15 April 1981 London, England

My dear Sisters,

Before all else, let me say how grateful I am to Sister Joan for her kind invitation to come here and speak to you. Let me say also how grateful I am to you all for the warm reception you have given me here this morning. I see all such expressions of welcome as expressions of faith in the office I hold. The devotion which you have, and I don't think the word `devotion' is too strong, to the office of Superior General is profoundly deep among you. I have more than once in the past few months wondered how it should be so. I think it is that, as you see it, the office of Superior General is the same as that which was held by St. Vincent himself. We know that St. Vincent was reluctant to assume this office and it was only after much prayer and quiet insistence on the part of St. Louise that he was prevailed on to accept it, and not only for himself, but for those who as Superiors General of the Congregation of the Mission would come after him as his successors. Recently talking to Mother Rogé, we both agreed that it was an enormous act of confidence in God and faith in His Providence that they should have agreed to this, for they had no idea what sort of men would be the successors of St. Vincent. More than once I have felt that your faith in the office of Superior General is not of the will of man but of God from Whom ultimately all good things come.

At another level, and a more human one, I am happy to be among you again. It is nice to speak publicly without being preoccupied with the proper pronunciation of open and closed vowels. It is nice to be speaking publicly again the Queen's English, even if with an Irish accent.

As far as I remember, I did not choose the title of this talk. I accepted the idea from Sister Joan that I would talk about St. Vincent, but the finalizing of the title was, if I'm not mistaken, left to the organizing committee here in London. The title suggests two topics, our heritage and St. Vincent's devotion to and confidence in the Providence of God. The two topics are not unrelated because our heritage, which we enjoy today in the Community, would not be as rich as it is, had not St. Vincent been devoted to and confident in the Providence of God.

One of the most beautiful parables that fell from Our Lord's lips is concerned with heritage, or rather with the problems that heritage can bring. "A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father: `Father give me the portion of substance that falleth to me.' And he divided unto them his substance." (Lk 15:11-12). The remainder of that parable is a story of how a heritage may be received, destroyed and lost. However, that was not the main point of the parable. It is the warm, welcoming, accepting, forgiving attitude of the father towards the younger son that is the point of Our Lord's story. Such attitudes are spiritual values that money cannot buy. In his old age, I imagine the younger son thought more about the loving acceptance which he had experienced from his father than of the loss and squandering of the material part of his heritage.

These days in a number of provinces we see the closing of houses, the withdrawal of the Community from institutions where it has served for a hundred years and more. We must grow accustomed to considering well what is the principal heritage which we have received and enjoy. There is always the temptation to identify our heritage with material buildings or particular localities. Read the Conferences of St. Vincent and you will find that that is not what he wished to bequeath to the Daughters of Charity. Certainly he did not despise material buildings, nor did he minimize the importance of good administration of Community property. Needless to say, he would not endorse a policy of squandering money on purposeless projects. An independent observer, however, who could cast an eye down the list of topics of conferences which St. Vincent gave to the Sisters of his time, could only conclude that what this man, Vincent de Paul, was concerned about was the art of relating well to God, to Jesus Christ, to one another within the Community, and to the poor. I think that, important as the service of the poor was to St. Vincent and still must be to the Daughters of Charity, the richest part of our heritage lies in what St. Vincent has taught us of spiritual values, spiritual techniques, which will insure that we are abiding deeply in Christ without Whom we can do nothing.

It was only after he had lost all that the younger of the two sons of the parable came to know something of the depth of his father's love for him. I am not suggesting that the Community must recklessly divest itself of all its material assets, if it is to come to know how much it is cherished by God. What I am saying is that the painful experience of being parted from what we regarded as portions of our inheritance, may serve to purify the eyes of our minds so that we can see more clearly, collectively and individually, what lies at the heart of all service of the poor, and which must always remain the principal portion of the inheritance we have received from the Spirit of God through St. Vincent.

At the heart of the heritage which St. Vincent has left us is his devotion to the Providence of God. With all the limitations which any generalization has, it could be said that until the fourth decade of his life, St. Vincent liked to gallop ahead of Divine Providence, but that thereafter he became fearful that he might cut God's heel by walking too close behind Him. Francis Thompson's poem, "The Hound of Heaven," has immortalized an experience which so many can share: how God pursued the poet down the nights, down the days until he is overtaken by God, the hound of heaven, and surrenders to Him.

Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a Voice above their beat
"Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me."

The poem, as so many of you know, ends after the surrender with the loving invitation: "Arise, clasp My hand and come."

The same loving God caught up to Vincent, galloping ahead in search, now of a good parish, now of a debtor, and now of some indeterminate ecclesiastical honor. When Vincent had been overtaken by the Hound of Heaven and when he had begun to shelter Christ in the person of the poor, he seems to have decided only to venture forth when he was sure that he was being led through the thicket by the Hound of Heaven. How he came to be so deeply devoted to the Providence of God, we do not know. Which of his spiritual mentors was it who taught him to follow, rather than anticipate, God's Providence? Certain it is that the lesson was learned well. In his conferences to the Daughters, the Providence of God is mentioned no less than seventy times, while in his correspondence with his priests, it is a theme which is treated with many variations.

Thank God, St. Vincent had in his Congregation some men who were in a great hurry to get things done. It was these who called forth from St. Vincent his deepest convictions on devotion to the Providence of God. One such was Father Codoing whom St. Vincent sent to Rome to act as his agent to the Holy See. Father Codoing was a rather colorful character. When asked by St. Vincent to go to Rome, he was rather sluggish about taking up the appointment, and there is a letter extant in which St. Vincent reminds him that it was time he was thinking of moving from Annecy and doing God's will in Rome. Once Father Codoing arrived in Rome, he seems to have decided that, while Rome might be eternal, time was short and so all negotiations should be dispatched with a minimum of delay and all officials of the Roman Curia spurred into immediate action. This manner of procedure displeased St. Vincent, but happily for us elicited some magnificent gems on the place of the Providence of God in the conduct of affairs.

To Father Codoing on the 16 March 1644, he wrote: "Grace has its moments. Let us abandon ourselves to the Providence of God and be on our guard against anticipating it. If Our Lord is pleased to give me any consolation in our vocation, it is this: I think it seems to me that we have tried to follow Divine Providence in all things and to put our feet only in the place It has marked out for us." (Coste II, Eng. ed. no. 704, p. 499).

And a month later to Father Codoing: "...by the grace of God, we have always tried to follow and not to anticipate Providence which knows how to conduct all things so wisely to the end Our Lord destines for them." (Coste II, Eng. ed. no. 707, p. 502).

And yet again to Father Codoing, this time in July of the same year: "...nor should you move so fast! The works of God do not proceed in that way; they come about of themselves, and those He does not create soon perish." (Coste II, Eng. ed. no. 715, p. 514).

In August St. Vincent wrote again to him: "I have told you on previous occasions, Monsieur, that the things of God come about by themselves, and that wisdom consists in following Providence step by step. And you can be sure of a maxim which seems paradoxical, namely, that he who is hasty falls back in the interests of God." (Coste II, Eng. ed. no. 720, p. 521).

Six years later in 1650 the Confrere who was to be St. Vincent's first successor was Superior in Rome. St. Vincent wrote to him: "I have been told that the Archbishop of Toulouse has been waiting for a long time for me to give him some indication that I would like the Company to work in his diocese, so he could establish us there and put us in charge of his seminary, but I have been careful not to give him the slightest sign of this. His brother was here a few days ago; he skirted the issue with me for a long time, but I deliberately refrained from discussing it. Providence must call us and we must follow it, if we are to go forward confidently." (Coste III, Eng. ed. no. 1178, p. 538).

This last quotation gives us an indication of the sensitivity of St. Vincent to Divine Providence. It was not sufficient for him that by hearsay the Archbishop had expressed his desire that the Community come to his diocese. Even when the Archbishop's brother was trying to force St. Vincent to show his hand, so to speak, it was only the direct invitation of the Archbishop himself, seemingly, which would satisfy St. Vincent that the work would be of God.

St. Vincent's first biographer, Bishop Abelly, singles out his devotion to the Providence of God and imitation of Jesus Christ as the principal features of the Saint's spirituality. St. Vincent's devotion to the Providence of God could possibly be explained in terms of devotion to the Will of God. For him, the teaching of the Church was a clear manifestation of God's Will. When, in either of his Communities, Superiors expressed themselves in accordance with the Rules or Constitutions of the Company, then that, too, was a clear manifestation of God's Will for the individual. So much for the guidance we need for the present. God's Will, however, for the future, the immediate future, expresses itself slowly, unfolds itself like the dawn of day. One cannot hasten the dawn. One must wait for the dawn. "My soul is waiting on the Lord. I count on His Word. My soul is longing for the Lord, more than watchman for daybreak." (Ps. 129:5-6).

It was, I think, St. Vincent's profound respect for the Will of God that made him slow to presume that the decision to be made, the house to be established, the course of action to be adopted, was in fact in accordance with that Will which alone mattered. "We see now in a dark manner" (1 Cor 13:12) and one can advance only slowly in the dark if one is not to lose one's way totally.

Speaking to you as Daughters of Charity, I must refer you to the conference which St. Vincent gave your predecessors on the 9 June, 1658. Let me offer you an aperitif, drawn from what is vintage Vincentian teaching.

There are some who think their peace of mind depends on being with a certain Sister or not being with another, who is of such or such a disposition, or being in one place rather than another, and they place their confidence in that. Mark you, a Sister who has placed her confidence in God does not consider whom she is with. When you find it less easy to live with one Sister rather than another, you should get rid of that feeling for it is a temptation and will give rise to divisions amongst you, if it is not remedied in time. And, therefore, Sisters, a Daughter of Charity who trusts in Providence never asks: `Who are you sending with me?' It is enough for her to know that it is God Who inspires Superiors to send her to that place. And so she goes, hoping that He will never abandon her. (Conf. Eng. ed. 9 June 1658, pp. 1080-81).

In the index to the volume of Conferences to the Daughters, which all of you have, you will find a reference to Providence on page sixty-seven and on that page you will read two short paragraphs which are as realistic today as when they were first spoken by St. Vincent:

Do you know how to practice obedience to the most Divine Providence of God? When an occasion arises for you to go from one house to another, then, O my Sisters, be most exact in obeying its decrees, reflecting that Providence has so ordained it, and never say: `It is such and such a Sister, such and such an event that has been the cause of my leaving here.' On the contrary, believe that Divine Providence is taking care of you....O my daughters, you should have such great devotion to and such great confidence in and love for Divine Providence, that if Providence itself had not given you the beautiful name of Daughters of Charity, you should bear that of Daughters of Providence, for it was Providence that brought you into being. (Conf. Eng. ed. June 1642, p. 67).

I have suggested that St. Vincent's devotion to the Providence of God was rooted and founded in his devotion to the Will of God. His confidence in the Providence of God must have been strengthened by his reflection and meditation on that classic expression of the lovingness of God's Providence which we find in the Sermon on the Mount: "The birds of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them...Behold the lilies of the field..." (Mt 6:26,28). His faith, however, must have been tried, as ours is, by the large number of people who seem to be outside that loving Providence, the poor. When he said that your title could be Daughters of Divine Providence, could he have been thinking that your vocation was to be a sacrament of God's loving Providence to the poor and to those who are on the margin, or seem to be beyond the margin, of God's caring love? The sight of so many such people in a world of rapidly increasing population perplexes us and tries our faith and confidence in the Fatherhood of God which is the central message of the New Testament. I have not had the time to go more deeply into this question. Let me only say this, that it is paradoxical that, as St. Vincent became more acquainted with the vast needs of the poor of his day, his confidence in the loving Providence of God seems to have taken deeper and firmer root. That conviction is expressed, not in any hastily written letter, but in a carefully chiseled out paragraph of the Rule which he had printed two years before his death for the Priests and Brothers of the Congregation of the Mission. He wrote:

Christ said: `Seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things (which you need) will be given to you as well.' That is the basis for each of us having the following set of priorities: matters involving our relationship with God are more important than temporal affairs; spiritual health is more important than physical; God's glory is more important than human approval. Each one should, moreover, be determined to prefer, like St. Paul, to do without necessities, to be slandered or tortured, or even killed, rather than lose Christ's love. In practice, then, we should not worry too much about temporal affairs. We ought to have confidence in God that he will look after us since we know for certain that as long as we are grounded in that sort of love and trust we will be always under the protection of God in heaven, we will remain unaffected by evil and never lack what we need even when everything we possess seems headed for disaster. (CR II, p. 2). Perhaps that paragraph is for me the finest expression of St. Vincent's devotion to and confidence in the Providence of God. With Lacordaire, St. Vincent could say: "All I know of tomorrow is that Providence will rise before the sun."