Spiritual Reflection by Fr Perry Gildea C.M

Spirituality and the Society by Fr Perry Gildea C.M.

Members often express concern about the spirituality of the Society or indeed a lack of apparent spirituality. Perhaps it is important to examine what we might mean by the spirituality of the Society. It is not essentially the personal piety of the members though that is obviously both relevant and important. Spirituality refers to the fundamental beliefs and principles which both underlie and then inspire the activity of the Society. This requires reflection. It has been suggested that in the early days, shortly after the foundation of the first Conference, that the young members would meet with their mentor Sr Rosalie Rendu who would encourage them to reflect on their experiences during Visitation. She would instruct them in the Vincentian virtue of respect for the poor. Encourage them to see the face of Christ in the poor, above all to avoid being judgemental and always practise kindness in all their dealings with the poor people they encountered.

This is similar to an important process that is part of pastoral ministry. This process is called theological reflection and is at the heart of discovering and maintaining the fundamental spirituality required in all pastoral work. Spiritual reflection is a dialogue between our own personal experience and the tradition to which we belong. In our case, the tradition is firstly the Catholic tradition and its ‘option for the poor’ and secondly the perceptions of how the option is considered in the thoughts and teaching of St Vincent de Paul and Frederic Ozanam. We acknowledge and profess charity to be an essential element of our Christian existence.

“Love is therefore the service that the Church carries out in order to attend constantly to man’s sufferings and his needs, including material needs.”

Charity as a responsibility of the Church

“Love of neighbour, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level: from the local community to the particular Church and to the Church universal in its entirety. As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organised if it is to be an ordered service to the community. The awareness of this responsibility has had a constitutive relevance in the Church from the beginning: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-5). In these words, Saint Luke provides a kind of definition of the Church, whose constitutive elements include fidelity to the “teaching of the Apostles”, “communion” (koinonia), “the breaking of the bread” and “prayer” (cf. Acts 2:42)” (Pope Benedict in Deus Caritas Est 19 & 21). This fundamental principle of the Christian and

Catholic tradition is enhanced by the traditions of St Vincent and the Society. To this fundamental tradition was added the understanding and realisation of the tradition in the thoughts and actions of St Vincent and Ozanam. This has been summed up “The three essential elements of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, from the beginning in 1833 have been spirituality, friendship and service”. (Sickinger 239)

For the purpose of useful reflection, the five essential virtues as proposed by St Vincent and adopted by the early Conference are key. The simplicity, humility, gentleness, selflessness, and zeal, the essential elements of Vincentian spirituality are beautifully expressed in the prayers we say at each meeting. Perhaps a useful reflection exercise would be to discuss how we fulfil the ideal expressed in one or other of the prayers in our Visitation, or our discussions about possible ways of addressing current poverty issues. The five virtues should also be involved in all our discussions. Primarily, of course, all discussion should be in a spirit of charity and mutual love and respect. Reflection on these issues can only improve the quality of our service to God’s poor. Shared reflection on the vocation and ministry of a Vincentian will always invite us to realise the essentials of that vocation.