Vocation is not primarily ‘what will I do?’, but ‘for whom am I?’. The Gospel answer: for God and for those who struggle to stand on their own two feet.
St Vincent did not receive a heavenly notification, but he encountered faces: proclamation, reconciliation (general confession), organised charity. In those experiences, he understood that the Spirit was sending him to the poor and with the poor—and that the mission had to be done together. In the Common Rules, we find the same gestures: preaching, breaking the Word, promoting general confession, settling disputes, starting the Company of Charity.
(Historical note: the ‘double shock’ of Folleville and Châtillon in 1617 marks the transition from goodwill to structured mission. )
For you today: you recognise the call when faith draws you out of yourself, connects you to real people, and generates concrete steps of goodness.
Vincent is clear: the doctrine of Christ does not deceive; that of the world is sand. For this reason, the Vincentian family professes to behave according to the maxims of Christ, choosing first the Kingdom and its justice.
For young people in discernment: ask yourself every evening: did I choose today as Jesus would have chosen? If the answer is ‘not always,’ you are in the right place: start tomorrow.
Not ‘activism’, not “spiritualism”: solid prayer practices (daily prayer, Eucharist loved and served) and missionary outreach. The Rules prescribe one hour of mental prayer per day and special care for the Eucharist, ‘the compendium of the mysteries of faith’.
For you: put three non-negotiable appointments in your diary: the Gospel, the Eucharist, the poor. When one of the three is missing, the flame dims.
In Vincentian texts, love is never abstract: it can be touched. Evangelising the poor means educating, reconciling, caring for, organising charity, and doing so free of charge (no one should be a burden).
For you: choose a specific area (educational poverty, loneliness, energy poverty, prisoners, homeless people) and stay there: fidelity is revolutionary.
From the beginning, the Mission has been community: words and deeds grow in fraternity, obedience and sobriety. The ‘three ends’ are the outline of a shared project; community life requires mutual charity, uniformity that preserves unity, and humility of service.
For you: find a group with whom to pray, serve and evaluate. No one becomes a saint in ‘airplane mode’.
Lord Jesus,
You brought the good news to the poor.
Put your compass in my heart,
make me love the altar and the road,
give me companions and guides on the path,
so that I may follow you today,
with the Gospel on my lips and in my hands.
Amen.
The Vincentian way is not nostalgia for the 17th century. It is a training ground for evangelical freedom: preference for the poor, prayer that sustains outreach, gratuitousness, fraternal life, missions that regenerate the Church. It is a school where one learns not to measure life by ‘what do I gain?’, but by ‘how much good can I bring about’. For those who feel more closely called, the Mission offers a whole way of life, forever, for God and for the poor.
