José Vicente Nacher Tatay, CM, writes… “Our Vincentian charism will only be a credible prophecy if we truly live it. The key to prophecy is fidelity (remembering). Anything else would be a scandal, a lie, a history about someone who gave and then took back what had been given. So then, let us be faithful to our vocation and faithful to the Lord, the origin of our vocation. If we are faithful to the charism, the charism will keep us faithful.
He further concludes his study …. Discernment: Do we attempt to live out that which comes from God? Is this the right time? Are we willing to accept the difficulties? Are we willing to enter into the dynamics of the Paschal Mystery — to die in order to live? If we are, then yes, we have a place in the Church because the Holy Spirit has given us gifts (gifts for service, gifts for evangelizing those who are poor.
We can summaries all of this with the words that Robert Maloney wrote after he met an elderly Daughter of Charity in China who had gathered around herself a group of five aspirants: I ask myself: What did this Sister, who is nearly blind and deaf, do to attract them? The answer I came up with is this: Really, she did almost nothing, but she lived with enormous fidelity, joy, and peace, filled with faith in the presence of the Lord. She was, and continues to be, a prophetic witness to the gospels [23].
We conclude with the words of John Paul II, words addressed to the Daughters of Charity during their 1997 General Assembly, words that, with their permission, we direct to all Vincentians: The charism of Monsieur Vincent is ablaze today and, with your whole spiritual family, it is your responsibility to bring it alive right where you are.
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“The prophetic character of the Vincentian charism” by José Vicente Nacher Tatay, CM, translated for famvin by Charles Plock, CM
Tags: Charism, Vincentian
