I am not a great maker of resolutions for a new year. Maybe it's because I am afraid of inevitable failure or maybe I am just a bit lazy. Oh, I think of things that would be good to change or to do in my life as one year ends and another begins, but rarely have I made a genuine New Year's Resolution. In the last days of 2015 and in my usual half-hearted way, I was thinking about things I could personally do better in 2016. For some reason, the Society's commissioning ceremony came to mind and I picked up my copy of the Rule to look at the five questions that we all affirmed when we joined the Society and to reflect on them. Here they are in brief, without the responses; if you'd like to refresh yourself, the entire ceremony can be found beginning around page 175 of the Rule, depending on the edition you have.

• Do you firmly resolve to reassure the warm friendship and unity which from the beginning has been a hallmark of our Society?
  
  
• Do you promise to seek and find those who are forgotten and to devote yourself generously to the personal service of the poor?
  
  
• Do you promise to respect and not to judge, to empower and not to impose, and most of all to try to understand the deeper needs of those you serve?
  
  
• Do you promise to support the Society's modest work for social justice, and to help build a civilization of love and a culture of life?
  
  
• Do you promise to persevere in regarding your visits as a sacred trust to be carried out faithfully each week, in the name of Christ, as far as family and other duties permit?
  
  

The first question: Can I make my conference/council a warmer, friendlier and more unified family? Well, I can be sure I attend all the meetings that I possibly can. Friendship and unity imply that we are all there together, to pray, share and support each other as sisters and brothers. SSVP is more than our service to the poor. It begins with coming together as family. One of the complaints I hear from presidents is that there are too many members who don't attend meetings. If I have been less than conscientious about attending meetings and social events, maybe my 2016 resolution resides in this promise I made when I became a member.

The second question: Have I become less than enthusiastic about my service? Is it just routine, something I do because it is my turn, but not with a generous spirit and a warm smile? When was the last time I went out of my way to search out a forgotten one, as the Good Shepherd searched for the lost sheep? Could this be where my resolution lies?

The third: Not judging is sometimes difficult. When we enter a home and see things that could be changed for the better, it is easy to blame the adult living there for the less than ideal situation. I need to remind myself that I do not know where the person I am visiting comes from. All I know is that she/he is Christ for me today. I must serve as Jesus would and as Frederic would. That might be a pretty good resolution!

The fourth question: Do I know what SSVP's social justice initiatives are? Can I find out? Does my conference have a Social Justice Rep? Maybe that is my calling? And that ‘building-a-civilization-of-love-and-a-culture-of-life' part is so difficult when I listen to some of the nasty opinions of others in the media, perhaps even in my community! But it is my duty to care for those in need and to serve Christ as I serve them. What resolution can I make about this one?

And finally number five: Home visits have been a hallmark of SSVP since its first days. Visiting others where they live was a sacred trust to our founders and it must be to us also. We are lay people, so our families and our jobs will sometimes need us to the point where we must step back, briefly. But if I am a follower of Christ, of St. Vincent and Blessed Frederic, I will find the time to prayerfully fulfil this and all of my promises.

So, dear friends, I think my New Year's Resolution will be to review the promises that I made when I became a Vincentian and that I renewed at every commissioning ceremony I have attended, to pray about them and to try to find ways to make each one become more alive in 2016.

May God bless us all as we serve Him ,
Denise

Submitted by
Denise Bondy, Chair
ONRC Spirituality Committee