Being Vincentian

St. Vincent de Paul was born in 1581 and grew up as a normal boy living in the countryside in France where his family had a house and owned land. When St. Vincent de Paul first became a priest, the reason why he did so was not because of his religion and spirituality but because of he viewed it as a job that he could earn money from. As a young adult who became a priest at the age of nineteen or twenty, his priority was to raise enough money so that he could go home to live with his family and retire. However, soon after beginning his priesthood, St. Vincent de Paul had a spiritual conversion through his experiences with the people and events that he encountered and took that as God speaking to him. Instead of asking God how to change, he took what he saw and started with that. After his conversion and taking what he saw as God’s word, his first sermon was on the necessity of giving a confession and then established the five virtues that would become the pillars of his missionary that began that day. Those five virtues were simplicity, humility, gentleness, mortification, and zeal. As he continued on in his journey as a priest, St. Vincent de Paul mainly focused on helping the poor and needy. With the formation of the Ladies and Daughters of Charity, as well as his friendship with Louise de Marillac, he was able to help the poor and provide for whoever needed the support. The documentary, Vincent de Paul: Charity’s Saint, is a great source of learning about what it means to be Vincentian.

To be Vincentian one must not just pray for those in need, but act on that need. For example, “Again and again, he urged his followers not just to act but also to pray, and not just to pray but also to act” (Maloney, 4). His followers must always act and pray to keep with spirituality and the values that St. Vincent described for us. Throughout the documentary, those five values can be described in a more contemporary way as being honest, reasonable, approachable, self-disciplined, and hard working. These were all values that St. Vincent himself followed and to be Vincentian one must follow these as well. One can also be Vincentian through “…the language of relationships: being with the poor, working with them, knowing and loving them as friends, brothers and sisters, forming a Vincentian Family…” (Maloney, 4). This is the act of physically helping and being with those that need the help which can be seen a lot through the description of the Daughter’s of Charity in the documentary. Physically being with those that need the help is something that we do as students at St. John’s through the Academic Service Learning Program, especially when signed up through Campus Ministry.

Another way that a person can be Vincentian is through the value and act of being genuine, the virtue of simplicity. This means always being truthful and “… practicing the truth through works of justice and charity” (Maloney, 5). This virtue can also be talked about through Madame de Gondi’s asking of “What must be done?”. When watching this documentary, one learns of the story St. Vincent and Madame de Gondi and their travels of the de Gondi’s land. Through their travels they learned of the people’s loss of faith, so when Madame de Gondi asks what must be done, she is asking what she and others can do to help. This is Madame de Gondi’s use of the virtue of simplicity – instead of an elaborate plan to restore the faith of the people, she sought guidance to ask what the people needed the most. Thus she was able to bring back the truth to the people who had lost faith.

Being Vincentian also applies to us as students at St. John’s as it is a Vincentian university. Through the Academic Service Learning, ASL, we are able to go to many different places to do service – some of those include volunteering at soup kitchens, midnight runs, or helping out at a shelter to help the poor and homeless. My personal experience has been with the Queen of Peace Residence Home, spending time with residents who wanted companionship. As St. John’s mission statement explains, “Wherever possible, we devote our intellectual and physical resources to search out the causes of poverty and social injustice and to encourage solutions which are adaptable, effective, and concrete”.

“So, the keystone in Vincentian spirituality is this: following Christ as Evangelizer and Servant of the Poor” (Maloney, 4). Through following Christ and in being a servant of the poor, one can be Vincentian through the real life actions and effects of St. Vincent’s virtues and that can be seen in multitudes at St. John’s.

“Vincent De Paul: Charity’s Saint.” YouTube, YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/.

Maloney, Robert P. “FIRE WITHIN: The Spirituality That Sparked the Works of St. Vincent De Paul .” 2017, learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5b000e5353fae/2491930?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27FIRE%2520WITHIN_%2520The%2520Spirituality%2520that%2520Sparked%2520the%2520Works%2520of%2520St.%2520Vincent%2520de%2520Paul%2520%25281%2529.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200326T194555Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY%2F20200326%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=47e2b91863bd4b3dadf2f75ed95cb6a9611b21b1d2e27863e0efd6a99a3089ea.