides in His disciples today, “I have told you this, that your joy may be complete.” Or to put it another way: “I...
