Vincent de Paul

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul.  Tonight our Vincentian Volunteer group gathered for our weekly prayer service and focused on this man who spent his life working with the poor, with prisoners and with those who sought to serve God.  (The Vincent de Paul Society, one of the largest layman ministry groups in the world, was established 150 years after Vincent's death to continue his work and spirit.)  We read together this quote from him:

"Whenever I happened to speak abruptly to the convicts, I spoiled everything. But whenever I praised them for their acceptance and showed them compassion, whenever I sympathised with them in their sorrows, when I kissed their chains and showed them how upset I was when they were punished, then they always listened to me and even turned to God.  A missionary needs patience and restraint in his work with those to whom he is sent.  The poor can be so unrefined, so ignorant...If an individual hasn't the gentleness to put up with their crudeness, what can he hope to accomplish?  Nothing at all.  On the contrary, he will dishearten those poor ones when they feel his sharpness, they will be put off and will not return to learn those things which are needed for them to be saved.  Gentle patience, then, is demanded of us." 

We then had a short discussion about patience.  I noticed that my two ministry positions both require patience, but different kinds of patience.  When I'm at St. Gregory's I work with kids bouncing off the walls after school and my job as supervisor asks me to patient with them.  Not to lose my cool or ignore them.  But at St. Vincent's School for the Visually Impaired, the kids are much better behaved, so behaved in fact that they sometimes seem to move about in slow motion.  Time moves so slowly.  Patience is required, but this time it is patience with myself.  I have to adjust to the slower pace of the students and the school, and this requires me to let the chaos and impatience seep out of me.  In both cases, St. Vincent's words are appropriate for me: Gentle patience is demanded.  Gentle patience with the children at St. Gregory and at St. Vincent, gentle patience with myself.  When I'm impatient with other people, it may reflect the amount of patience I give myself.  And when I am patient with others, it may reflect how much of God's grace and peace I allow myself.