St. Vincent De Paul Society Print E-mail
Founded in 1833 by six university students in Paris under the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul, today the Society includes almost 900,000 members spread among 46,000 confraternities in 130 countries of five continents.

St. Vincent De Paul The Society's purpose is to provide direct aid to those who suffer, and to help individuals reduce and even eliminate the causes of their suffering, themselves. Society members use their own resources, sharing not only possessions but the valuable gift of their presence.

About St. Vincent de Paul
Following Christ, the Evangelizer of the Poor
It was the human Jesus who captivated Vincent. From the beginning, the picture of Jesus telling the people in the Nazareth synagogue that his life's purpose was to bring his Father's hope to the poor excited Vincent. He saw himself seated in that assembly and felt the energy which moved Jesus go through him too. For most of his active life, Vincent set his course by what Jesus would do. He was especially attuned to the gospel scenes in which Jesus encountered needy people. In fact he often reminded his followers how fortunate they were to be doing exactly what the Son of Man himself had come to do, bring the Good News to the poor.

Love for God and Trust in God's Care

Vincent's happy childhood, particularly the love he felt toward his mother, disposed him to recognize the richness in Jesus' claim that his God in heaven was lovable and gracious. Vincent only grew in his appreciation of God's parental care. It was his own experience of this tender mercy that made him such an attractive and believable evangelizer.

In some ways, Vincent's fundamental accomplishment was to have communicated to the poor of his day that God really loved them. In the prayer practices he recommended, Vincent told his directees to come with Jesus before His God, to be part of the vital exchange going back and forth within the Trinity. Only in such open communication with the all loving God could they have confidence that the work they were doing was really God's work. Only then could they be sure it was, in Vincent's favorite phrase, the will of God.

Warm-Hearted and Practical Love for the Poor

Vincent was a discerner. He detected God's loving presence when he met and served neglected people. They were his special ones, his windows onto God's activity in the world, his holy ground. They brought him the Lord Jesus. In a hundred different ways, Vincent taught that Jesus was alive in the poor. Underneath the frightening surfaces of poverty, he insisted, the disciple encountered the suffering Lord.

Vincent pictured ranks of poor people gathered around Jesus on the last day, helping him to make the final judgment:

"She took care of us, Lord. Let her in. "He was our friend, Jesus. Welcome him too."

In the Kingdom, the poor are the ones who count the most. In this life, even though put to the side, it is they who bear the closest likeness to Christ. Therefore, they are to be served with genuine love and practical intelligence--in Vincent's expression, with affect and effect.

The quality of one's discipleship depended on it.

Habits Which Enable Evangelization

Vincent had little patience with theoretical approaches to discipleship. His interest was always in the practical side of things. Today we might term it "delivering the service." It wasn't enough just to be enthused about the gospel or to have satisfying prayer experiences. One had to actually be capable of spreading God's love; the poor had to hear and feel it.

It was this bent for the concrete which made Vincent insist on developing habits which enabled evangelization to happen. Certain strengths had to be there if the apostle were to communicate a believable gospel. If a woman did not learn to handle her anger, for instance, she couldn't convey a God of forgiveness and strength, let alone be attractive to the poor. If a man occasionally shaved the truth, if he had not disciplined himself to say things as they were, he could neither preach a faithful God nor earn the trust of the marginated people who instinctively suspected any outsider offering help.

Because it took character to perform Jesus' mission, character formation was required of the apostle. Building habits of hard work, truthfulness, evenness in mood, doing with less, listening, empathy, steadiness, detachment, readiness to move on, perseverance, humility and the like was essential for following the missionary Jesus. For Vincent, Christian discipleship did not exist in the abstract. It came to life in practical service.

Vincent de Paul for Today

During the French Revolution, rioting mobs broke into the Pantheon in Paris and smashed all the religious statues but one. Despite their zeal to replace, in their eyes, a repressive Christianity with the freshness of their secular heroes and heroines, they could not bring themselves to deface the image of Monsieur Vincent. He had done too much good, helped too many of their forebears, spoken too movingly about the preciousness of the ordinary person for them to throw him out with the rest.

His appeal continues to be that universal. It is to the wellsprings of human dignity, the basic goodness of people. Praying with him allows us to go beneath the accomplishments the mob so admired to the reason Vincent could give his care so lovingly in the first place. When he served the poor, he "touched God." And when he came before God, he found himself reaching out to the poor.

Vincent mirrors today's active apostle, needing nourishment from action and prayer as they intertwine in the heat of the day. He models that apostle's stance before God, prayerfully active and actively prayerful in bringing the Good News.

If you are interested in joining the Society of St.Vincent de Paul please contact Mrs. Bessie Mowad at (318) 256-2343

Information on this page from: http://www.vincenter.org/tree/svdp/index.html and http://www.vincenter.org/vdp-ldm/biov.html

 
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