Saint Vincent de Paul C. 1581-1660

For Vincent de Paul love was always very concrete, very practical. It was love in action. 'Let us love God, my brothers and sisters, let us love God, but let it be with the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brows. So very often many acts of love of God, of resting in his presence, of benevolence and of such interior affections and practices although very good and very desirable, are nevertheless to be suspected if they do not reach out in the practice of effective love.' St. Vincent XI, 290. He certainly found the essence of his faith and the inspiration for his good works within and through the scriptures, for him there was only one driving force, the person and mission of Jesus Christ. His spirituality and action flowed from his contemplation of Jesus. He was particularly inspired by two scenes from the Gospel which he often quoted. 'The Spirit of God is upon me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor.' Luke 4:18-19 and the judgment scene Mt. 25:31-46. He said to the Daughters of Charity 'you must do what the Son of God did when he was on earth. And what did he chiefly do? He laboured unceasingly for his neighbour, visiting and healing the sick and instructing the ignorant unto their salvation'. St. Vincent, 5 July 1640. The Vocation of a Daughter of Charity' . Conf 2. It was in the light of the Gospels that he saw and acted. The people struggling with illness, poverty, or exclusion became for Vincent divine revelation. 'Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me' Mt. 25:40. He had a vision of Christ who is present in people living in poverty, for him they were the new embodiment of God's own person, Jesus himself. He was aware that it was not always easy to recognise this presence. In one of his most quoted passages Vincent encouraged his community 'One should not judge poor men and women by their looks nor by their apparent denseness. Very frequently they hardly seem to have the appearance or intelligence of human beings, so gross looking and offensive are they. But turn over the coin and you will discover by the light of faith that the Son of God, whose will it was to be poor, is presented by just these people.' Conference to Priests of the Mission, 6 December 1658, Coste, CED, 12 He taught the Sisters to see the face of Christ in every foundling, every invalid, every beggar and to serve them accordingly. 'A sister will go and visit the poor ten times a day, and ten times a day she will find God there.' When Vincent looked out at the world it was these little people, the invisible ones, the outcasts that he saw. His goal was to highlight and make visible the almost concealed dignity of these people oppressed by poverty, illness and exclusion, to reach out to them so that they would feel wanted and needed and to get others involved.

About the Author :
F. A. Forbes (16 March 1869 - 1936) was the nom de plume of Mother Frances Alice Monica Forbes, RSCJ, a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart from Scotland and a religious author. She was born in 1869 as Alice Forbes into a Presbyterian family. Her mother died when she was a child. In 1900 she became a Roman Catholic. Only a few months later, she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart, as a 31-year-old postulant. She wrote numerous books, including brief biographies of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Saint John Bosco, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Columba, Saint Monica, Saint Athanasius, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Benedict, Saint Hugh of Lincoln, Saint Vincent de Paul, and, most famously, Pope Saint Pius X. She died in 1936.