July 20, 2026
July Twentieth—St. Vincent de Paul
(SECOND MEDITATION.)
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will consider tomorrow what he was towards his neighbor: 1st, the charity of St. Vincent; 2d, his meekness; 3d, his special tenderness with regard to the poor. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to treat our neighbor, above all those who wound or displease us, with great charity and meekness; 2d, to entertain a feeling of affection towards the poor, as being the best friends of God, and to help them as far as we can. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the precept of Our Lord: "A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another, as I have loved you" (John xiii. 34).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore God forming in St. Vincent de Paul a heart so good and charitable, so gentle, so compassionate towards all human miseries, especially the needs of the poor. Let us bless Him for this masterpiece of His grace, and let us ask Him to enable us to participate in the virtues of this amiable heart.
FIRST POINT
The Charity of St. Vincent de Paul towards his Neighbor
It is doubtful whether, since the apostles, grace has ever formed a heart more loving and more devoted to his neighbor than was that of this holy priest. His soul overflowed, as it were, with mercy and the divine goodness. He saw in each individual an image and a child of God, a living member, a brother, and a co-heir of Jesus Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost; and this consideration inspired him with a respect, an esteem, and a love which cannot be described. Recalling to himself, on the one side, that we ought to love one another as Jesus Christ Himself has loved us, and on the other side, that our divine Saviour loved us to such a degree as to come from heaven to earth to subject Himself to our miseries, to suffering, to ignominy, and to death, he loved his neighbor with all the love of which his soul was capable, and even then he was afraid of not loving him sufficiently, and asked for grace to love him more and more. "Oh, if we had," he said, "but a single spark of the sacred fire with which the heart of Jesus burned, should we not do a thousand times more for our brethren than we do now? Those who have true charity in their hearts reveal it by their works; and as it is the property of fire to warm and enlighten, so it is the property of love to communicate itself to all, and to spread itself everywhere." Hence that loving heart which showed itself to all who came to him; that zeal to send his missionaries to solace the unhappy, to instruct the ignorant, to convert sinners, into hospitals and prisons, into fields and upon mountains, into Ireland, Poland, and Italy, Tunis, Algiers, and Madagascar, without allowing himself to be disconcerted by pestilence and the tempests which absorbed his best workmen. Hence that watchfulness over his heart and his words, so that he never complained or spoke evil of any one whatever, and always took in hand the defence of the absent; hence that touching love for his enemies, which enabled him to bear reproach, shame, and troubles, rather than justify himself at their expense. It was sufficient to have shown enmity towards him in order to make him the best of friends, full of kindness and delicate attentions. Is it thus that we love our neighbor?
SECOND POINT
Meekness of St. Vincent de Paul
St. Vincent was born with a bilious and choleric temperament. "But," he said, "I prayed to God, and I earnestly entreated Him to take from me this hard and forbidding disposition, and to give me a meek and benign spirit; and through His grace, with the efforts I have made to conquer myself, I am somewhat reformed." And it would not be possible to give expression to the perfection of this reformation. He had a frankness of manner, a serenity of expression, an obliging manner of conversing, which recalled to mind the meekness of Jesus Christ, who willed to have rude and uneducated men for His disciples that He might teach us mutual endurance, and then an apostle who was a traitor, but whom He embraced tenderly, addressing to him the words, My friend, to teach us meekness. O Lord, said the holy priest, after having shown us such an example, Thou hast indeed good reason to say: "Learn of Me, because I am meek of heart" (Matt. xi. 29). In order to persuade his followers to imitate so beautiful an example, he was accustomed to say to them: How do you wish to be treated yourselves? With meekness doubtless; every one desires that, no one likes to be reproved with bitterness, and be led under the influence of bad humor. Therefore you must repress all impatient movements, the impetuosities of the fire of anger which rises to the face and changes its hue, troubles the soul, and makes us no longer what we were. Cut passion short, in order to recollect yourselves, and unite yourselves with God, saying, Lord, teach me to be meek. Preserve the affability, the serenity of countenance, the cordial manner which gives consolation and confidence, and that ease of manner, that charming simplicity, which seems to give you its heart and to ask for yours. Is it thus that we are meek towards our neighbor?
THIRD POINT
The Special Tenderness of St. Vincent de Paul towards the Poor
We are astonished when we do nothing more than read the enumeration of all that this holy priest did for the poor: the numerous hospitals with Sisters of Charity to serve them; the convocations and the confraternities for helping the poor in their own homes; the institutions for abandoned children and forsaken old people, the redemption of captives, the succors taken to districts which had been a prey to conflagration, to the shipwrecked, to laborers ruined by adverse seasons; Lorraine and the Duchy of Bar, Artois, Maine, Angoumois, Berri, Picardy, and Champagne, fed for more than ten years, during which the ravages of war and famine lasted; more than two thousand poor fed every day in Paris in the midst of the troubles of civil war; more than fourteen thousand assisted elsewhere by his aid, without counting the succors sent to submerged towns. Our littleness could not, of course, attempt to do anything of the kind, but what we can do is at least to imitate the sentiments of this holy priest towards the poor. He was filled with a tender and paternal love for them; he bore them in his entrails, as being the best friends of God and the suffering members of Jesus Christ; their indigence and misery excited all his compassion, to help them was the object of all his thoughts. Alas! he exclaimed, at the approach of winter, whilst uttering deep sighs and shedding tears, this is indeed a very severe season! What will become of the poor? Where will they go? That is my sorrow and the care which weighs me down. Then he gave away all he had, happy at being deemed worthy to use all that there was in his house that he might help the poor. How happy should we be, he once said, to become poor, because of our having exercised charity towards the poor! And if one of us were reduced through charity to beg his bread, to lie down out of doors, perishing with cold, and if some one were to come and say to us: Poor priest, what is it that has reduced you to this state? what happiness to be able to answer: It is charity! Oh, how highly esteemed would such a priest be by God and the angels! Let us here examine our conscience; what relation is there between his sentiments and ours?
Resolutions and Spiritual Nosegay as above