St. Vincent de Paul Shows Mercy

Dear Friend,

Last Wednesday marked the Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul whose spiritual companions over decades have made such a great impact on the community of Santa Barbara.  Our parish St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Daughters of Charity (founded by St. Vincent with St. Louise de Marillac) have been serving the poor and the sick in this city for over 150 years.  These are “unenclosed” congregations, as Robert Ellsberg calls them, the Daughters specifically, of whom St. Vincent wrote: “Their convent is the sickroom, their chapel the parish church, their cloister the streets of the city.”  

 Four years ago, when Sister Margaret Keaveney and Father John Hardin teamed up to found the Virgil Cordano Center, they opened an invitation for others to join in the work of compassion which is at the heart of the Gospel.  Linking the traditions of Saint Vincent and Saint Francis, Saint Louise and Saint Clare, they ignited a movement that now involves many St. Barbara parishioners in day-to-day service to brothers and sisters, most of whom survive here in our city without the security of stable housing and sustenance.  

We are blessed by the presence of the Daughters at Mass here at the Mission each week, along with Cherif Khoury and Richard and Rita Rink and others from the St. Vincent de Paul Society.  This week we will hear the prophet Ezekial stressing “individual responsibility for one’s present circumstances and future.” (cf. Mahri Leonard-Fleckman).  We will also hear Jesus’s parable of two sons invited into their father’s vineyard.  Inspired by St. Vincent and his companions, we might see the vineyard – and our responsibility for it – as that place where the sickroom, the chapel, and the streets do indeed converge to form the favored place where God invites us to show mercy. 

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor