“Fire: while it warms us with God’s love, it wants to burn our selfishness, to enlighten the dark sides of life – we all have them, eh! – to consume the false idols that enslave us.”
“To set people’s hearts on fire”, this is how Vincent described the vocation of his followers. He allowed God’s fire to transform him!
Mark Lowry in 1984 wrote the lyrics for “Mary, Did You Know?”. The song went on to become a modern Christmas classic. In this Vincentian Mindwalk, I invite you think about the questions, add your own, and, finally, think about what we might learn from the questions.
In my 80+ years I had never thought of old age as a ministry, the ministry of bearing witness that the best is yet to come. Pope Francis hopes we can revitalize this special ministry of awaiting the Lord – it is a ministry,
“But he looked at the shoes of some of the (young Jesuit) priests and he said, ‘Today you haven’t done anything.’ It had rained and it was muddy, and they had nothing on their shoes, they were shiny.” “He told them they returned without the smell of sheep,”
As a Vincentian reading the headline “Pope Francis surprises poor and homeless at new cardinal’s dinner” I had a doubt raised in my mind again. Is Pope Francis really a Jesuit? He certainly acts like a Vincentian. But then again at other times, I think he is a Franciscan.
What We Can Learn from Two Vincentians and a Jesuit seated at a Table?
Fake news can be seen from the earliest times, in the biblical stories of Cain and Abel and the Tower of Babel – On the other hand, when we are faithful to God’s plan, communication becomes an effective expression of our responsible search for truth and our pursuit of goodness.
Solidarity with Pope Francis’ Plea for Peace
This holiness to which the Lord calls you will grow through small gestures. Very often it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbors, those who, living in our midst, reflect God’s presence.
I am a fan of Pope Francis’ homilies. But his homily for the feast of the Epiphany is a banquet of insight and one-liners.
What will you and I do to make this a better world for those seeking refuge and peace?
Jesus and St. Vincent de Paul are cheering Pope Francis, not only for calling for an annual day of remembrance of those who are poor but also for his casting it in the framework of the Beatitudes.
Vincentians should share God’s love with action and service – “and that we can’t just sit around and wait for other people to perform our vocation.”