A Companion of Vincent Reflects
The Emerging Spirituality of Saints Vincent De Paul
And
Louise De Marillac in the Companions of Vincent
Reflections of one member of the Companions
Saint Vincent De Paul said: “He (Jesus) sent me to evangelize the poor. If the Lord were asked: Why did you come on earth? He would reply: ‘to help the poor’. Anything else? ‘No, to help the poor.” (On the Perseverance in One’s Vocation, conference of October 29, 1638, The Way of Saint Vincent is Our Way, By Miguel Perez Flores, C.M. and Antonio Orcajo, C.M., Concord Publishing, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 1995, p7). Needless to say that is quite a charism for the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity, which Vincent co founded with Saint Louise De Marillac. Several years ago the Congregation in a worldwide effort sought to establish greater lay involvement to aid in this mission. Pursuant to that goal, the Eastern Province of the Congregation established the Companions of Vincent as a lay associate effort in their province.
The Companions of Vincent of the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians) are represented in various locations around the Eastern Province. Representatives from the Long Island and Brooklyn, New York groups meet with those of us from Philadelphia at the Vincentian Renewal Center in Princeton, New Jersey from time to time to plan our annual assemblies and other gatherings. We have also gathered at St. John’s parish in Brooklyn and at St. John’s University in Queens for sharing and enrichment programs during the past several years. There has also been a Companions group, which met regularly during the academic year Niagara University in Niagara, New York. I joined them for dinner one evening as a sort of emissary from the other groups to better forge some links. Based on these experiences of the past several years, I want to offer these reflections and observations of the charism of the Congregation’s founders, Saints Vincent De Paul and Louise De Marillac, which is at, work in our lay associate effort.
As we plan our annual assembly for this October in conjunction with the Faces and Facets of 21st – Century Poverty Conference at St. John’s University, I have felt humbled by the reports from the Long Island, New York group. They have held silent auctions and other fund raising efforts to raise money for the Vincentian Latino parishes on Long Island. They are carrying out the mission of our annual assembly of two years ago, which was also held during the St. John’s poverty conference. They went home and followed through on the challenge of serving the poor. They have also held the charity auctions within communities of some financial means to help the poor. Obviously, the model of Vincent and Louis doing the same thing among the wealthiest in their day seems to surface here in an exemplary way.
Our Philadelphia English speaking group has focused on studying the life and writings of the Vincent and Louis with guest speakers from among the vowed members of the community along with some exercises in community building within the group. There has been an emphasis on carrying this message to our places of employment or in our volunteering efforts. Some members work on housing efforts in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Another Companion volunteers as a teacher of reading and yet another continues to teach in inner city elementary schools for virtually his whole career. For me personally, I have found myself thinking of my work in Philadelphia City Government in a different way. For example, in visiting City health centers in the course of my workday, the Latino, Russian, and African immigrants are clearly the next wave in the American experience where help and support from the church has been and will always need to be a part of their story. I feel as if I am making a contribution in the spirit of Vincent and Louise. All of us who bonded together in our studying and formation experience seem dedicated to continuing these efforts only with a more direct connection with the larger Vincentian community as lay associates.
Fr. Jack Timlin, CM, who was novice master at the time, also challenged me specifically one day to engage more directly with the poor. His challenge coincided with an opportunity for me to become a Big Brother in the Big Brother Big Sisters Program of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. One Saturday my little brother went with me to the Vincentian novitate and motherhouse in Philadelphia to visit with Fr. Jack and some of the other confreres. He liked the ice cream, the tour, the good natured joking and he seemed to be intrigued by one of the older missionary confreres who told stories of his time in China. The Holy Spirit works in wonderful ways. Not long after that day trip my little brother asked for me to be his confirmation sponsor. It was an honor to be associated with his religious journey and the embrace, with which he was welcomed by the confreres that Saturday afternoon certainly helped. My little brother has been a joy and a source of spirit filled moments wherein I lose myself in just being with another. Experiences like that are precious and I find myself craving more of them as a result.
Our English-speaking group unfortunately cannot fully engage with the Spanish speaking Philadelphia group due to the language barriers, but smiles can be a universal language. Some of us attended a religious revival among the Philadelphia Latino community last summer. With the help of a translator, the revival aroused in me a feeling of being with people who appreciate when others’ show interest in their life and participate. We always accommodate non-English speaking participants at our Companion gatherings with translators, but to attend a revival in the Philadelphia neighborhood reminded me of my own immigrant family and the ethnic closeness and bonding amidst this seemingly scary larger American scene. I felt invited into a more close knit world than the one that I lived in day to day. It would seem that I felt the stirrings of being evangelized by the poor, which is what Vincent and Louise so fervently talked about.
While visiting Niagara University, I was struck by an anecdotal story of Fr. John Kettleberger, CM, and liaison to the Companions group at Niagara. He made some off handed remarks about some of the confreres being very adept at inviting the basketball players who came from inner city backgrounds into a pick up game. Vincent and Louise were from Paris and the “inner city” of that day did not play basketball, but the spirit of engaging the poor where they are situated in life is the enduring lesson, which continues today. I am an old basketball player myself and I again felt the calling of engaging with youth as a way to help and to be helped.
We have also had some ups and downs in our organizational efforts where some have stressed certain directions while others have sought other kinds of emphasis. There seem to be parallels to some extent with what is outlined in the voluminous correspondence of St. Vincent de Paul with the early members of the congregation. Clearly, organizing and engaging people in the vision of Vincent and Louise to serve and to be evangelized by the poor required a lot of direction and effort.
In building the Companions effort, it will be heartening and gratifying to have our first commitment ceremony in October of 2003 at our annual assembly. A significant number of people will formally commit themselves to assisting the Congregation in the work of serving the poor. The stirrings and the spirit of Vincent and Louise have been present and the need for a formal public display of our response has arisen.
George J. Whelan
Companions of Vincent was published in the “Associate” Journal of NACAR ,in December.