By Margarita Galindo
One Saturday afternoon my granddaughter, Regina, arrived with her Catechism for the First Communion, to study for the following week. I asked her if she liked learning about God. She answered me in a way that surprised me. She said that learning about the Catechism and about God are part of her life. I immediately recalled the passage In Luke 18:15-17, where Jesus calls the disciples to allow children to approach Him, he explains “for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs”. This passage highlights Jesus’s inclusive love for all, especially those considered insignificant by society, and teaches that one must approach God’s kingdom with a childlike spirit of trust and openness.
Further reflection on her answer, led me to write about the importance of our Vincentian Formation.
We cannot go through life without a clear awareness of the importance that we have to prepare ourselves for what we are doing, and in our case, our Vincentian life. Within the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the United States, and surely also in the rest of the world, there is a reality: the need for Formation; an integral formation that promotes spirituality and action, as Regina told me; not as separate realities, but complementary, since Formation and Spirituality must be lived in action every day in our lives and expressed in our attentiveness to each other and to those living in poverty whom we serve.
On-going formation is a constant process of transformative learning throughout life, focused on updating knowledge and improving knowledge, skills and attitudes, both in the personal (human, intellectual, emotional), spiritual (virtues, morals, character) and social (ministerial and pastoral) spheres. On-going formation seeks to help Vincentians adapt to the constant changes of the modern world, offering opportunities for development through various activities such as courses, workshops, retreats, certifications, trainings and formal and informal learning. Training, on the other hand, consists of a series of planned activities (or trainings), based on the needs of the Conferences, which are oriented towards a change in the knowledge, skills and aptitudes of Vincentians that allow them to develop their activities effectively within their areas of work. either in the Conference or in Special Works.
Reflect: Are we open to learning, to growing and to allowing the transformative grace of the Holy Spirit to deepen our Vincentian Spirituality?
As Vincentians, is our commitment to on-going formation reflected in our home visits and the attentiveness to our neighbors in need?
