REACTION PAPER IN LIFE AND WORKS OF ST.

VINCENT DE PAUL

Submitted to: Mark Alvin Alisasis, RN Clinical Instructor

Submitted by: Jerrian Joyce G. Andrada BSN 4A

I.

Preliminary Part

Saint Vincent de Paul is a saint we can and should relate to today because he dedicated his whole life to God through service to the sick, the poor and the suffering. When he did, he changed many lives completely and yet he was very humble about the impact he had on the people around him. He kept his focus on the people who were in need. When he became a priest in the early 1600s for example, Father Vincent de Paul refused to receive the traditional gifts and celebration given to a new priest. Completely alone, except for the required altar servers, he offered himself for life and death to be a faithful servant of our Lord first and above all other things, when he celebrated his first Mass as an ordained priest. People today should follow Saint Vincents example of humility. We can do so by being careful not to get too caught up in the ceremonies, gifts and celebrations that can sometimes overshadow acts of goodness.

He was born in Pouy, Landes, Gascony, France, to a family of peasant farmers. He had four brothers and two sisters. He studied humanities in Dax, France, with the Cordeliers and he graduated in theology at Toulouse. He was ordained in 1600, remaining in Toulouse until he went to Marseille for an inheritance. In 1605, on his way back from Marseille, he was taken captive by Turkish pirates, who brought him to Tunis and sold him into slavery.[3] After converting his owner to Christianity, Vincent de Paul escaped in 1607. After returning to France, de Paul went to Rome. There he continued his studies until 1609, when he was sent back to France on a mission to Henry IV of France; he served as chaplain to Marguerite de Valois. For a while he was parish priest at Clichy, but from 1612 he began to serve the Gondi, an illustrious family. He was confessor and spiritual director to Madame de Gondi, and he began giving preaching missions to the peasants on the estate with her aid. In 1622 de Paul was appointed chaplain to the galleys, and in this capacity he gave missions for the galley-slaves. In 1625 de Paul founded the Congregation of the Mission, a society of missionary priests commonly known as the Vincentians or Lazarists. In 1633, with the assistance of Louise de Marillac he founded the Daughters of Charity. He also fought against the Jansenist heresy. St. Vincent De Paul was renowned for his compassion, humility and generosity

II.

Analysis and Reaction

St. Vincent de Paul gives us inspiration through his compassionate works, generosity and humility. Eventhough he was poor he did not became too ambitious instead he helped people in need. Charity was his predominant virtue to everyone. The life of St. Vincent de Paul was straightforward but at the same time already highlights a period of great mystery: his time in captivity, as a slave in Arabia. Bizarre however is the fact that upon his return from slavery he immediately propelled to the highest ranks of the church and state with audiences with pope and the king, both making sure that afterwards de paul wants nothing It was the human Jesus who captivated Vincent. From the beginning, the picture of Jesus telling the people in the Nazareth synagogue that his life's purpose was to bring his Father's hope to the poor excited Vincent. He saw himself seated in that assembly and felt the energy which moved Jesus go through him too. For most of his active life, Vincent set his course by what Jesus would do. He was especially attuned to the gospel scenes in which Jesus encountered needy people. In fact he often reminded his followers how fortunate they were to be doing exactly what the Son of Man himself had come to do, bring the Good News to the poor. Vincent's happy childhood, particularly the love he felt toward his mother, disposed him to recognize the richness in Jesus' claim that his God in heaven was lovable and gracious. Vincent only grew in his appreciation of God's parental care. It was his own experience of this tender mercy that made him such an attractive and believable evangelizer. In some ways, Vincent's fundamental accomplishment was to have communicated to the poor of his day that God really loved them. In the prayer practices he recommended, Vincent told his directees to come with Jesus before His God, to be part of the vital exchange going back and forth within the Trinity. Only in such open communication with the all loving God could they have confidence that the work they were doing was really God's work. Only then could they be sure it was, in Vincent's favorite phrase, the will of God. Vincent had little patience with theoretical approaches to discipleship. His interest was always in the practical side of things. Today we might term it "delivering the service." It wasn't enough just to be enthused about the gospel or to have satisfying prayer experiences. One had to actually be capable of spreading God's love; the poor had to hear and feel it. It was this bent for the concrete which made Vincent insist on developing habits which enabled evangelization to happen. Certain strengths had to be there if the apostle were to communicate a believable gospel. If a woman did not learn to handle her anger, for instance, she couldn't convey a God of forgiveness and strength, let alone be attractive to the poor. If a man occasionally shaved the truth, if he had not disciplined himself to say things as they were,

he could neither preach a faithful God nor earn the trust of the marginated people who instinctively suspected any outsider offering help. Because it took character to perform Jesus' mission, character formation was required of the apostle. Building habits of hard work, truthfulness, evenness in mood, doing with less, listening, empathy, steadiness, detachment, readiness to move on, perseverance, humility and the like was essential for following the missionary Jesus. For Vincent, Christian discipleship did not exist in the abstract. It came to life in practical service. His appeal continues to be that universal. It is to the wellsprings of human dignity, the basic goodness of people. Praying with him allows us to go beneath the accomplishments the mob so admired to the reason Vincent could give his care so lovingly in the first place. When he served the poor, he "touched God." And when he came before God, he found himself reaching out to the poor. Vincent mirrors today's active apostle, needing nourishment from action and prayer as they intertwine in the heat of the day. He models that apostle's stance before God, prayerfully active and actively prayerful in bringing the Good News.
We today are not likely to be sold into slavery but we are challenged to endure hardships that can test our faith. Others will also ask us to defend and justify the teachings of the Catholic Church. We can do so by first educating ourselves and having a full understanding of Catholic doctrine. It is important to be able to speak to others about our faith, and Jesus and Saint Vincent de Paul remind us that we can also touch the lives and hearts of others by doing His works. Saint Vincent put the needs of the poor, the sick and the suffering before his own. His acts of goodness and charity were recognized by wealthy and influential people who begged him to live with them in grandeur. Instead, he chose to live in a house next to a hospital in Paris so he could tend to the sick frequently. Later he asked to become the pastor of a poor country- church where he took care of the people there and asked his wealthy followers to do the same. Today, we also can choose between lavishing ourselves with more possessions and spending our free time frivolously or offering our time and treasures to better the lives of others. We can see that Saint Vincent de Paul did many things in his lifetime that we can practice in our lives. He is a perfect example of faith, humility and compassion to follow. He has taught us that being mindful of others needs, always staying faithful to God and remaining humble while doing so, can lead the way for others to know and understand that the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father.

-o-