St Vincent de Paul

It's the Feast of Saint Vincent de Paul today. I googled him. There's a lot of thrift store listings besides sites with his story. I always think of the thrift store we go to every time we visit Monte's mom. We call it St Vinnies. Lots of Amish go to this store.

There's too much he did to write up, and it's been done elsewhere. All I can say is he was a wonderful man and had a huge heart for invalids, orphans, war victims, convicts, and galley slaves (taking one's place once). He had a gift for persuading the wealthy to be charitable. And many women developed hearts for the needy and wanted to be trained in caring for these people.

I'll just let some of his words, say who he is -

However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.

We must love our neighbor as being made in the image of God and as an object of His love.

The Church teaches us that mercy belongs to God. Let us implore Him to bestow on us the spirit of mercy and compassion, so that we are filled with it and may never lose it. Only consider how much we ourselves are in need of mercy.

Extend your mercy towards others, so that there can be no one in need whom you meet without helping. For what hope is there for us if God should withdraw His Mercy from us?

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.

Free your mind from all that troubles you; God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this (choice) without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires.

Saint Vincent de Paul