SVDP Contemplation

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org As Vincentians, we understand this to be a calling, a vocation. Each of is called to serve God as a member of the Society, seeing Christ in the neighbor, and growing in holiness through our service. While the meetings and...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org When we hear the word “leader” we naturally think of a great general, a head of state, one of those celebrity CEOs, or even a star athlete leading a team to victory. The great leader is an American archetype: charismatic,...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org Why did you join the Society of St. Vincent de Paul? And why do you stay? These are two very important questions for every Vincentian to meditate upon from time to time. Membership is a vocation, a calling. Each of us heard...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org Amélie Ozanam, Blessed Frédéric’s widow, had a brief invocation, or perhaps a motto, that she often added to notes and letters that she wrote. It was “et sub cruce, Hozanna!”, meaning “and under the cross, Hozanna!” in...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org Many of our Conferences struggle with finding – and keeping – new members. Often, when this happens, we begin to tell ourselves that perhaps we are asking too much of potential members; scaring them off with the notion of...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org Virtue, our catechism teaches, is a “habitual and firm disposition to do good.” [CCC: 1833] The good deeds themselves are not the virtue; they are, or should be, the fruits of our virtue. From our virtue of charity comes...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org To offer the benefit of the doubt is to assume the best of somebody even when you are uncertain of the truth. Is this not what we are called to do in our encounters with the neighbor? Thomas, we are told in John’s gospel,...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org Our Vincentian formation, we are taught, is a lifelong process of becoming. Like all of God’s people, our lives are not simply a series of events, but a journey – a spiritual journey towards perfection in union with our...

This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org “Life,” the old saying goes, “is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” There is a deeper truth captured in this witticism, one that St. Vincent often repeated. It is not that we should make no plans and...