Vincentian Community News
|
|
"This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it."
-Psalm 118:24
|
|
St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry
|
|
The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at the Vincentian Family Center will open tomorrow from 9:00am to 12:00pm. Due to COVID-19, we are seeing an increase in the number of people who need assistance. Last Saturday, Easter weekend, we served 239 people which was up significantly from the previous week.
The staff and volunteers are wearing masks and gloves to protect themselves against the spread of COVID-19. Clients are maintaining social distancing as they wait for their food outside. If you are interested in volunteering at the Food Pantry, contact Michael Tullius at michael@ssvdp.org.
|
|
Kendra Scott is hosting an online event for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Diocesan Council of Austin this weekend, April 18th and April 19th. When shoppers use the code at checkout, 20% of the proceeds will go directly to the Society. Funds raised will be used to support programs to help our neighbors in need. Click on this
link
for more information. Please share with your family and friends.
|
|
The next Ozanam Orientation is set for May 23, 2020 at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Kyle from 9:00am to 2:30pm, with check in starting at 8:30am. Breakfast and lunch will be served for all participants.
Ozanam Orientations are designed to set up our new Vincentians for success and re-energize those Vincentians who have already served. During the Oznanam Orientation, Diocesan Council and conference leaders help prepare volunteers by offering insight into the Society's history and legacy, home visits, and Vincentian spirituality.
All new Vincentians are asked to attend an Ozanam Orientation within their first year in ministry; current Vincentians should attend an Ozanam refresher every 3-5 years.
|
|
What Might Be the Blessing in this
Time of Crisis?
By: by Jim Claffey
Commission to Promote Systemic Change
|
|
The only certain thing these days is uncertainty. When will the pandemic end, how many lives will be lost, will life ever be the same? The pandemic is utterly frightening and threatens to change everything.
But what about a possible silver lining? What if the pandemic is a sign and an opportunity? A sign that things should change. An opportunity to do things better.
Maybe life shouldn’t be the same. Maybe this experience is a wake-up call, inviting all of us to consider a different future. A learning experience that invites us to re-think the ways we live together. Maybe this terrible experience will bring change, lasting and significant systemic change on personal and social levels.
We could learn that we are only as healthy as the least healthy among us, and work for universal health care, including preventive care. We might eat and live in healthy ways and stop over-medicating ourselves. We could work to end
ongoing
plagues like homelessness and hunger (daunting, but not impossible goals). We could learn that less is more, end the deadly materialistic mentality, and live more simply.
We could re-discover the value of community and live in much greater solidarity with each other. We might design our social systems and priorities to foster the common good, instead of favoring the wealthy and ignoring the poor. We could change the tax system so that everyone, and every corporation, pays their fair share. We could get money out of the political system so that decision-makers respond to their constituents rather than to their big donors.
We might learn from the fragility we felt during this crisis to see the planet, nature, and resources as finite and precious, and begin to live more responsibly as caretakers of God’s creation. I don’t know that any of this will happen. But coronavirus is not just one more difficult life experience, and we would be totally foolish not to come out at the end of it wiser and fully committed to seek creative solutions to the systems that cause poverty and keep so many people locked in misery.
***
Think About it?
By Chee Hart, Systemic Change Coordinator - Diocesan Council of Austin
In what ways has your conference had to think of “creative solutions” for helping neighbors?
How has this pandemic changed the way our conferences serve others?
Have we discovered a “silver lining”?
Has this crisis made you re-think the ways we live together and has it changed you personally in your spiritual journey?
|
|
Gospel: (John 20:19-31)
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the
disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” A week later…Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Vincentian Reflection
“… the poor we see with the eyes of flesh; they are there and we can put finger and hand in their wounds and the scars of the crown of thorns are visible on their foreheads; and at this point incredulity no longer has place and we should fall at their feet and say with the Apostle,
Tu est Dominus et Deus meus (You are my Lord and my God!).
You are our masters, and we will be your servants. You are for us the sacred images of that God whom we do not see, and not knowing how to love Him otherwise shall we not love Him in your person?
(Ramson, Praying with Frederic, p.98)
How do we have the eyes of faith, like Frederic, to see the Risen Jesus whose scars and nail prints the poor and suffering bear on their bodies?
|
|
National Gazette Questions and Answers
Q: A member of my Conference said our Regional Vice President does not have a vote at the National level. Can you verify this?
A: According to National Council Bylaws, each of the eight Regional Vice Presidents is a voting member of the National Board of Directors. However, the Regional Vice Presidents do not have a vote on the National Council. The voting members of the National Council are the National President and the duly elected National Council Members (each representing a Catholic Diocese where the Society is present).
Preguntas y Respuestas de la
Oficina Nacional
P: Un miembro de mi Conferencia dijo que nuestro Vicepresidente Regional no tiene voto a nivel nacional. ¿Puedes verificar esto?
R: Según los Estatutos del Consejo Nacional, cada uno de los ocho Vicepresidentes Regionales es un miembro con derecho a votar en la Junta Directiva Nacional. Sin embargo, los Vicepresidentes Regionales no tienen voto en el Consejo Nacional. Los miembros con derecho a votar del Consejo Nacional son el Presidente Nacional y los Miembros del Consejo Nacional debidamente elegidos (cada uno representa una Diócesis Católica donde está presente la Sociedad).
|
|
Call 1.888.317.SVDP
visit www.ssvdp.org
|
|
Partner Programs
An easy and free way to support the work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is to join our partner programs. Sign up for one or both of the programs, and our partner agencies will donate a portion of their proceeds from your purchases to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. You can find more information by clicking this
link
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|