Interwoven saints

For a few years before entering religious life I was part of my parish's St Vincent de Paul Society. Every week, my SVP partner (with whom I'm still in touch) and I would visit people in need of support and friendship, offered with kindness and discretion. Having returned to a full relationship with the God who is Love, and as I discerned where I was being called to live and deepen this, the SVP gave me an opportunity to put this love, and my Faith, into weekly action. And now, although it's more than thirty years since I was a member, whenever my current ministry brings me into contact with an SVP conference - especially if I join them for prayer - I feel a strong sense of familiarity and at-homeness.

All that lay in an unknown future when I left the SVP in 1994 in order to join the Society. And then, about 18 months later, I visited Joigny, our founder Sophie's hometown, for the first time... And one day found myself standing outside a house with a plaque, proclaiming that today's saint, St Vincent had lived there for several years, as tutor to the children of the aristocratic de Gondi family. And as I went on to discover, Joigny had been the place where Vincent knew and grew in the call to service, gentleness and humility, as he found his heart turning away from his initial desire for ecclesiastical advancement, and toward the plight of the peasants on the de Gondi estate. He started a mission outreach toward the estate workers, whose material and spiritual needs had been largely ignored by the local parish priests, and founded a conference of charity to serve those in poverty. M de Gondi's position as general of the galleys of France also led to Vincent's ministry to galley slaves.

Vincent lived in Joigny more than 150 years before Sophie, but she would have grown up knowing about this former saintly resident - unaware that this small, insignificant town would go on to become home and seedbed to not one, but two saints! 

Vincent spent many years in Paris, which became the birthplace of congregations dedicated to charity... and, two centuries later, of the SVP. It was also the city where Sophie and her first companions founded the Society in 1800; where, 65 years later, she died, and where her body is now preserved in the Sacred Heart chapel of a city-centre church. The last time I was there, able to spend a lot of time praying beside her, I walked around the church... and there was Vincent, shining through this stained glass window on the opposite side! In my story and my call; in Joigny, in Paris, and throughout the world, wherever love and tenderness are most needed... Charity, service and the love of the Heart of Jesus are truly interwoven and inseparable!

What are the places and the passions, and who are the people who have interwoven in your story and your call?

And a happy and inspiring feast to all members of the Vincentian family!