Spiritual Reflection

Saturday, Sept. 27th is the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul. So much has been said about him and rightly so since he has been designated as the patron of charity. He loved to write letters and gave countless numbers of conferences to priests, sisters and the laity. Every Tuesday in Paris priests would come from everywhere for his conferences.

One letter he wrote to Louise de Marillac stands out for me. He wrote it just a year before he died and it was a letter about the virtue of meekness. He wrote that anger is natural, and it helps us deal with evil. But it must be used wisely. Vincent handled his anger by expressing it. He was outraged by the plight of the poor and the sick. So, he established the Ladies of Charity, the Daughters of Charity and the Vincentians. He was able to handle his anger creatively and with strength. But he said to Louise that it must always be combined with gentleness. Jesus was equally firm and gentle.

You and I won’t be establishing new communities like Vincent, but we can use our anger wisely, controlled, moderated and in the spirit of Jesus and Vincent. We can, with our voices, be Pilgrims of Hope as Pope Francis asked us to be.