Uniqueness of Vincentian Formation

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Your task

You, as a grass roots committee, are invited to join in creating a document describing the uniqueness of Vincentian Formation.
Remember that as the committee works it may see further refinements of the topic or choose to realign its approach some other way.

Possible Approaches

Working with a Draft Document

An initial outline has been suggested as a starting point... "principles of Vincentian Formation" as presented by Dennis Holtschneider, CM at the national Vincentian Family Gathering held in Bellvile, Illinois.

Using St. Vincent's "Little Method"

  • Why should we attempt to spell out a Vincentian approach to formation?
  • What constitutes "Vincentian" formation?
  • How is Vincentian formation different from other approaches to formation?
Best Practices==


Thoughts to ponder

Being a Vincentian, Being a Formator - Robert P. Maloney, CM

Our Constitutions define the purpose of the Congregation of the Mission not as a particular concrete work, such as giving popular missions, or staffing seminaries, or laboring in missions ad gentes, but as a way, a pilgrimage, a journey: the following of Christ as the Evangelizer of the Poor. Our lives, both as individuals and as a corporate body, should have that guiding purpose. This purpose, the first article of the Constitutions adds, has three realizations; that is to say, the Congregation is fully alive when its members:

  1. make every effort to put on the spirit of Christ himself (CR I, 3) in order to acquire a holiness appropriate to their vocation (CR XII, 13);
  2. work at evangelizing the poor, especially the more abandoned;
  3. help the clergy and laity in their formation and lead them to a fuller participation in the evangelizing of the poor.

In the past I have written about each of these realizations of the purpose of the Congregation. In this article I offer some further reflections on the third. Following a methodology I have often employed, I will proceed as follows:

I. Formation in the life and writings of St. Vincent

II. The changing context and some challenging contemporary calls

III. The Vincentian today as formator


External Resources

The Formation of our Confreres in the thought of St. Vincent: Elements of a Spirituality


Ten Characteristics of Vincentian Formation Robert Maloney (Second half of article

Vincentian Spirituality: A Spirituality of the Poor

Outline for a Novitiate Course on Vincentian Studies

Category;Ministry Approaches - Spirituality