“Praying with Vincent de Paul. Companions for the Journey”

Excerpts from “Praying with Vincent de Paul. Companions for the Journey”, by Fr. Thomas McKenna CM (Winona, Mn: St. Mary’s Press, 1994)

Meditation 1 God, Our Loving Parent

Theme: Vincent knew himself to be sustained by God’s motherly and fatherly love.

Opening prayer: Strong and tender God, help me to sense your care as you hold me in the palm of your hand.

Vincent’s Words

In a conversation just a few months before his death, Vincent disclosed what it was that had most nourished him. He said:

To be consumed for God, to have no goods nor power except for the purpose of expending them for God. That is what Our Savior did himself, he who was consumed for love of his Father. (Documents, vol. 13, p. 179)

In another instance, Louise de Marillac became distressed that she was not doing God’s will because she could not accomplish all of the resolutions that she had made. Vincent offered this simple reminder:

Do not worry yourself when you fail to carry them out. God is love and wishes us to go to Him by love. So do not look upon yourself as being obliged to carry out all these good resolutions. (Coste, Life and Works, vol. 3, p. 365)

Reflection

Vincent’s amazing accomplishments required that he maintain a prodigious pace. Nevertheless, contemporaries marveled at his calm and confidence. Even working closely with desperately poor or sick people, in the midst of chaotic surroundings, Vincent lived with surehanded peacefulness.

When Vincent read the Gospels, he took great comfort from the relationship between Jesus and Abba. Jesus the Son can heal and forgive because he basks in the loving gaze of God, his loving parent. To be truly good and whole, every human action should model itself on the circle of loving communion between Jesus and his Abba. Vincent learned this lesson well.

He also learned of God’s constant love from the poor people with whom he worked. In small and large ways, they embodied God’s motherly and fatherly love. Vincent knew that he could rely on God’s care when he took on “impossible” tasks or when his own light failed him. Faith in God’s inexhaustible tenderness nourished Vincent’s resiliency.

God’s Word

Closing prayer: All-loving God, surround me with your mercy and love. Let me feel the firmness of your hand, especially when I feel blown in a thousand directions. Let me know the depths of your care for me and for all of your people.

Meditation 2

Following God’s Will

Theme: Vincent prayed that over time his designs and actions would be more and more in harmony with God’s desires. He knew that this was the way to a full life.>

Opening Prayer: All-provident God, I put all of my thoughts and impulses, my biases and viewpoints, my action and waiting, my plans and confusion into your hands. Lead me on your way.

Vincent’s Words

In the only systematic work that Vincent wrote, a rule of life for priests, he gave this advice:

A sure way for a Christian to grow rapidly in holiness is a conscientious effort to carry out God’s will in all circumstances. . . . Each one should show a great eagerness in that sort of openness to God’s will which Christ and the saints developed so carefully. This means that we should not havea disproportionate liking for any ministry, person or place, especially our native land, or for anything of that sort. We should even be ready and willing to leave all these gladly. (Constitutions, pp. 108, 112)

A decade earlier, trying to encourage a confused missionary to find the true bearings in his life, Vincent wrote:

So, Father, let us ask Our Lord that everything might be done according to his providence, that our wills be submitted to him in such a way that between him and us there might be only one, which will enable us to enjoy his unique love in time and eternity. (Documents, vol. 2, p. 469)

Reflection

A spirituality that rarely translates into action can certainly be questioned. On the other hand, undiscerned activity can simply be a person’s compulsions at work.

Vincent took on one complicated project after another and at times exhausted himself in the process. However, he always discerned each initiative carefully to be sure that it was rooted in God’s will. He could never be accused of activity for its own sake.

Vincent studied the Gospels, asked for advice, and prayed for God’s light and strength. Then he acted — confidently — trusting that he had done his best to give flesh to God’s intent.

God’s Word

I am the bread of life. Hunger will be unknown to those who come to me. No one who believes in me will suffer thirst. I would never abandon anyone who follows me. After all, I became flesh and blood to do the will of the one who sent me, not to do my own will. It is the divine will that whoever believes in the Son shall have life eternal. I tell you, believers will be raised up on the last day.

(Adapted from John 6:35-40)

Closing prayer: “Grant me the grace, [loving God] . . . to begin as of this very moment to live in the bliss of the saints in heaven, which consists in being one, in willing and not-willing, with God’s [own] self” (Documents, vol. 10, pp. 285-286)

Meditation 6

The Special Presence of Christ in the Poor

Theme: Vincent encountered Jesus Christ most powerfully among sick, abandoned, and hungry people — the outcasts of society.

Opening prayer: Gracious Jesus, open my eyes. Allow me to see you living within the poor people of this world. Let me meet you as I met them. May I embrace you as I embrace them, learn from you as I learn from them.

Vincent’s Words

I should not judge poor peasants, men or women, by their exterior nor by their apparent mental capacities. All the more is this so since very frequently they scarcely seem to have the appearance or intelligence of reasonable beings, so gross and offensive are they. But turn the medal, and you will see by the light of faith that the Son of God, whose will it was to be poor, is represented to us by these people. (Documents, vol. 11, p. 32)

Let us go then, my brothers, and work with a new love in the service of the poor, looking even for the most destitute and abandoned among them. Let us recognize that before God they are our lords and masters and we are unworthy to render them our small services. (Documents, vol. 11, p. 393)

Let us, my sisters, cherish the poor as our masters, since Our Lord is in them and they in Our Lord. (Documents, vol. 13, p. 540)

Reflection

Seeing and attending figure prominently in prayer. Jesus chided those people who look, but do not really see because of their prejudices, ignorance, or cynicism. Vincent did his seeing through the eyes of the poor people with whom he worked. They became the lenses through which he glimpsed God at work in the world. Forsaken people, worthy in themselves, were the holy ground where Vincent encountered the living God.

Seeing and attending to God happen not only in quiet recollection but also in human exchanges, particularly with God’s poor. After all, prayer has been called a long, loving look at the real. Orphans, victims of war, famine, and disease present realities that can shake us out of our complacency or feelings of self-sufficiency. They remind us that the suffering Jesus is in our midst, that the Reign of God demands our attention, that only God can finally fill our hunger.

To see God’s presence demands faith, faith that helps us see beyond the ragged clothes, open sores, runny noses, gaunt looks, angry attitude, sallow skin, or feigned indifference that people may have. As Vincent said, “you will see by the light of faith that the Son of God, whose will it was to be poor, is represented to us by these creatures.” The reward of faith is an encounter with the God of love.

God’s Word

At the last judgment, the risen Christ will say to those on his right hand: “Come, you have been blessed by God with the inheritance prepared for you from the time of creation. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I thirsted, and you provided me with something to drink. I felt myself an alien, but you showed me hospitality. I had no clothes, you gave me garments. I was ill, and you nursed me to health. I have been tossed into prison, but you came to visit me.”

The righteous will ask Christ: “But when did we do all these acts of charity and righteousness to you?”

And Jesus will declare, “In truth, when you did these things to any one of the least of your sisters or brothers, you did them to me.” (Adapted from Matthew 25:34-40)

Closing prayer: Loving God, let me see into the eyes of sick people, prisoners, those who are hungry and thirsty, and when I do, may I see you there, suffering in solidarity with them. Change my way of seeing; then strengthen my will to act with justice and charity.

Meditation 14

Creativity and Cooperation in Ministry

Theme: Announcing the Good News to poor people calls for ingenuity combined with teamwork. The way Jesus set new courses and gathered the Apostles together served as Vincent’s example of how to be creative and pull people together.

Opening prayer: Creator, expand my vision and fire my creativity in the service of your Reign. Draw me together with other Christians who seek to serve your people. Lead us peacefully on your way through all the tensions and pressures of our work together.

Vincent’s Words

Encouraging one of his communities to overcome obstacles to their ministry, Vincent said, “Love is inventive, even to infinity” (Documents, vol. 11, p. 146).

Love must also foster cooperation in ministry. In a directive to his priests, Vincent reminded them of the motivation of their work together:

Christ, our Savior, formed apostles and disciples into a community and gave them guidelines for getting along well with each other. . . . Our little Congregation wants to follow in the footsteps of Christ and the disciples. (Constitutions, p. 129)

Finally, Vincent reminded the women of one of the charitable organizations he founded that it is divine providence that calls Christians to be creative in forming communities of service:

It has been eight hundred years now since women have had any public role in the Church. In the early times there were deaconesses who oversaw the women of the congregation and instructed them in the ceremonies then in use.

. . . But in the time of Charlemagne, because of some unknown design of Providence, this custom stopped and your sex was deprived of providing all these kinds of services. In our day, however, this same Providence prompted you to take up the crucial work of caring for poor people suffering in the hospitals. A few women responded to these promptings and after a while were joined by others to form an association. God has given them as mothers to the abandoned children who are sick in the hospitals. In Paris, they are called upon to dispense many alms. . . . By the grace of God, these good women have responded to these needs with great worth and steadiness. (Documents, vol. 10, pp. 809-810)

Reflection

Vincent’s legacy is a mixture of single-mindedness and openness. With his heart set on loving God and neighbor, Vincent searched for whatever methods might make that love active and credible. Approaches that escaped other people’s attention caught his eye because of their apostolic potential.

Staying focused on service allowed Vincent to loosen his grip on what he already knew. After deliberating, he would step out beyond the tried and true when he saw a need to be met or good to be done. For example, he innovated by establishing the confraternities of rich people working with poor ones, caring for beggars in halfway houses, getting prisoners to help other prisoners during missions, giving retreats to gatherings of priests, organizing women to minister in people’s homes, and so on.

Simultaneously, Vincent always encouraged cooperation among people in service. Jesus gathered the apostles and disciples together so that the Good News could go out to distant lands. Vincent followed Jesus’ example, and he used his creative abilities to gather, direct, and encourage cooperation and mutual support in ministry.

Even if he ruffled the feathers of powerful figures, service of the poor took precedence. Vincent willingly changed his own habits if they obstructed his mission and challenged the narrow thinking of other people. Vincent stayed constant in his ends, but flexible in his means. The love of Christ provided his anchor and his freedom to do what needed to be done.

God’s Word

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. . . . And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of . . . Jesus, giving thanks to God . . . through him.

(Adapted from Colossians 3:14-17)

Closing prayer:

Oh my God,

may it please you to be the bond

which ties the hearts of evangelizers together

in a common attitude of humility,

of unity, and of respect for one another. . . .

Let the good effects of their mutual affection,

which you allow to develop among them,

steadily grow and flourish,

and make the fruits of their labors

for the salvation of souls

constantly increase.

Strengthen them in their . . . efforts,

and be yourself their ultimate reward.

(Braakhuis, Praying, no. 28)

Meditation 15

Contemplation and Action

Theme: For our ministry to continue during the rough spots, and to be done according to God’s will, it has to be grounded in prayer and contemplation. Vincent models the necessary balance between contemplation and action.

Opening prayer: God of goodness, you hold all things together. Let my prayer anchor my action, and my action nourish my prayer. In everything, may I attend to you with all my heart.

Vincent’s Words

Vincent pinpoints a privileged source of contemplation:

We have to make our occupations holy. We do this by seeking God in them. We do our work to find God in it rather than to just get it done. (Documents, vol. 12, p. 132)

In the rule of life Vincent proposed for the Daughters of Charity, he insisted that Jesus should be the guiding example for how prayer and action are integrated:

[Jesus is] so perfect a model. . . . [The Daughters are directed to] strive to live in a holy manner, and labor with great care to attain perfection; uniting the exercise of a spiritual life with the exterior duties of Christian charity toward the poor, according to the present Rules, which they will endeavor to practice with great fidelity, as the surest means of attaining this end. (Ignatius Melito, “St. Vincent’s Legacy,” Vincentian Heritage 2 [1981]:5)

Finally, in this famous line, Vincent told his community:

Give me a man of prayer and he will be capable of anything. He may say with the apostle, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Documents, vol. 11, p. 83)

Reflection

When Vincent speaks of action, he means effort for the Reign of God. This effort is the doing of grace, a free response to the Gospel’s call to love our neighbor. Action stands in sharp contrast to mere activity, which may seem like zeal but is so compulsive or rootless that it withers under the hot sun of apostolic demands.

Analogously, prayer and contemplation are open to everything that God is doing in the world; they are long, loving, vulnerable looks at God’s manifold presence in creation. On the other hand, people can think that they are praying, but if prayer is disconnected from the wider world, it turns into a caricature of itself. Prayer not rooted in God’s presence in experience can be form without substance.

Prayer, contemplation, and action vitalize each other. When God guides and graces our action, that action becomes a prayer and a source of contemplation. When our prayer and contemplation truly examine the reality of God’s presence in the sufferings and joys, dangers and celebrations in the world, they flower into charity in action.

God’s Word

God commands that we believe in the name of Jesus Christ and that we love one another. All who obey God’s commandments dwell in God, and God dwells in them. We know that God lives in us because of the Spirit that God has sent to us. (Adapted from 1 John 3:23-24)

Closing prayer: This is my prayer to you, O Lord! Give to me your special favor. Pour out your truth and mercy on me in an abundance that will enable me to put your love into practice, filling me with true affection for you, for my neighbor, and also for myself. (Documents, vol. 10, pp. 474-475)