“Configured in the Spirit of St. Vincent DePaul”
This theme captures the bigger theme proposed by the 43rd General Assembly 2022 which called all the missionaries in the Congregation to revitalize their Vincentian Identity. As we celebrate the 400 years of our existence as a Congregation we are invited to reflect on the spirit of our Holy founder. We mark in a special way the first anniversary of our existence as a Vice Province. I wish to invite all the confreres to a discernment on the Vincentian vocation which is animated by the spirit of our founder.
We can say with no hesitance that Monsieur Vincent was driven by the Spirit of Christ. He was totally convinced about the mission of Christ and “naturally turned himself towards Christ, Missioner and Servant. This Christ is at the center of his life. He irradiates it, stimulates it and above all gives him a subject of imitation.”[1]
St. Vincent has his spirit well founded in the Gospel message. He has numerously quoted the passage from Luke 4:8 The Gospel teachings will shape our vocation. We shall come to appreciate greater profit if we are true disciples of our Lord for “Christ’s teaching will never let us down, while worldly wisdom always will.”[2] Furthermore the Gospel Teachings will fire up our hearts and help us to embrace Vincentian virtues as we know them. Father Vincent further connects this aspect saying, “to keep the Gospel teachings as they are very holy and practical, having in them more application to us than others, to know those that especially advise Simplicity, Humility, Gentleness, Mortification and Zeal for souls.”[3]
In his March and April letters, the Superior General – Fr. Tomaz Mavric, C.M has urged all the confreres to take three years leading to the 400th Anniversary of our “Little Company” as a time of conversion, of renewal, of returning with utmost fire to our “First Love – Jesus,” so that, following the inspirations of Saint Vincent de Paul, we may all become “Mystics of Charity” in the 21st century and beyond. To be the mystics of charity is to have been configured in the spirit of St. Vincent De Paul our founder.
Fraternally
Rev. Edwin I. Mugwe, C.M – Visitor
[1] Renouard J. P. St. “Vincent and the Five Fundamental Virtues” in Vincentiana July-December 2005, p. 300.
[2] Common Rules II, 1
[3] Common Rules II, 2-14.