Help is humiliating when it appeals to men from below, taking heed of their material wants only, paying no attention...
Frederic Ozanam
Simplicity and Cordiality • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
[The conferences] are blooming in Livorno and in Pisa, they begin to prosper in Florence, in Pontadera, they settle in...
Vincentians in Public Life • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
At the same time, another thirty conferences formed in the most distant points of the country, celebrated the same...
On Being Simple • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
May God preserve us in the simplicity of our beginnings, and St. Vincent de Paul will recognize us as his disciples, if we maintain that character. Frederic Ozanam, to the General Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, July 10, 1953. Reflection: In 1853,...
Let’s Go to the Front Lines! • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
In those times we found ourselves invaded by a avalanche of heterodox doctrines and philosophies that were confronting us all around, and we felt the need to strengthen our faith in the midst of the assaults made upon it by the various false systems of knowledge. Some...
God Did Not Make the Poor • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
God did not make the poor. […] It is human liberty that makes the poor. […] We have put crushing taxes on salt, meat, and all necessaries of life. […] When it was a question of crushing out the last embers of the insurrection, there was no need of delays and...
Ozanam’s Last Wills • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
I commit my soul to Jesus Christ, my Saviour, frightened at my sins, but trusting in His infinite mercy. I die in the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church. I have known the difficulties of belief of the present age, but my whole life has convinced me that there is...
Not Only Giving Alms to the Poor • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
Almsgiving alone, alms that are not accompanied by words and love, is a humiliation for the one who receives it. Do we need to remember that man does not live by bread alone, that the Savior himself does not only ask to be clothed and fed in the person of the poor,...
The Character of Vincentian Leaders • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
In a Society that grows, and whose main purpose is to work for the renewal of faith and charity among men, in which all variety of ages, customs and human opinions must meet, the presidency needs many qualities, a special merit, and a man difficult to find if God does...
There is no “You” without “Me,” nor “I” without “You” • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
The "I" is truly importunate and hateful, that selfish solitude does not suit the needs of my character; I need the moral accompaniment of the family, the feeling of the "We." You are good and charitable in allowing it, and I will take you for your word. From now on...
We Are All Responsible • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
All Catholic countries have placed charity in the law, but what has saved them is that they have not extinguished it in their hearts. The ordinances of the kings of France would never have relieved the provinces of the misery that followed the wars of Louis XIII if...
Useless Servants • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
We are useless servants: such is the testimony that must give those who unite to serve God and men. [...] Not to show ourselves, but let us to be seen: such could be our formula and is, more or less, among the maxims of a great apostle of charity, Saint Francis de...
