Tuesday Conference

V o l. 0 1
I s s ue 1 7

Theology e-weekly

To make humanity united in worshipping God

Dear Father,
It is a great joy for Tuesday Conference to publish a special
edition on the life of St. Vincent who is our Patron and inspiration.
St. Vincent was a great saint yesterday and is a great saint
today. The Church honours him as the patron of all the charitable
activities. He is a light within the history of the Church and of the
world for all times. Through his heroic example and enlightening
message, St. Vincent illumines the history of the Church.
King Louis XIII during the last weeks of his life
commended: Ah! Monsieur Vincent, if I am
restored to health, I want all the bishops to spend
three years with you.

We are living on the sweat of the poor. Let us pray to

God for them and let us not allow a single day to go by
without offering them to our Lord. The poor feed us.

Page - 02

Life History of St. Vincent de Paul

Certainly
Vincent was
not a man
of study: he
was a man
of action
based on
faith,
charity and
also upon a
firm,
granite-like
theological
foundation.
- Igino

St. Vincent was born in a village at Pouy, near Dax in

France on April 24, 1581.As a boy he worked in the field and
herded cattle. In 1596 he was sent to study theology at Tulouse
and there he was ordained priest in 1600.
Even after the ordination, he continued his theological
study and won the degree of bachelor of sacred theology from
the University of Toulouse. In 1605, on a voyage by sea
from Marseilles to Narbonne, he fell into the hands of African
pirates and was carried as a slave to Tunis.
His captivity lasted about
two
years,
until
Divine
Providence enabled him to effect
his escape. After a brief visit
to Rome he returned to France,
where he became preceptor in
the family of Emmanuel de
Gondy and General of the galley
slaves of France.

Giordani
In 1617, he began to preach missions, and in 1625, he lay
the foundations of a congregation which afterward became the
Congregation of the Mission.
In 1633 Vincent started the Daughters of Charity, a
sisters group to work in the street, to assist the poor and the
sick, to instruct the children, to teach catechism, to search for
souls in poor slums and desolate countryside.

He was not merely a reformer, but an innovator,

and even a creator.
- P. Coste

Page - 03

The reformation of the clergy

was the target of St. Vincent. To
realize this dream he started a
number of seminaries, retreats and
Tuesday Conference. The

To take care of the sick and poor at

Hotel-Dieu, the largest hospital in Paris.
Vincent formed the Ladies of Charity in
1634.

first seminary was started in

1636 at the Bon-Enfants.

It would be impossible to enumerate

all the works of this servant of God.
Charity was his predominant virtue. It
extended to all classes of persons, from

first
Tuesday Conference was
held on July 19, 1633 and the

Though honored by the great ones of the world, he remained deeply rooted in
humility. The Apostle of Charity, the immortal Vincent de Paul, breathed his last
in Paris at the age of eighty. His feast day is September 27th.

On Dignity of Priesthood
The
wellbeing
of
Christianity depends on
the priest. A good priest
who is an angel and
doctor shall pray and
teach in accordance with
the mind of the Church.

If I had known what was involved

when I first dared enter it, as I now
know, I would have preferred to be a
common farmer than to enter such an
exalted state.

Oh how great it is to be a good

priest! God gives the priest the power
of consecration, and the power to
forgive sins. O God, what power! What
a dignity!
The evil life of priests has
brought about all disasters (plague,
war, famine, heresies) which have so
despoiled
the
Church
and
so
disfigured her.

Page - 04

The Church has no enemies so dangerous as her

priests. It is due to the priests that the heretics have
flourished, that vice has gained its mastery.

Formation of Priests
Just life preaching mission and serving the poor, forming priests also is the
goal of the company. Training priest was the way to make the Gospel effective.
You are aware of the fact that just as we are committed to preaching missions,
so too, we are committed to form good priests for the mission.

Seminary
He took effort to train good priest for the future. To establish seminaries
was the felt-need of his time. We are as much about to train good priests as to
instruct the country people; and a priest of the mission who wants to do the one
and not the other is only a half missionary.
Adrien Bourdoise, a friend of Vincent comments: To preach a mission is
to give a meal to a starving population, but to create a seminary that is to
provide them with lifelong nourishment.

Vocation
No one is allowed to enter a seminary with the motive of the world i.e., to
enjoy life. Vincent sharply condemns the entrance of non qualified persons in
religious institute and priestly life: How wretched are those who enter the
priestly state through the window of their own choice and not by the door of a
genuine vocation.
I must tell you what a
vocation is: a vocation is a call
from God to do something. The
vocation of the Apostles was to
plant the faith throughout the
world; the vocation of a
religious is a call from God to
observe the rules of the
religious life.

Page - 05

Nature of the Congregation

In the strict sense , the
congregation is not a religious order.
We are not worthy to be
religious. We are secular priest, who live
in the state that Jesus chose for himself,
renouncing earthly possessions, honors,
and pleasures even though we are not
religious, we do belong to an order.
These words of Vincent reveal that
the life of the company is a mixing of the
way of life of the religious and style of life
of the diocesan priests.

Love your Congregation

Love your company more than
all others, because she is your mother
who has sucked and nourished you
until now and will do so as long as you
remain under her protection. What
should be our attitude to other
religious institutions? Moreover, we
will regard all other congregations as
far more worthy than our own,
although we ought to love it more
than any other, just as a good child
loves his own mother, however poor
and unattractive she may be, much
more than other women, however
remarkable.

About the Priests...

At the time of Vincent many priest were
ignorant of the truths necessary for
salvation. Many did not know even the
confession formula. They were not well
versed in the rubrics of mass. Vincent
says, I was once in St. Germain and I
noticed seven or eight priest who each
said mass his own way.
Each one had his own ceremonies. Such diversity was really pitiful. Vincent
laments about the situation of the priest of his time and its consequence in the
church: In many places the church is falling into disrepute because of the had lives
of priests.

A Man Smart in Communication

During his lifetime he wrote around 30,000 letters and
2000 of them are available now. Prudence and simplicity
marked his speech.

Page - 06

The faith of Vincent was dynamic,

expansive,
vigorous,
strong
and
communicative. It is enough that we believe
what the Church proposes to us, and submit our
minds to this truth.
He believed the teaching authority of the
Church and followed it without questioning it.
I hold the truth; why reason about it?
The longer we look at the sun, the less do
we see it.

Let us allow our Lord to act, it is his

work, and since he has willed to begin the
enterprise, we may rest assured that he
will bring it to completion in manner that
is pleasing to himself. His hope in the Lord
led him to say always that sooner or later
all will be accomplished.

Gods ineffable love inspired

Vincent to love the Lord and his
people . A woman witnessed: You
must not be surprised, for he is an
angel of the Lord. The love of God
which burns in his heart to appear on
his lips as burning coals.

Dear Confreres, St. Vincent asks: How do you spent

your time?

The time of the member

of the congregation is
Begin today,
not their own. They owe continue tomorrow
it to the poor As you and it will become
waste your time, that is easy for you.
an additional evil.

Just before 3 days of his

death he said to his
confreres: Let us work!
Let us work! Let us go
and help the poor who
are waiting for us

Page - 07

5 Pillars of the Congregation

The congregation shall apply itself very diligently to the cultivation and
practice of simplicity, humility, meekness, mortification and zeal for souls. So that
these five virtues may become, so to speak, the faculties of the souls of the whole
congregation. Vincent treated these five virtues as the pillar, life-principle and
animating force of the company.

Simplicity

Humility

The virtue of simplicity

is the innocence of the
heart. It demands from
us to think, speak and do
everything
without
pretence of artifice but
with pure heart.

Humility is the decision

to follow the kenosis of
Christ and thereby to
identity oneself with his
self. It is the decision to
follow
the
suffering
Christ.

Meekness

Mortification

Zeal for the Souls

Meekness is an art to
blend together firmness
and gentleness, anger
and tenderness in our
interpersonal
relationship.

Mortification is selfsacrifice
for
the
goodness of oneself,
brethren and the glory of
god. It is denial of the
self for self-discipline.

Zeal
is
an
inner
inspiration from the
Holy Spirit to transform
the world and save the
souls by the power of the
gospel of Christ.

Voltaire said proudly: My

saint is Vincent de Paul.

Cancel your sins of the

past, present and future. Sins of
the

past

are

cancelled

by

forgiveness which God grants

you. The sins of the present are
cancelled by the graces that you
receive by visiting the sick and
this will keep you away from the
sin in the future.