Manual of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the United States

Canonization Prayer for Blessed Frederic

O God, Who put the love of the poor into the hearts of Frederic Ozanam and his companions, and inspired them to found a Society for the relief of the spiritual and corporal miseries of those in want, bless this work of charity and zeal, and should it be in accordance with Your designs that Your pious servant Blessed Frederic Ozanam should be glorified by the Church, we beseech You to manifest by heavenly favors the power he enjoys in Your sight. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Prayer for the Seriously Ill and the Cause Of Ozanam
O God, our Father, You alone have the power to bestow those precious gifts of Yours which we rightly call miracles. If it be Your Will, be pleased to grant such a gift in behalf of those persons for whom the prayers of the Society have been requested and for:_________________________________________________

(Enter name[of seriously ill person for whom you seek divine help.)

We humbly ask that You grant this favor to glorify the Blessed Frederic Ozanam that it may serve to have him canonized by Our Holy Mother the Church. We make this prayer through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart
Lord Jesus, Who, seeing the cold indifference of the world and in order to revive charity amongst all people, has unveiled before them Your Sacred Heart and revealed the infinite riches of Your Divine Love, behold us prostrate before You, we who form only one Family, by the bond of fraternal charity, scattered, it is true, throughout the world, but united under the standard of St. Vincent de Paul, and forming only one body and one soul in the common spirit of the apostolate of charity; we dedicate and consecrate to Your Divine Person and to Your Sacred Heart this our Council (or Conference), and all the members who compose it, the poor whom we visit in Your name, the youth and children to whom we respond in order to maintain them in Your service; in a word, all those of whom we have the care, and all the works we have undertaken in various places for Your Glory. Quite unworthy though we are, we beseech You to receive this offering in the odor of sweetness; inflame us with that fire which from the depths of Your Heart You desire to see burning more and more each day, in order that, filled with the tenderness of Your Heart, we may learn to despise things here below, to love and help our neighbor, by word and example, and that, among the vicissitudes of this world, we may fix our hearts on the riches and happiness that shall never end. Amen.

(This act of consecration is to be renewed annually by all units of the Society.)

Opening Prayer for Society Meetings:





L: In the Name of the Father, etc.

All: Amen.

L: Come, Holy Spirit, live within our lives.

All: And strengthen us by Your Love.

L: Send forth your spirit and new life will be created.

All: And the whole face of the earth will be renewed.

L: Our Father, etc.

All: Give us this day our daily bread, etc.

L: Let us reflect on the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, recalling His unity and presence among us: “Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Silence)

All: Lord Jesus, deepen our Vincentian spirit of friendship during this meeting and make us responsive to the Christian calling to seek and find the forgotten, the suffering, or the deprived so that we may bring them your love. Help us to be generous with our time, our possessions, and ourselves in this mission of charity. Perfect in us your love and teach us to share more fully in the Eucharistic Sacrifice offered for all.

L: Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, All: Have mercy on us.

L: Immaculate Heart of Mary, All: Pray for us.

L: St. Vincent de Paul, All: Pray for us.

L: St. Louise de Marillac, All: Pray for us.

L: Blessed Frederic Ozanam, All: Pray for us.

L: Blessed Rosalie Rendu, All: Pray for us.

Closing Prayer for Society meetings:

L: In the Name of the Father, etc.

All: Amen.

All: Father, grant that we who are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist may realize the depth of our needs, respond more spontaneously to the suffering of others, and come to love You more deeply by service to our neighbor.

Grant us also the wisdom and strength to persevere when disappointed or distressed. May we never claim that the fruitfulness of our apostolate springs from ourselves alone. United in prayer and action, may we become a visible sign of Christ and may we give witness to His boundless love, which reaches out to all and draws them to love one another in Him.

We thank You, Lord, for the many blessings which we receive from those whom we visit. Help us to love and respect them, to understand their deeper needs, and to share their burdens and joys as true friends in Christ.

L: That the Cause for the Canonization of Frederic Ozanam, who excelled in the virtue of Christian love, be advanced.

All: Lord, hear us.

L: That our departed friends and relatives, our Vincentian Brothers and Sisters, and those whom we have served, be welcomed into your Kingdom and joined in love.

All: Lord, hear us.

L: In the Name of the Father, etc.

All: Amen.

CHAPTER 4 VINCENTIAN SAINTS AND BLESSEDS


4.1 SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL (1581-1660)

Vincent de Paul is the patron of the Society that bears his name. In 1885, Pope Leo XIII named Vincent patron of all works of charity, and therefore he is also known as the “Apostle of Charity” and the “Father of the Poor.”

Beginnings
Vincent de Paul was born April 24, 1581 in Pouy, a village of southwest France near the historic city of Dax, in the Landes district of Gascony, not far from the Pyrenees and the northern border of Spain. His birthplace is now known as the village of “Saint Vincent de Paul.”
Vincent was the third child of Jean de Paul and Bertrande de Moras, a peasant couple with six children: four boys and two girls. The de Pauls owned their own farm, but lived simply without many comforts. As a youngster, Vincent worked the fields and shepherded the animals. Shepherds in that area used stilts to move about the marshy land. Vincent never lost his love for the simplicity of country life.
His mother’s character and femininity influenced Vincent greatly. As a child, he saw in her face the sacredness of love. From her, he received inspiration to ground his future work in a radical and passionate love for the poor.

Priesthood
Recognizing his son’s intellectual talents and pleasing personality, and the limited opportunity in their village, Jean de Paul in 1595 enrolled Vincent in a Franciscan boarding school at nearby Dax with the expectation that Vincent would become a priest. To rural people without much hope of advancement, the priesthood was a plausible path to prosperity. In Dax, a lawyer named Comet took an interest in Vincent and hired him to tutor his children, and thus the education of youth became an important part of Vincent’s mission.
Vincent registered at the University of Toulouse. To provide his son’s tuition, Mr. de Paul sold a pair of oxen. In 1596, Vincent received the first steps to priesthood: Tonsure and Minor Orders. He was ordained on September 23, 1600, by the old bishop of Perigueux, France. Vincent was scarcely 19 years old, and still a student at Toulouse.
As an ordained priest, Vincent was now in a position to seek a benefice, an ecclesiastical post to which property or a fixed income was attached. He continued his studies, accepting boarding students at his residence to make enough money for his expenses. While tutoring, Vincent pursued a degree in theology, which he received on October 12, 1604. About this time, he inherited a good sum of money. Things were going well.
Settling in Paris, Vincent secured lodging at the royal court with the chaplains of Queen Marguerite, a connection that failed to benefit him financially. Still looking for a golden benefice, he wrote his mother that he remained hopeful of providing for her and the family with a fixed income.
Vincent then suffered a dark night of the soul. After a time, he promised that if God would take away this darkness he would dedicate his life to the service of the poor. Instantly, the anguish left him. It never returned, and Vincent faithfully fulfilled his vow to the poor till the day he died!
Vincent the Parish Priest
Father Pierre de Berulle, famous founder of the French School of Spirituality, became Vincent’s spiritual director. De Berulle got Vincent a pastorate at Clichy, outside of Paris. For the first time in the twelve years since ordination, he was able to function as a priest. He took over the parish on May 12, 1612 and was never happier. Again, Vincent took in some boarders, aspirants to the priesthood, one of whom would become his right-hand man when he started his own community of priests and brothers. Vincent was now 32 years old and in the prime of life, but he was still searching for something.
Vincent left the parish of Clichy to assume responsibility for the education and formation of the son of one of the most prestigious families in Europe, the de Gondis. Count Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi was the general of the royal galleys. His wife, Madame Francoise-Marguerite, was a woman of nobility in her own right. She chose Vincent for her spiritual director. Madame de Gondi invited Vincent to accompany her on trips around her vast properties in order to minister to the poor on their lands. During one such journey to the village of Folleville in 1617, Vincent’s vow of service to the poor was reinforced when he heard the confession of a dying man. The man told Madame de Gondi that he would have been damned if it had not been for Vincent.
At Madame de Gondi’s insistence, Vincent drew up a program for the sacrament of reconciliation with a particular focus on the general confession of one’s life. On January 25, 1617, he spoke on the subject to the people of Folleville. Assisted by several priests, he conducted the parish mission and, in the process, discovered his own mission.
His spiritual director, Pierre de Berulle, supported Vincent’s wish to leave the de Gondis and suggested that he take over a parish near Lyon, Chatillon-les-Dombes, where he was installed on August 1, 1617. Here Vincent founded the Confraternity of Charity, later called “The Ladies of Charity,” gathering the women of the parish into a group to serve the sick and the poor. Vincent himself wrote their first Rule, which was approved by the Vicar General of Lyon on November 24, 1617. The Confraternity of Charity was formally established on December 8^th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Vincent’s vision and vocation was now transformed and he had surrendered his life to God in service to the poor.
Man with a Mission
In faith Vincent followed Divine Providence “step by step.” But the de Gondis wanted Vincent back, and his spiritual director requested that he return to Paris. Ever obedient, Vincent complied. Vincent secured a new spiritual director, Andre Duval, a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was becoming more engaged in the service of the poor and felt the need to establish institutions to achieve his mission, which he now saw as the continuation of Jesus’ own!
Vincent met Francis de Sales and a solid friendship developed. De Sales asked Vincent to become the spiritual father of his Visitation Nuns. Vincent also became spiritual director of the future saint Jane Frances de Chantal, the co-founder of the Visitation. After Francis de Sales’ death in 1622, Vincent continued these roles for many years.
Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi entrusted the prison inmates and galley slaves to Vincent. Louis XIII appointed him the general chaplain of the galleys on February 8, 1619. Vincent quickly went to work conducting visits and missions.
Vincent’s mind was clear: the poor were his lords and masters. The de Gondis endowed Vincent’s work on April 17, 1625 with a large sum of money. The Archbishop of Paris approved Vincent’s Community of priests and brothers, the Congregation of the Mission (CM), also known as Vincentians, on April 24, 1626. Soon after, Vincent took the first steps for Vatican approval. The purposes of his community were to preach the Gospel to the poor country people and to educate and form good priests. Rome approved the community in 1633.

Expansion of the Vincentian Ministry
In 1625, in the Providence of God, Vincent was sent to serve as spiritual advisor to Louise de Marillac, a widow with a 13-year-old son. As wife, mother, and widow, Louise welcomed the grace of God into her life, allowing her fretful heart to be transformed into a courageous, generous, and compassionate one. She loved intensely, welcoming poor, hopeless, alienated, and abandoned people. In 1629, Vincent sent her to organize, direct, and animate the Confraternities of Charity and the Ladies of Charity. Louise was able to do this because she loved and hoped in God.
On November 29, 1633, following the steps of Providence and under the guidance of St. Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac took a small group of women into her own home to form a community of total dedication: “Given to God for the Service of the Poor.” Thus were the Daughters of Charity founded. Louise trained these Sisters to read, to write, and to serve the poor in health care, social ministry, and education. Above all, she rooted the Daughters of Charity in the Vincentian spirituality of finding Jesus in the poor and the poor in Jesus, teaching them to be contemplatives in action. She taught the Sisters to serve the poor “with respect, mildness, cordiality, and compassion.”
As a priest, Vincent was able to motivate many 17^th century women to give their talents and skills in service to the Church, especially for the poor and abandoned. “For the last 800 years or so,” he observed to the Ladies of Charity, “women have had no public employment in the Church … your sex was deprived of all such employment … now observe how … Providence turns to some of you today to supply all that the sick poor … stand in need of.”
Each year more than 300 children were left on the streets of Paris, many of them sold for a pittance to beggars and deformed by them to further their schemes. In 1638, Vincent built houses to care for these abused and neglected street children, and Louise formed the Daughters of Charity to serve and love these poor orphans.
All these charitable works brought Vincent into the limelight. People of power paid attention to him; politicians sought him out for advice. Bishops and priests came to him for education and formation. Vincent capitalized on his encounters with the powerful to plead for the poor. Louis XIII asked Vincent for a list of those priests that he judged to be the best candidates for the episcopacy. When the Council of Conscience was formed in June 1643, the 62-year-old Vincent was included, at the insistence of Queen Anne of Austria.
Vincent’s ministry kept growing, as did his organizations. His followers buried the dead, cared for refugees and orphans, took care of the sick in their homes and in the hospital, and opened schools for poor children.
The number of beggars increased to more than 100,000 in the city of Paris. In two districts alone, nearly 24,000 families lived in squalor. A hundred persons died daily at Hotel Dieu hospital in Paris. More than 10,000 deaths per month were reported citywide.
Vincent, now 72 years old, met the escalating needs as best he could, always refining his charitable methods and keeping everyone informed by issuing reports on his activities. Vincent organized collections, using wagons to gather donations from merchants. Each week, his followers distributed clothing and thousands of pounds of food in numerous neighborhoods, using rectories as warehouses and distribution centers.
The End
Sickness confined Vincent to his room in July 1660. Nevertheless, he struggled on with his work. His dream, his prayer, was to die not in bed but in battle, fighting for the poor. Early on the morning of September 27, 1660, just days after celebrating 60 years as a priest, Vincent died in his chair. He went home, joining the Eternal Priest, Jesus Christ.
The process of Vincent’s beatification officially began in 1705; the ceremonies were conducted in Rome on August 21, 1729. Vincent de Paul was canonized by Pope Clement XII on June 16, 1737.
St. Vincent’s Feast day is celebrated on September 27^th.

2. 
   SAINT LOUISE DE MARILLAC (1591-1660)
   

Vincentian spirituality and charism are rooted in the collaboration, mutuality, and friendship of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac. Louise de Marillac was a wife, mother, widow, teacher, nurse, social worker, and founder. She was an organizer, a radical thinker who lived her life intensely and enthusiastically. Louise was a woman with a deep faith in divine providence and her quest in life was to do the will of God. She knew suffering, but she also knew love. Through this suffering and love, she became a mystic in action.

The Beginning
Louise was born on August 12, 1591, when her father, Louis de Marillac, was a thirty-five-year-old widower. The true identity of her mother remains unknown; most likely, Louise was born out of wedlock and was, in the eyes of the law, illegitimate. Her mother was probably a servant in the de Marillac household, prohibited by social custom from marrying. As an infant, Louise was placed in a Dominican convent-school at Poissy and was never to know the love and security of belonging to a family. But her father genuinely loved Louise and would often visit her. At Poissy, Louise received a solid education in philosophy, theology, Latin, Greek, and literature. She was also immersed in Dominican and mystical spirituality and prayer.
When Louise was twelve years old, her father died and she lost the one person who loved her and to whom she belonged. At this time, she was removed from the convent school at Poissy and placed in a boarding school in Paris, where she received a practical education that included cooking, housekeeping, and sewing. Life was completely different for Louise now.
The religious renewal then occurring in France awakened in Louise a desire to consecrate herself to God. At the age of twenty, she asked permission to enter the cloistered community of the Daughters of the Passion. Afraid that Louise’s precarious health would not allow her to endure the austerity of the rule, the superior of the Capuchins refused her request with these prophetic words: “God has other designs on you.”
Marriage
On February 5, 1613, Louise married Antoine LeGras, a secretary to the queen, Marie de Medici. Because Louise was illegitimate, the de Marillac family refused to arrange her marriage to someone in the nobility. As Antoine was of the middle class, Louise became Mademoiselle LeGras, instead of Madame. Louise was twenty-two, Antoine thirty-two. Although their marriage had been arranged, as was the custom of the day, true love grew between them. With Antoine, Louise found the joy and warmth of a family home, which was brightened by the birth of a son, Michel Antoine.
Louise loved Michel, through whose infancy she came to know the profound joys of motherhood. Born prematurely, Michel had difficulty developing, and learned slowly. Louise worried about him constantly.
Seven years after their marriage, Antoine’s health began to deteriorate, probably due to tuberculosis. He became despondent and angry. Louise loved and cared for her husband, but feared that she was to blame for all of his distress. At a time when divine justice was a major spiritual theme, Louise turned to anxious introspection, became obsessed with her distress, and entered a dark night of the soul. On Pentecost Sunday, May 5, 1623 she received a “Light” of the Holy Spirit that brought her great peace:
“My mind was instantly freed of all doubt. I was advised that a time would come when I would be in a position to make vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and that I would be in a small community where others would do the same. I then understood that I would be in a place where I could help my neighbor, but I did not understand how this would be possible, since there was to be much coming and going.”
Because all communities of religious women lived in cloisters at this time, Louise did not understand how women with vows could be serving the poor “coming and going” in the streets of Paris.
For more than two years after her “Light of Pentecost,” Louise remained constantly at the side of her dying husband. With a heavy heart, she buried him on December 21, 1625. Grief, loneliness, and feelings of abandonment nearly overwhelmed Louise. She faced her future in fear, deeply worried about how she was to raise Michel, her twelve-year-old son, alone.

Vincent de Paul
At this time, in the Providence of God, Vincent de Paul was sent to Louise to become her spiritual director. In the beginning, Vincent and Louise had scant appreciation for each other, but both strove to be obedient to God’s apparent will. In time, Vincent indeed became the guide and mentor of Louise. Ten years her senior, he had made the journey of faith, been tried by many fires, and had his heart burned clean. Vincent listened to Louise and understood her suffering. As he grew to know her, he discovered how much the rejections of her early life and the death of her husband had scarred her. He also discovered in her a great desire to know and to accomplish the will of God. As they became friends, Vincent taught Louise how to trust in God and in herself. Their friendship would revolutionize the religious life of the Catholic Church and its ministry to the poor.
Vincent described to Louise his work among poor people, telling her about the Confraternities of Charity that he had begun in 1617. One principle guided the work of these charities: The poor are Jesus Christ. Vincent insisted that the personal service given to them be compassionate, gentle, respectful, devoted, and heartfelt. These Confraternities of Charity were composed of women in country parishes easing the misery of the sick poor in their homes. Vincent had also organized the Ladies of Charity, a group of wealthy women in Paris, to serve the poor. These women of the nobility contributed generously of their time and money, but would often send their servants to perform the menial tasks.
Louise gradually immersed herself in the work of the Confraternities and the Ladies of Charity. She guided, organized, and animated the Confraternities and rooted the members in the spirituality of their service. Vincent relied heavily on her spirituality, judgment, and organizational ability. Little by little, Louise gained confidence in God and in herself. Her mystic journey continued, and love for God burned quietly in her soul. Deep down, a healing process began to mend her shattered heart, restore her faith, and unlock the creative potential hidden within her. As God led Louise to the poor, charity burned in her heart so that she found and treasured Christ in the broken hearts, spirits, and bodies of the destitute people she served.