from The Spirituality of the Association Today by Fr. Andrés Pato, C.M.

1. Words of wisdom for Vincentians based on writings of Father Andrés Pato, C.M.
Reveal God’s Love
to the World

2. Encounter and recognize Christ in the poor.
They are a continuation of the incarnation— the suffering Christ lives on in all who suffer.

3. Vincentian service implies evangelization.
Evangelize with your “words and deeds” (support your words with works of justice,
mercy and compassion so that your words are believable).

4. Live in concerned solidarity with the poor,
evangelizing them and allowing yourself to be evangelized by them.

5. Discover that life is only worth living if we spend it so that others may live.

6. Offer a contrast and challenge to the selfish mentality of our culture, by your life.
Be involved in small Christian communities where there is shared faith and human
warmth.

7. Pray always, and know that there is no authentic life of faith and prayer unless it
develops into a commitment to humankind.
In prayer, God shows you others’ problems, their needs; and He urges you to
come out of your shell of selfishness, to open up to others, to become sensitive to,
and committed to their needs.

8. God has a special place in his heart for the weakest, for those who have never been
loved, for the poor. The cause of the poor is God’s cause. He identifies with their cause.
God’s option for the poor, the oppressed, the slaves, is a constant in all of revelation.
Jesus, the Son of God, who has come into the world because the Father loves it (Jn.
3:16), also opts for the poor: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me. He has sent me to bring Good News to the poor.” (Lk. 4: 18)
Go and do likewise!

9. Evangelize… that will help you to be holy.
All are called to holiness: “Be holy as your Father in heaven is holy.” Cultivate friendship
with God and with all persons, to become, as one of St. Vincent de Paul’s biographers
called him, a “mystic for action”.

10. Pray as a good friend who lives concerned about pleasing God, about doing what God
wants, and how He wants it. St. Vincent de Paul, a mystic for action, arrived at this
experience and prayed this way.

11. Take action against this unjust culture, lacking in solidarity. Confront the tremendous
needs of the human person of today, of so many people who have been cast by the
roadsides of life through the injustice and the corruption of the powerful in today’s world.
Share the love of God for humanity.

12. Defend the Right to Life and Dignity of the Person. In this culture of death,
in which we value only that which produces, in this culture enslaved by
self-interests, defend the right to life and the promotion of the dignity of
each person. Each human being is a project of God’s love and has been
created to live and to be happy.

13. Reveal the love of God, the Good News of God for human beings,
especially for the poor.
Reveal His love to this world in order to transform it into His Kingdom.
May this mission be present in all that you are and all that you do.

14. from THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE ASSOCIATION TODAY by
Andrés Pato, C.M.
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