SVP QUOTES

DAY 1 – DARING TO BE A DC ANEW

 Rekindling the First Fervor (space for God)

SVP QUOTES

The following SVP quotes (#s 1 to 3) are from Life-Long Maxims (Translated from the French) – no author
but endorsed by Fr. William M. Slattery, C.M.
1. “The great secret of spiritual life is to surrender to God all that we love and abandon ourselves to
whatever He wills, with great confidence that everything will be for the best.”- page 15
2. “Let us cling entirely to God: He will be our very own, and with Him we shall possess all things.”- p. 5
3. “Uniting yourself to God, Our Lord will bind you to Himself more closely than ever and will be your
Strength against weakness, your Joy against sadness and your Steadfastness against pusillanimity.” –
p. 213

SLM QUOTES
1. “We must be faithful in smallest details and to have a great desire to please God in all things by
walking in his holy presence.” – L.426 To the Srs. of Angers July 10, 1656
2. “I beg all of you to renew your courage so that you may serve God and the poor with more fervor,
humility and charity than ever. Strive to acquire interior recollection in the midst of your
occupations. Be particularly submissive to the good pleasure of God and abandon yourselves to His
Providence.” – L.581, to the Sisters of Hotel-Dieu July 13, 1658
3. “Renew then your first fervor. Begin by a true desire to please God, recalling that His Providence
has brought you to the place where you are established and has united you so that you can help
one another to grow in perfection. –L.104B, to the Sisters (at Angers) July 26 (1644)

POPE FRANCIS QUOTES

1. “All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful brings us to God. Because God is good, God is
beautiful, God is the truth.”
2. “In a word: charity cannot be neutral, antiseptic, indifferent, lukewarm or impartial! Charity is
infectious, it excites, it risks, and it engages! For true charity is always unmerited, unconditional,
and gratuitous!”

 Being Faithful Servants Together (space for community)

SVP QUOTES

1. “One can never have too great a supply of patience and mild persuasion.”– St. Vincent de Paul,
FAMVIN (Daily Reflections-January 30, 2018)
2. “I hope Our Lord will give you a share in the patience He practiced, not only in enduring fatigue but in
seeing Himself abandoned by many who began to follow Him, even by the apostles, through no fault of
 His but because of their heedlessness.”– St. Vincent de Paul, FAMVIN (Daily Reflections-January 14,
2018)
3. That was the beginning . . .it was not then, what it is now, there is reason to think that it is not now
what it will be later on when God brings it to the state on which he has decided. You should not think
that communities come into existence all at once. [The founders] . . . never dreamed of doing what
they actually accomplished. But God acted through them. Vincent de Paul, Conferences to the
Daughters of Charity, 13 February, 1646, 218.
4. “I pray you, bear with one another. You go in company in eternity, and you are all spouses of Jesus
Christ, our Savior; be united, then, more and more.” - SVP on Mortification to the DC, 8 March 1658
5. “Let us, then, go together cheerfully and sweetly. We belong to God and are oblige to accept what He
ordains and what He permits.” –SVP on Mortification to the DC, 8 March 1658

SLM QUOTES
1. “What do you think our good God is asking of you in return for the many graces He bestows on
you? It is fidelity to his service in every point of your rule; especially in cordial support of one
another, graciousness and submission and perfect harmony. – L. 160 to Sr. Elisabeth Martin Oct.
1646
2. “They shall cherish one another as sisters who profess to honor the spirit of our Lord by the
practice of Charity… they shall visit one another and assist one another in sickness and in health.
They shall pray for one another especially in case of sickness or death… They should do all in the
power to help one another to leave this world in good state.” A. 46 Rule of the Charity (Mutual
Charity…) p.70
3. “I beg you to show support and cordiality among you and to practice holy cheerfulness.” L.83, to Sr.
Madeleine Mongert June 5 (1647)

POPE FRANCIS QUOTES – from AZ Quotes of Pope Francis

1. “How marvelous it would be if, at the end of the day, each of us could say: today I have performed
an act of charity towards others!”
2. “There is so much indifference in the face of suffering. May we overcome indifference with
concrete acts of charity.”

 In Boldness of Charity (space for mission)

SVP QUOTES

1. “No one can be lost in the exercise of charity. Let us therefore entrench ourselves behind that virtue;
let us keep ourselves at the feet of our Lord and beg Him to impart more and more His light, activity
and ardor to our spirit so that we may continue what we have begun.” SVP (Life-Long Maxims p. 242)
2. “On your part, do what God asks of you and remain at peace… Serve the Poor to the best of your
ability, and commit the rest to the goodness of God.”, SVP ((Life-Long Maxims p. 250)
 3. “We cannot better assure our eternal happiness than by living and dying in the service of the poor,
supported by Providence, and by a total renunciation of ourselves to follow Jesus Christ.”, SVP (Life-
Long Maxims p. 246)
4. “It is obligation for us to inconvenience ourselves for the service of the Poor.”, SVP (Life-Long Maxims
p. 256)
5. “Let us work with a new love in service of the poor, looking for the most destitute and abandoned
among them. Let us recognize that before God they are our Lords and masters, and we are unworthy
to render them our small services.”, St. Vincent de Paul (SV XI, 393)
6. “My God! What a wonderful title and what a beautiful description… Servants of the Poor! It is the same
as saying Servants of Jesus Christ, for He regards as done to Himself what is done to them. What did he
do on earth but serve the poor?”, St. Vincent de Paul, Famvin Quotes
(http://vinformation.org/en/vincentian-spirituality/)

SLM QUOTES
1. “Let us serve with hearts filled with the pure love of God which enables us always to love the roses
amidst the thorns…” –L.426 to the sisters of the Hospital in Angers Aug. 1540
2. “You should all be holy with the many opportunities that are constantly available to you to serve
God and the poor. –L.113B, to the sisters at Angers (Jan. 1645)

POPE FRANCIS QUOTES – from AZ Quotes of Pope Francis

1. “Practicing charity is the best way to evangelize.”

2. “True charity requires courage: Let us overcome the fear of getting our hands dirty so as to help
those in need.”
3. “Charity that does not change the situation of the poor isn't enough.”

DAY 2 – ROOTED IN GOD’S LOVE

 Set Apart to Belong to God (Consecration, Self offering)

SVP QUOTES

1. “Renew once more the offering of yourself to God: give Him a continual sacrifice of your thoughts,
words and actions, desiring and praying only that all may be for His glory and the good of the
Hospital.”, SVP (Life-Long Maxims p. 6)
2. “Our God will draw more glory from your submission, perhaps, than from all the good you may do. An
act of acquiescence and submission is worth more than any number of good works performed for
others.”, SVP (Life-Long Maxims p. 233)
3. “Belong wholly to God and conform to His good pleasure.”, SVP (Life-Long Maxims p. 232)
4. “Our Lord has no use for our knowledge or our good works if He does not possess our heart; and even
this heart He does not wish if we do not give it to Him when He asks.”– St. Vincent de Paul, FAMVIN
(Daily Reflections- January 27, 2018)
6. “The past is no longer in our power; the present is in our power, but the future is not. Let us take the
opportunity of giving ourselves utterly and completely to God.” – St. Catherine Laboure, FAMVIN (Daily
Reflections -January 19, 2018)
 5. “Remember always that it is the most holy will of God which put you where you are, and it is for the
accomplishment of his will that you must work there… that is to say , you must work faithfully… all
must be done with gentleness of heart and humility, as we consider the interests of those with whom
we are working rather than our own. – SLM L.183 to Sr. Anne Hardemont July 1647
6. “Do you love your way of life? Do you esteem is as more excellent for you than all the hermitages and
religious convents because God has called you to it? Do you believe that you have been assembled
together for your sanctification by a secret action of Divine Providence? Does the stronger support the
weaker lovingly and cordially as the need arises? –SLM L.388, to the Sister at Richelieu (c. Oct. 1652)

POPE FRANCIS QUOTES – from AZ Quotes of Pope Francis

1. “Our lives must be centered on what is essential, on Jesus Christ, everything else is secondary.”
2. “Once we come to realize how much God has given us, a life of self-sacrifice, of working for him and for
others, becomes a privileged way of responding to his great love.”
3. “Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which a good
seed can grow. You have to trust God.”

 Living in Constant Encounter with Jesus (in prayer, events, persons and with the poor/seeking Jesus)\

SVP QUOTES

1. “Always have Jesus in view, Sister, so as to regulate your labors by His intentions and your whole
interior by His example. It was He who called you to live His life and to enter into His activities by the
exercise of charity.”, SVP (Life-Long Maxims p. 65)
2. “We live in Jesus Christ through the death of Jesus Christ, and we must die in Jesus Christ through the
life of Jesus Christ. Our life must be hidden in Jesus and filled with Jesus Christ. To die like Jesus, we
must live like Jesus.”, SVP (Life-Long Maxims p. 72)

SLM QUOTES

3. “Above all, be very gentle and courteous toward your poor. You know that they are our masters and
that we must love them tenderly and respect them deeply. It is not enough for these maxims to be in
our minds; we must bear witness to them by our gentle and charitable care.” –SLM L.284B, to Sr. Cecile
Angiboust May 4, 1650
4. “Here we see the dead ro dying almost every day, which teaches us, much better than we realized that
life is but a journey which leads us to eternity. May God, in His mercy, make it a happy voyage.” – SLM
L.157, to Sr. Jeanne Lepintre
5. “We should reflect upon all that has happened only to praise God for having saved from shipwreck
those who remained steadfast, and to recognize the occasions that He has given us to suffer in His
love. I beg Him with all my heart to take possession of all that we are…” – SLM L. 433 (to Sr. Jeanne
Lepintre) May 22 (1649)
OTHERS

6. “I have no doubt that if any group of Vincentians, Daughters of Charity or members of the Vincent de
Paul Society was asked to recount their most significant religious experiences, many of them would
talk about occasions when they encountered the living Lord in and through their service of the poor.”,
Pat Collins, CM, Famvin Quotes (http://vinformation.org/en/vincentian-spirituality/)
7. “By drawing closer to the poor, we draw closer to God. And we students must draw closer to God a
little more every day, or we’ll find ourselves falling away from him.”– Bl. Frederic Ozanam, FAMVIN
(Daily Reflections- January 22, 2018)

POPE FRANCIS QUOTES – from AZ Quotes of Pope Francis

1. “Jesus keeps knocking on our doors, the doors of our lives. He doesn’t do this by magic, with special
effects, with flashing lights and fireworks. Jesus keeps knocking on our door in the faces of our
brothers and sisters, in the faces of our neighbors, in the faces of those at our side.”
2. “When God comes, he always calls us out of our house. We are visited so that we can visit others; we
are encountered so as to encounter others; we receive love in order to give love.”

 Impelled to Share the Gospel (Building a Faith Community driven by the Gospel, IAD)

SVP QUOTES

1. “What great Missionaries we would be, you and I, if we knew how to animate souls with the spirit of
the Gospel which is to render them conformed to Jesus Christ!”, SVP (Life-Long Maxims p. 244)
2. “It is not enough to love God if my neighbour does not love Him. Our vocation is to go and enflame the
heart of men, to do what the Son of God did, He who brought fire into the world to set it alight with His
love. What else can we wish for, than for it to burn and consume all things? Thus it is true that I have
been sent not only to love God, but also to make men love Him.” –SVP ,"Conferences to the Priests of
the Mission" by St Vincent de Paul (Conference 207)

SLM QUOTES

3. “Continue, I beg you, to be an edification to your neighbor, a consolation to the afflicted, and a
comfort to the sick.”- SLM L.581 to the sisters of Hotel-Dieu July 13, 1658
4. “Thirst for justice, which is a more pressing need, must lead us to desire greater things… We must
ardently desire that the effects of His holy will reign in us; and we must do all in our power to bring
about this reign in others…” –SLM A.30 (Meditation in the Hunger and Thirst for Justice), p.734
5. “You are there only for loan, so make sure that you do not take on any new work and that you leave
behind a great example of virtue.” – SLM L.235 to Sr. Claude Brigide and marie Prevost, Jan. 1, 1649

OTHERS

6. “Action on behalf of justice, and participation in the transformation of the world, are integral elements
in the preaching of the gospel.”–Synod of Bishops, 1971, Justice in the World in MS LX III ( 1971) 92
POPE FRANCIS QUOTES – from AZ Quotes of Pope Francis

1. “Division of hearts doesn’t overcome any difficulty. Only love is capable of overcoming difficulties.
Love is a festival. Love is joy. Love is to keep moving forward.”
2. “Jesus’ love goes before us, his look anticipates our needs. He can see beyond appearances,
beyond sin, beyond failures and unworthiness. He sees beyond our rank in society. He sees beyond
this, to our dignity as sons and daughters, a dignity at times sullied by sin, but one which endures in
the depth of our soul. He came precisely to seek out all those who feel unworthy of God, unworthy
of others.”
3. “One cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one’s life.”