relationships

St. Vincent de Paul Heritage Week: What Is the Vincentian Way?

Pradnya Mission and Ministry, Mission Monday , , , ,

Happy St. Vincent de Paul Heritage Week!

Each year on September 27th, the Vincentian Family and the Catholic Church worldwide celebrate the Feast Day of St. Vincent de Paul. Here at DePaul University, the Division of Mission and Ministry (DMM) typically builds a week of events connected to the Feast Day. This year, these include a Loop Campus Luncheon on Wednesday, a Friday Prayer Breakfast, Feast Day Masses at each campus with lunch included, and the always popular Vinny Fest! This year we have added an interfaith dialogue-oriented event falling on Monday, September 23rd, entitled “In To Light” and a Sustainability Network Weaving event on Wednesday. We hope you will RSVP and join us for one or more of these events during this week!

Photo montage, Vincent de Paul, science students and faculty

This year, during St. Vincent de Paul Heritage Week, I’d like to invite the university community to reflect on the question, “What is the Vincentian way?” In other words, what does the adjective “Vincentian” mean for the way you go about your life and work specifically at DePaul (rather than how you might at another higher ed institution, for example)? What do you do differently because you are at DePaul, where we seek to put our Vincentian mission into practice?

One important question in this conversation is whether and how any understanding of the adjective “Vincentian” connects back authentically and substantively to our founder and the larger Vincentian family, which grew from his life example and work. Here are a few ideas offered to initiate a conversation about what defines a Vincentian way:

  1. Reflection on experience: Since 2002, the Division of Mission and Ministry’s (DMM) Vincentian Community Service and Formation Office (VSFO) team has practiced a model of service, reflection, and community engagement with students. The model they use is called “VIA,” an acronym for “Vincentians in Action.” You may recognize that the word “VIA” can be translated as “the way,” and it is derived from the work of Theodore Weisner, C.M. Weisner writes from a historical and theological perspective as a Christian, Catholic, Vincentian priest, and also the perspective of Vincent de Paul, yet the insights he offers have found resonance with students from many diverse religious and secular worldviews for the past two decades.

Weisner suggests three important dimensions of a process of transformation (or conversion) rooted in attending carefully to reality and reflecting on our experiences and encounters in the context of service:

  • the way of awareness and appreciation
  • the way of dialogue
  • the way of solidarity

This approach offers a valuable contribution to what might be considered a Vincentian way. Begin with awareness and appreciation. Enter more deeply into relationship through dialogue. Recognize our fundamental interdependence and stand and walk together with others in solidarity.

2.  Openness to “encountering God” through our relationships: Inherent in Weisner’s work is a focus on “encountering God” in our relationships. This focus needs to be further unpacked to understand how it is a core part of a Vincentian way. Ultimately, it is about recognizing that there is much more going on in our experiences and relationships than a transactional or superficial exchange. Those who are not theists might participate in this encounter through honoring the deep meaning and wisdom revealed through relationships and life experience.

    • First, Vincent de Paul clearly understood God’s “Providence” to be present concretely in the lived experiences of our lives. Therefore, making intentional space to reflect together, or to “look again” at how God, or a deeper meaning, might be present in those experiences is an important part of a Vincentian way of proceeding. Vincent was careful to emphasize to his followers that they focus not on what they were doing for themselves, so much as on what God was doing in and through their experiences and encounters. He suggested that “wisdom consists in following Providence step by step” and “the things of God come about by themselves,” not (only) through human effort. [1] Careful attention to the presence and movement of Providence, or the deeper meaning inherent in the events and relationships in our lives, is another important dimension of any approach we might deem to be the Vincentian way.
    • Second, another aspect of a Vincentian way that emerges from Weisner’s work is a strong emphasis on relationships, or a relational approach to transformation. While we often emphasize Vincent’s pragmatism or what we interpret through our more contemporary language to be a commitment to social justice, it is Vincent’s relational approach to working for social or systemic change that I would suggest is distinctly characteristic of a Vincentian way. A strong case can be made that Vincent experienced transformation primarily through relationships with a broad range of people at all levels of society.
    • A third point of emphasis that follows from Weisner’s work is that Vincent clearly understood encounters or relationships with those most abandoned in society as central to his mission. It was in these relationships, he believed, that God would be encountered, and transformation would happen. He understood that recognizing and responding with compassion to the spiritual and physical needs of the impoverished was at the very heart of what he was called to address.

3. Simplicity: To further deepen the emphasis on Vincent’s relational approach, we have come to understand figuratively that he “always wore the same cloak,” regardless of who he was with, whether someone begging in the streets or the most powerful people in the country. To me, this means he valued simplicity and transparency, that is, remaining focused on what was most important and being direct and straightforward, rather than overly complicated or pretentious. It meant not putting on airs with the well-to-do, pretending to be who he was not, or treating them any differently than he did the poorest of the poor, always emphasizing the sacred dignity of the other. Vincent was known to have said that “simplicity is the virtue I love the most and to which, I think, I pay the most attention in my actions.” [2] How often do we get bogged down on the complexity of things and lose touch with the simple essence of who we are called to be, or the most straightforward solution to an issue? This call to simplicity—to be honest, direct, humble, straightforward—is, I believe, a key element of a Vincentian way.

4.  An Asset-Based Approach: DePaul’s Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning, in partnership with the Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCDI) housed there, emphasizes and practices another characteristic dimension of a Vincentian way, flowing naturally from the previous emphases above: an asset-based approach. If we recognize, as Vincent did, the presence of Providence in our life events and relationships, then we have our eyes open for what is already present. We trust in what has already been given or is yet unrecognized more than focusing our energies on what is lacking, which is a deficit-minded approach. Vincent de Paul was a master at recognizing and developing the talent and potential in others while encouraging and empowering them to orient it for good. This is evident in his recognition of the untapped potential of the rural poor, such as the classic example of Marguerite Naseau. The Steans Center, ABCDI, and DePaul’s Council on Community Engagement use an asset-based approach to center the strengths and leadership of those in the communities with whom they engage, thus counteracting a deficit-based approach that tends to be imperious rather than empowering.

5.  Motivated by Love: One final characteristic that is integral to a Vincentian way is that of charity (caritas, love). Because Vincent de Paul was known as the “apostle of charity,” I use this word, even though it is often mischaracterized today, particularly as a contrast to social justice. Rather, I believe, charity is an affective and relational dimension essential to social justice, particularly when we speak of addressing the needs of society’s most abandoned and forgotten. Love is also important in the field of education, often reflected in one’s investment in a subject of learning, as well as in our motivations for teaching and educating. Furthermore, learning to see the other through a “charitable” or appreciative lens is essential to the bridge-building needed in communities harmed by antagonistic conflict.

I hope these five ideas can get the conversation started. Please share your thoughts on these questions by adding a comment below or sharing with others this week when you attend Heritage Week events!

Reflection/Discussion Questions:

  • How would you describe a Vincentian way of engaging in service, in your work, or in your life and relationships?
  • How might you more intentionally integrate a Vincentian way into your approach to your work and life at DePaul?

Reflection by: Mark Laboe, Interim VP for Mission and Ministry

[1] Letter 720, “To Bernard Codoing, Superior, in Rome,” August 6, 1644, CCD, 2:521.

[2] Letter 188, “To François du Coudray, in Rome,” n.d., CCD, 1:265.

Dreams, Visions and Inspiration

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Harriet Tubman

In sacred texts and in artistic narrative of all types, I have long been struck by the role and nature of dreams and visions. [1] We refer to what we experience while asleep as “dreams,” but we also refer to the conscious visions and hopes we have for the future with the same word. [2] In other languages or cultural discourse this overlap is intensified in that the same word can refer to visions which occur while asleep, awake, or somewhere in-between. In Muslim tradition this can be captured by (among others) the Arabic word ru’ya. In the Irish language and literary tradition there is the concept of the aisling [3] Whether drawing from the conscious, the subconscious, or from some combination of the two, these are ways in which our imagination grapples with envisioning a future different than the present. In many spiritual traditions, these visions are understood to be forms of communication with the Divine, and to reflect realities which are deeper than those of the material world alone. [4] A most famous example of this in our Vincentian tradition is the lumière experience of Saint Louise de Marillac. [5]  

In the recently published Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People, Tiya Miles writes movingly about the dream visions of the famous abolitionist and activist. [6] Drawing from the historical evidence we have about Tubman’s visions and attempting to understand them in the context of her life experiences and worldview, Miles traces the evolution of those dreams. Starting from nightmarish visions of being chased by white men on horseback, which communicated to her the notion that she must prepare to get away, the visions did not stop. They eventually would include a vision of a ‘promised land’ to which she should flee, although for a long time she would often not make it. Finally, Tubman had dreams of being a bird flying above the landscape, being assisted to make it across the boundary by angelic figures dressed in white. Tubman understood these to be divine directives and promises of support, both human and otherworldly, in her tasks of pursuing liberation for herself and for others. 

The Prophet Muhammad [7] also said that his experiences of revelation began in dreams. Often after the dawn prayer, he would ask his companions if any of them had seen a good dream. This is undoubtedly a very intimate form of sharing, to share our dreams in whatever sense of the word, with others. In that sense it is like sincerely praying for others. Such intimacy requires great trust. In one narration, the Prophet said that precious good dreams should only be shared with those “whom one loves.” [8] As a community with a shared vision of the future, one which has room for the dreams of many different and diverse individuals, we might find these a powerful inspiration in times of trial and difficulty.  

The poet William Butler Yeats noted, “In Dreams Begin Responsibility.” [9] As we see with Louise, and with Harriet Tubman, having a dream was not a substitute for hard and uncomfortable work. Rather, a dream was what provided the inspiration and faith to engage in such work. As we begin a new year in a world always filled with great brokenness and with great potential for good, let us renew our connection to what inspires us and gives us hope. Let us renew our connections with this community.  

For Reflection:  

What are your dreams (waking or sleeping) as we begin a new academic year? What inspires you or gives you the faith to do the things which are hard or uncomfortable in your work? What other roles might dreams or intuitions/feelings play in terms of guidance? 

Reflection by: Abdul–Malik Ryan, Assistant Director, Religious Diversity and Pastoral Care. 

[1] I also referred to this in a previous reflection: https://blogs.depaul.edu/dmm/2023/02/07/busy-persons-retreat-day-two-tuesday-february-7/.

[2] Such as when DePaul’s athletics department encourages us to “Dream Big,” see: https://‌depaul‌blue‌demons.‌‌‌com/feature/strategic-plan.

[3] For more on this see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisling.

[4] Perhaps most famously in the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob (peace be upon him) in Genesis, and in the Qur’an.

[5] Earlier this year, Abigail Rampone shared this reflection on Louise’s lumière experience: https://‌blogs.‌depaul.‌edu/‌dmm/2024/05/02/doubt-certainty-and-louises-lumiere/.

[6] For more on this new book, see: https://tiyamiles.com/books/night-flyer-harriet-tubman-and-the-faith-dreams-of-a-free-people/.

[7] Peace Be Upon Him and all the Prophets of God.

[8] 91 Interpretation of Dreams, Sunnah.com, at: https://sunnah.com/bukhari:7044.

[9] William Butler Yeats, “Responsibilities,” January 1914, see: https://sacred-texts.‌com/‌neu/‌yeats/‌lpy/‌lpy080.‌htm.

Showing up in a Time of Digital Distance

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As has been the case during many former Lenten seasons, this year several groups of DePaul faculty and staff met on Zoom during a six-week period to participate in faith-sharing groups. Even though many of the group members had never before met, their time invited them to get to know colleagues on a much deeper level than activities of the workplace typically allow. During these sessions, we shared about the events of our lives in light of our faith commitments, and we prayed together as a community gathered together for the sake of a rich mission. While we may have started out as strangers, we soon became spiritual companions who travelled together on a unique journey, opening up about our lives and supporting each other during an intimate and sacred moment in time.

In many ways, this simple commitment to meet together and to share honestly aligned with the invocation of Saint Vincent, centuries before, to model truthful simplicity. Writing to a fellow priest, Vincent had implored, “Have the simplicity of a dove. This means giving a straightforward opinion about things in the way we honestly see them, without needless reservations. It also means doing things without any double-dealing or manipulation, our intention being focused solely on God.”[1] After all, “everyone loves simple, candid people, who don’t use subtleties or tricks, who are straightforward and speak sincerely, with the result that whatever they say comes from their heart.… they’re respected … esteemed by all.[2]”

Last week’s Mission Monday invited us to reflect on our human need to be in community and to feel cared for in good times and in bad. As I reflect upon what happened for me this Lenten season, our faith-sharing groups made manifest the best of “Take Care DePaul.” We showed up for one another. We listened and supported each other. At times, we gently challenged each other. We shared our truths, and we made meaning together. We trusted one another. And, if members couldn’t attend, we prayed for them and for the larger DePaul community. It was a form of spiritual accompaniment, a way of reminding each other that we matter, and the events of our lives matter. In a world that is so often defined by digital distance, this weekly coming together reminded us that we were not alone.

At its best, DePaul is a community that cares, and caring for the other is an integral part of working at a Vincentian university. Moreover, it is part of what it means to be human and is essential for human flourishing.

There are many experiences that may represent for us the best of DePaul. In the midst of the winter quarter, these groups were just one small manifestation of such an experience. They offered an opportunity to come together and listen to each other in a supportive environment of peers. This meant that for just a brief moment in time, we were able to share what was in our hearts and feel heard. It offered an opportunity to care and, in a spirit of mutuality, to experience being cared for by trusted peers. Engaging in such meaningful experiences has the potential to remind us that another world is possible, a world that is more caring and compassionate, in which all may thrive.

Reflection Questions

How might you/we create more experiences with colleagues that allow for deeper interpersonal sharing, support, and connection?

Think of a moment when you felt you were particularly well cared for at DePaul. Who showed up for you at that time? How have you paid this moment forward? What did that feel like?

Recall a time when you spoke the truth in the face of your own fears. What do you remember of this moment? What did you learn from it?

Reflection by: Siobhan O’Donoghue, PhD, Director of Faculty and Staff Engagement, Division of Mission and Ministry

[1] Constitutions and Statutes of the Congregation of the Mission, English trans. (Rome: General Curia of the Congregation of the Mission, 1989), 109.

[2] Pierre Coste, C.M., ed., Vincent de Paul: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents, ed. and trans. Jacqueline Kilar, D.C. et al., 14 vols. (New York: New City Press, 1985-2008), 12:142.

Inspiration for Sincere Dialogue in Difficult Times

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Martin Luther King, Jr., meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Public Domain

“We live at a time when the world is full of violence, oppression and conflict.” “We live in a time of deep division in our own country.” Perhaps both these statements are true of many times, maybe even all times, but they are certainly true of this one. The communication technologies of our period also can serve to make these realities seem closer to us or harder for many of us to escape, even if we’d like to.

One of the reasons we honor and celebrate certain special individuals is because we hope that in their lives, we can find wisdom and inspiration for our own times. In the span of a few weeks at the beginning of the year, we mark the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the celebration of Foundation Day (the commemoration of the start of the Vincentian Mission), and the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. So much could be said about each of these days and the men and the movements they commemorate. Today, let’s consider what they might suggest to us about relationship and dialogue in difficult times.

In reading the highly acclaimed new biography of Dr. King by Jonathan Eig (who happens to live near DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus), I was struck by King’s relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson reached out to King three days after the assassination of President Kennedy seeking his assistance.[1] Johnson was a highly skilled political operator and said he was committed to civil rights but he knew he needed the help of King, who was then at the height of his mainstream popularity and success. They remained in close contact although neither publicized their dialogue, and both were wary of the other. (In fact, both knew that elements of the federal government were spying on King and seeking to destroy him.) King wept after watching Johnson’s powerful address to Congress after the civil rights movement was met with violence in Selma (and after Johnson had met in the White House with Alabama’s segregationist governor George Wallace).[2] The address called Congress and the nation to pass the Voting Rights Act. Despite what they were able to accomplish in this arena, as Johnson continued to escalate the Vietnam War, King would not remain silent, despite the advice of many who considered themselves his allies in the movement.[3]

In his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King stressed the importance of dialogue and negotiations (along with research to identify injustices and to engage in self-purification). Yet King rejected the idea that direct action was in opposition to dialogue and negotiations. King argued that while destructive violence must always be opposed, the constructive tension created by nonviolent direct action was often necessary to force those in power to engage in dialogue and negotiations with the marginalized. King said that while he initially disliked being the label of extremist, he now embraced the need for “creative extremists” for love, truth, and justice.[4]

While the time and place of Vincent was not one of direct action or of democracy, I would argue that Vincent and the organizations he founded relied not only on service, but also on creative calls through words and actions for those in power to accept their responsibility for those on the margins. The call for the powerful in France to live up to the Christian example and not ignore those in poverty stood in stark contrast to the injustices of French society. When Vincent was transformed from a smart young man who was motivated to make a better life for himself to one utterly committed to serving God and those living in poverty, he did not cut off relationships with the elite and powerful in society. Instead, he continued to cultivate them with the aim of using those relationships to fulfill his mission.

I have also been reading a compelling recent book on Abraham Lincoln by NPR’s Steve Inskeep.[5] While Lincoln, like King, is remembered for his powerful oratory, this book focuses on Lincoln’s relationships and dialogues. Each chapter focuses on a different account of encounters between Lincoln and another person who came from a different background than him and with whom he had a significant disagreement. What stands out in each encounter is Lincoln’s willingness to engage with those with whom he disagreed. The results of the dialogue were rarely about one convincing the other, but Lincoln used the dialogues to understand others better. He was a quintessential politician and believer in democracy, and he could use his understanding of the others’ interests to define priorities and create coalitions to accomplish his most important goals. Although as a politician Lincoln would often choose to remain strategically silent as part of this process, Inskeep’s book takes its title from something Lincoln wrote in a letter to his close friend Joshua Speed. Speed came from a slaveholding family and Lincoln “chided [him] for admitting the “abstract wrong” of slavery but failing to act accordingly.”[6] Still, Lincoln remained in relationship with Speed, signing off the letter with “your friend forever.”[7]

We all have different roles to play in life and in the university. Just as the roles and perspectives of a prophetic preacher leading a movement for social change, a politician in an era of civil war, and a saintly founder of a religious order in an absolute monarchy may differ greatly, we may see our own roles differently based on our positions, personalities, or other commitments. I see in each of these examples a call to remain in dialogue and relationship with others, even those with whom I may have profound differences or disagreements. I have seen a call to sincerity in that dialogue which means a willingness to express difficult truths and to listen to them. Finally, I appreciate the role that constructive, creative tension can play in individual and communal transformation when we are willing to channel that tension into dialogue and negotiation.

I am inspired by the people and spaces in the university that help form students to engage in these types of difficult, sincere ongoing dialogues. Among those with which I am most familiar are the Interfaith Scholars program and the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy, but I know there are many others. What are the ways in which you think DePaul engages these questions best and what are ways in which we might be able to do better?

REFLECTION BY: Abdul-Malik Ryan, Muslim Chaplain and Assistant Director, Office of Religious Diversity, Division of Mission and Ministry.

[1] Jonathan Eig, King: A Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), 351.

[2] Ibid., 435.

[3] Ibid., 514–30.

[4] See Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” August 1963, https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdf.

[5] Steve Inskeep, Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America (New York: Penguin Press, 2023).

[6] Ibid., xiv-xv.

[7] Ibid., xv.

Entering into the Heart of Another

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“Another effect of charity is to rejoice with those who rejoice. It causes us to enter into their joy.” – Vincent de Paul [1]

Recently, I spent time in the bleachers of Sullivan Athletic Center, cheering on our women’s volleyball team as they faced the Huskies of Northern Illinois. Though I don’t really understand the finer points of the game, I love the intensity, pace, and athletic prowess that are fundamental to volleyball. And, I have tremendous admiration for the competitiveness and teamwork that are so critical to any sport at the elite collegiate level.

There is something else I love about volleyball: the behavior of the players on the court after each point. In those moments, if DePaul wins the rally with a spike or block or great serve, the players quickly gather in something resembling a group hug, rejoicing with the one who made the winning play and celebrating the moment before resuming the set. If DePaul loses the point, the response is very similar— a brief group huddle that is not celebratory but instead seems to communicate support to the player who may have missed a shot and also helps the team refocus for the next point. In both scenarios, despite the different outcomes, players are empathizing with one another. In those few moments, they are strengthening their bonds as teammates and pushing themselves to work together to win the next point and, ultimately, the match.

This simple demonstration of unity and devotion by our volleyball players seems to resonate with the quote that inspired today’s reflection. In the conference from which this quote is taken, Vincent de Paul is addressing members of the still-developing Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentian priests). He is urging them, for the sake of their mission’s ultimate success and sustainability, to ground their communities in virtue, particularly the virtue of charity (or what we might call today love). Vincent believed that the presence of a generous amount of charity within a community would lead to its members being able to “enter in” to the hearts of one another, to rejoice with those members who rejoice and grieve with those who are saddened. In other words, charity would create a community where there is genuine empathy, ever-present support, and abundant compassion among its members for one another.

When I have the privilege of visiting with university colleagues and learning what they value most about being at DePaul, their answers are almost always animated by their gratitude for our community. They speak of the affection they feel for treasured coworkers who are also good friends, the admiration they have for talented colleagues who diligently work on behalf of students, the enjoyment they take at campus-wide events that unite us in celebration, ritual or, simply, fun. On a large-scale and in small, personal ways—and even on a volleyball court—evidence abounds that DePaul, at its best, is a living example of the community grounded in love that Vincent de Paul set out to establish.

But, being a place where the lived norms are empathy, support, and compassion is not easy to achieve or maintain, nor does it automatically result from having a Vincentian identity. To be a community of charity needs to be made a priority both institutionally and individually. Then, it must be backed up by commitment, hard work, humility, equity, shared goals, cordial relationships, placing the good of the whole over that of the individual, and so forth. Although the challenges are real, DePaul has a history of being this type of loving community and a mission that supports this going forward.

Reflection Questions:

  • Are there people you know at DePaul who have recently accomplished something of note or celebrated a joyful experience? Or, alternatively, suffered a loss or are going through a particular struggle?  Consider reaching out to these people to offer congratulations and celebration or support and sympathy.
  • Where have you witnessed examples – either large or small – of empathy, support or compassion that help to make DePaul a more caring community? How might you be called to contribute to or build upon these examples?

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

[1] Conference 207, “Charity (Common Rules, Chap. II, Art. 12),” May 30, 1659, CCD, 12:222. Available online at https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/36/.

Our Mission Needs a Community

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What a blessing to be a member of a Community because each individual shares in the good that is done by all!”[1]

I have been thinking a lot lately about community—what it means, what it looks like, and why it is so essential to us as human beings and as a university, especially in our current context. Looking back on past Mission Monday reflections, it is clearly not the first time I have felt this to be important to identify as an essential focus for an organization like ours that seeks to embody the Vincentian name.

Yet, there are many reasons for the need to re-emphasize the importance of community at this time:

  • the ongoing changes we are moving through as a university community, including the loss of many longtime friends and colleagues;
  • the marked increase in colleagues working from home since the pandemic;
  • the concurrent loss of regular face-to-face interactions in common spaces;
  • the larger cultural divisions and inequities in our society that only linger if not addressed directly;
  • the growing tendency among many to connect with each other and to learn only or primarily via computer or smartphone; and
  • recent public reporting on the rise and deleterious impact of loneliness in U.S. society.

Each of these changes—and there are clearly others—has recently had drastic effects on workplace norms and workplace culture within the patterns of our lives and relationships at DePaul.

Perhaps this draw to focus again on the importance of community also simply reflects my own experience and ongoing hunger for human connection, to feel a sense of belonging, and to participate in something more beyond the daily tasks of my individual work.

Regardless of the source of my musings, I am certain I am not alone. The experience of being part of a community is important for the well-being of humanity and for the flourishing of our workplaces, including and especially our university. Furthermore, here at DePaul, many rightly appreciate the experience of community as being “very Vincentian.”

In fact, how we sustain and continue to build a vibrant communal life is one of the vital, open questions facing us today. Over my eighteen years at DePaul, I believe the intentional work and effort of building community, and the need for it, has never been more important and more at risk. As we look ahead to the summer and the coming academic year, it is essential that we continue to weave and re-weave with great intention and care the fabric of our communal life if our Vincentian mission is to be effective and sustained over time.

I am fond of imagining Vincent de Paul in Folleville, France, in 1617 and what must have been going through his mind at that time. Based on his own retrospective reflections, that particular year and place seemed to represent an important moment in his life, a moment when, with the help of Madame de Gondi, Vincent arrived at a clearer vision of his own calling and the mission that God had entrusted to him.

The year 1617 was the final feather falling on the scales that tipped the orientation of Vincent’s life in a markedly different way. The upwardly mobile and aspirational priest, often rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful, began to focus his energies more and more toward a mission of service to and with society’s poor and marginalized for the remainder of his life. What he realized at that same time is that the mission God had entrusted to him was much bigger than he alone could fulfill. He needed others. In fact, Vincent’s effectiveness grew largely through the work of inspiring and organizing others to work in common to fulfill a shared mission. From the beginning, the Vincentian mission has been a collaborative and communal enterprise.

Simple in its genius, Vincent’s efforts anticipated current day organizational management insights by 400 years. The contemporary organizational and business writer and consultant Christine Porath, for example, has written extensively on how community is the key to companies moving from merely surviving to thriving together.[2] Simply put, her research suggests that when people experience a strong sense of community and belonging at work, they are more engaged, effective, healthy, and creative. This, in turn, leads to positive business outcomes. Many other organizational and business leaders have come to similar conclusions. It turns out that how we relate to each other as a community in the workplace, in fact, matters a great deal.

At DePaul, we speak often of being “a community gathered together for the sake of the mission.” We recognize and must remember that we need each other to thrive. Faculty, staff, administration, students, board members, alumni and donors work together effectively for a shared mission. Furthermore, as Vincent de Paul suggests, we each benefit from the good done by all. At our best, when we are flourishing as a community, we help, encourage, care for, collaborate with, and inspire one another. There is an energizing and vibrant unity that comes in our diversity—the unity of a shared mission to which each person contributes a part. This occurs only through ongoing intentionality and thoughtful daily interactions and efforts to build and sustain healthy and vibrant relationships with one another.

As we move into the summer months, through the many changes we are facing together, and into the new academic year this fall—this is your charge: How will you contribute to sustaining and building a vibrant and healthy sense of community together with your DePaul colleagues?

Submit your own recommendations as a response to this blog post or follow our Mission and Ministry LinkedIn group, which we will begin to use more often in the future as a place to share reflections on the workplace in light of anticipated changes with DePaul Newsline in the summer and the coming year. Perhaps by the time a new academic year begins, we can initiate some new efforts to weave or re-weave the fabric of our communal life and work intentionally toward thriving as “a community gathered together for the sake of the mission,” just as Vincent de Paul first envisioned.

Reflection by: Mark Laboe, Associate VP, Mission and Ministry

[1] Conference 1, “Explanation of the Regulations,” July 31, 1634, CCD, 9:2. Available at https://‌via.‌library.‌depaul.‌edu/‌‌‌vincentian_ebooks/34/.

[2] See: Christine Porath, Mastering Community: The Surprising Ways Coming Together Moves us from Surviving to Thriving (New York: Balance Books, 2022); and C.M. Pearson and C.L. Porath, The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It (New York: Portfolio, 2009).

Vincent and Louise: A Model for Teamwork

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When Louise de Marillac first discovered that Vincent de Paul had been assigned to be her new spiritual director, she stated, “It was repugnant for me to accept him.” While it is hard to know exactly what was behind Louise’s sentiments, it is clear that she was not pleased by the idea of working together with this Gascon peasant. However, as time went on, Vincent and Louise developed a deep and effective collaboration that would transform service to the poor and marginalized in seventeenth-century France and beyond. From a less than promising start, their friendship lasted 35 years, and their work together created a living legacy of which we are all part.

Think back to an instance when your initial perception of a work relationship changed over time. What did you learn from this experience?

A.2, Light, in Louise de Marillac, et al., Spiritual Writings of Louise De Marillac: Correspondence and Thoughts (New City Press, 1991), 1.