Mass for the Installation of Jim Grealish as State President of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul

Celebrated By Archbishop Denis Hart
at Stella Maris Church, Beaumaris,
on Wednesday, 5th July, 2006, at 7.30pm

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the Vincentian tradition of deep holiness and service, we come to offer this Mass, which welcomes Jim Grealish as the State President of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society.

It is totally true to the Vincentian spirit that we come into God’s presence to dedicate our work to him and the vision we have in compassionate dealings with our brothers and sisters.

May this Mass offered for Jim’s intentions and those of the Society be with him, his wife and family, and with all of us, as we call to mind our sins that we may go forward with our minds focused more fully on Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Many of you will be acutely aware of the life of Saint Vincent de Paul, his birth in south west France in the late sixteenth century, his ordination and move to Paris where he came under the influence of Pierre de Berulle.

What is significant is that from the time he met Berulle his prayer became personal and much deeper. In the Church when we speak about the old evangelisation we refer to the traditional methods of teaching about Christ, about doctrine and the catechesis necessary to be received and baptised. When we speak about the new evangelisation we speak above all about the role of each member of the Church in acquiring a deeper knowledge of Christ as the impetus to the role in which each of us shares, of spreading that Gospel and its compassion to our brothers and sisters.

Something so akin to the new evangelisation was what Vincent de Paul practised. His charity for the prisoners sentenced to the gallows, his active, concerned charity among the faithful, which are the inspiration of the present day Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, and the development with Saint Louise de Marillac of the Daughters of Charity for the work among the poor and the sick. His founding of the Vincentians also draws into the need of priests and members of the Society to have a deep prayer life.

On 16 th May 1659 Saint Vincent wrote of a man influenced by this personal conversion in these terms: “When I went to visit him he said, ‘I am certain that if I am attached to nothing I shall belong to God who is my only desire; and for that reason I consider whether friendship or neighbourliness is an obstacle, whether it is love of myself which impedes my progress or my goods or vanity which hold me back and when I see that something distracts me from God, I pray, I cut, I slash and so I rid myself of that possession’.” While he tried to think of God the same nobleman kept being distracted by his possessions and yet he realised having the mentality, which God wanted in his service, is at the heart of the Vincentian life.

Jim Grealish has readily accepted the complex role of State President. By it he will guide for the next time the fortune of the Society. As Archbishop, I wish publicly to recognise Jim’s generosity and many years of service, his readiness to accept the new responsibility and on behalf of the Society to take on leadership in the vision which Christ has of the poor, in the love of Christ which drives us on as Saint Paul says, and in the respect for the dignity of those with whom the Society works, which I see as a signal indication of the unique contribution which the Society makes linked to the wide-ranging and practical contribution of relief of poverty, compassion and emphasis given to dignity and Christ-like understanding of the sisters and brothers who suffer material want and neglect in our materialistic modern society.

To Jim, may the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul, his passionate love of Jesus Christ, his readiness to see Christ suffering and crucified in the poor, be the inspiration of what you will do with your great gifts of mind and heart as you enter this period of service.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.