“It is sufficient to make this offering for one year and renew it annually.” [1]

When Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac founded a religious community for women, their vision centered on members going out into the world and serving the most vulnerable in hospitals and prisons, in shelters, on street corners, and even in their own homes. At the time, this was a radical idea because almost all women’s religious communities had been strictly cloistered. These women were not allowed to venture beyond their enclosures but instead lived out their vocations of prayer and contemplation within the peace and detachment of the convent. For this reason, to receive official Church recognition, Vincent and Louise’s new community—called the Daughters of Charity—needed to develop rules that were distinct from those of traditional women’s orders while remaining, at their core, a community rooted in faith.

One of the new community’s primary distinctions was that its members would not be allowed to make permanent vows like members of other women’s religious orders. Instead, Daughters of Charity would renew their vows annually. This gave them the opportunity to revisit and restore their commitment to these vows on a yearly basis with the result being, over time, a deepening relationship with their own vocation and a strengthening of their Vincentian identity. This requirement of an annual renewal of vows continues to this day for the Daughters of Charity.

As we are still in the early days of our new school year, it strikes me that I am being called to reflect on and renew my own commitment to my role and responsibilities at DePaul. I must ask myself, perhaps as a Daughter of Charity might ask herself, how am I finding meaning and purpose in my job? What areas of my life feel as if they are flourishing and what areas may feel barren? How is God calling me to serve, to grow, to change? Asking myself these questions at the beginning of the academic year, and being honest and searching in my replies, will help me prepare for the days ahead and ground me as challenges inevitably occur. It will be an exercise that allows me to renovate my own approach to my role at DePaul and connect me more closely to our Vincentian heritage. In engaging in something like an annual renewal of vows, what began as a way for the Daughters of Charity to avoid the cloister will become for us a catalyst for rejuvenated meaning and an opportunity for a deeper embrace of our mission.

Questions for Reflection:

As we are still at the beginning of the new academic year, take some time to reflect on your role at DePaul. Where are you finding meaning and purpose? Where might you be called upon to grow and change? Are there ways for you to renew your spirit and refresh your work at the university this coming year?

Reflection by: Tom Judge, Assistant Director and Chaplain, Faculty and Staff Engagement, Division of Mission and Ministry

[1] Louise de Marillac, letter 300, “To Sister Charlotte and Sister Françoise, Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Sick Poor at Richelieu,” March 17, 1651, Spiritual Writings, 346. See: https://‌via.‌library.‌depaul.‌edu/‌ldm/.