Father Gay recently announced the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the deaths of Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac.  Here are some excerpts from his letter.  You may find the full text of Father Gay’s letter at http://famvin.org/anniversary/en/ —Father Ward.

 

Dear brothers and sisters,

 

I write to you to announce officially the beginning of our Jubilee Year, which we will celebrate as Vincentian Family the anniversaries of the death and resurrection of our founders Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac.

 

We do so under the theme of “Charity and Mission.”  Mission is the focus we give to this year of celebration that begins September 27, 2009 and lasts until September 27, 2010.  Our mission, to evangelize and serve the poor, is motivated as always by God’s love which we translate into hands-on charity, direct contact with and love of the poor.

 

We are celebrating our past, giving thanks to God for the wonderful examples of love that he has given us through Saint Vincent and Saint Louise.

 

They were involved in a mission of love.  They were bonded by love:  a deep love of God and a deep love of the poor.  They carried out their mission with a passion, which was so deep that it continues to be felt and lived in the Vincentian Family throughout the world.

 

The concept of partnership can better be translated as companionship.  That is the sense that we hope to convey to all the members of our Vincentian Family as we collaborate one with another in our evangelization and service of the poor.

 

We are called, as Saint Paul would say, to be “all things to all people,” because the reality we meet, in many places of the world today, are people estranged from the traditional concepts of Church, people who are unaware of God actively present in their life in and through the sacraments.

 

Somehow, through our mission we have to be present to them.  As Jesus said, he has come not to save the healed, but to save the sinner, those estranged.  He went after the one lone sheep who had wandered off from the ninety-nine.  These lone sheep are the ones we, as members of the Vincentian Family are called to reach out to, to be present to, not to wait for them to come to us, but to move out of ourselves and go to them.  That is the concept of mission motivated by true charity today.

 

I hope that the same spirit that filled the hearts of Vincent, Louise and their companions might fill ours as well, as we continue to give witness and serve our lords and masters, those who are poor.

 

Your brother in Saint Vincent,              
G. Gregory Gay, C.M. Superior General