February 7 is the feast day of Blessed Rosalie Rendu. The International Rule of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul calls her “the one who undoubtedly can be called our first Spiritual Advisor”. Sister Rosalie taught the young Frederic Ozanam and his friends how to interact with, how to serve and how to love the poor. She was the one who showed them how to do home visits and was always there for the fledgling Society. Her advice and example inspired our founders and they handed down what they received from her to us, to help us become who we are today.

Blessed Rosalie personifies our Vincentian promise to “help in all possible ways”. Her accomplishments are remarkable. Reading about her dedication to those in the poorest sections of Paris in the early 1800s is something everyone should do. This remarkable woman visited the sick and the poor in their homes and after seeing their needs, she was instrumental in establishing such things as a free medical clinic, a pharmacy a school, a youth club, a home for the elderly, a school and orphanage. She assisted in burying the dead during outbreaks of cholera and cared for the wounded during battles. Sister Rosalie was a remarkable woman who shared her God given gifts with untiring love.

Which brings me to the topic of our gift...

Every conference I have engaged with seeks new members and especially younger members. This is good. We look to new, young members for their many gifts, all very much needed by our Society.

The young give us their strength, vitality, innovation. They get things done and they do it with smiles. Younger, newer members understand the needs, even the vocabulary, of those young people who need our help. This means they can serve in ways that are different. They can come up with new ideas and put a fresh face on old ones. So we pray and work for new members with new gifts to keep our Society current and growing. SSVP cannot stand still. New members and their gifts will bring us into the future.

Unfortunately, sometimes older members think they are not as useful to SSVP as they used to be, that they should be replaced by younger members. I don’t agree. Our older members (and I am one of them) have so much to share, so much to give.

We have experienced the way things were done in the past. That means we have first-hand knowledge of what worked and didn’t work and some pretty good ideas about why some things were successful and why other things failed. If we share our experiences our conference might be able to learn from the past and avoid making mistakes or reinventing what has already been done.

We have known physical and emotional pain that our younger Vincentian brothers and sisters cannot have experienced yet. We are slower to move and to act. We have been forced to learn patience and forbearance. These and other life experiences can make us better able to listen, to give of our time and to not be in such a hurry to see results.

It is very, very important that we have had time to develop our faith life and our Vincentian spirituality. Both are priceless assets to our conferences and councils.

By definition we belong to a lay Catholic organization. We are both ‘capital C’ Catholic and ‘small c’ catholic. We are people of the Faith who also belong to a diverse Society, made up of young and old, male and female. We come from a variety of cultures, from all kinds of economic and social levels. We serve Christ in the poor by sharing our different gifts and experiences. Our gifts are blessings from our loving God; we can do no less than use them in His service.

Denise