While he was alive, Monsieur Vincent never let himself be manipulated. Even today, he escapes any attempts to limit him. It is impossible to enclose him in one position or another. He is not con\u00adservative despite the great pressures of the last century; nor is he progressive despite the solicitations of the post-conciliar years!<\/p>\n
All those who have come to know him well like to say again and again: he is a man of balance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n His first biographer justly remarked the following: “He was not restricted to the practice of any particular virtue; rather he received from God a sense of openness and a capacity of the heart which allowed him to embrace all Christian virtues, possessing them all to a perfect degree.”<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n I would like to present to you this human balance of M. Vincent from three perspectives:<\/p>\n This will be an opportunity for you to meet anew our Founder and inspiration.<\/p>\n As we have said, we need to guard against any form of label\u00adling. When we gaze on the earliest portrait of M. Vincent done by Simon Francois, he is looking at us with a mischievous expression. We even have the impression that he is laughing at us a bit. His physical countenance reveals to us his humanity. And I am sure that it is full of sensitivity and nuances and that it is very complex.<\/p>\n He lived the first fifteen years of his life in the countryside, in that beloved corner of Landes\u2014 where I myself lived for twenty years! And I am content to recall it! He later described it as “the land from which I come!” It was here that he learned realism. He knew the earth. He knew the importance of work and he admired those who were not afraid to get their hands dirty. He himself took care of the cows, worked the land, and participated in all the work of the country\u00adside and the farm. I particularly like this passage that hints at his admiration for the peasant women of the Ile-de-France, the models of the first Daughters of Charity: “Most of them are satisfied with a little bread and soup, although they are unceasingly engaged in hard work…. They come home from their work to have a meager repast, tired out and fatigued, wet through and dirty, and they are barely at home when, if the weather is suitable for work or if their father and mother tell them to go back to it, they do so at once, without pausing on account of their weariness or mudstains and without thinking of how they are treated.”<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n Vincent likes to see and take time to discover people and things, to dwell at length on them. He often uses the verb “to see” in his letters as if to signify that one can never go wrong through obser\u00advation. To the Pope, in describing the misery of the kingdom of France, he wrote: “It is a small thing to hear and read these things; they must be seen and ascertained with one’s own eyes.”<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n When he gives advice about bringing material help to poor persons, he writes to Brother Jean Parre of the need to be vigilant and particular:<\/p>\n “The Ladies wanted me to ask you, as I now do, to find out discreetly, in every canton and village through which you pass, the number of poor persons who will need to be clothed next winter, in whole or in part, so we can estimate the amount of money needed and you can get the clothing ready early. It is thought that we should buy linsey\u00adwoolsey rather than serge. It will be necessary, then, for you to write down the names of those poor people so that when the time for distribution arrives they will get the alms, and not others who can manage without them. Now, to discern this correctly, those poor people should be observed in their own homes so you can see for your\u00adself who are the neediest and who are less so.”<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n For good country people, there is never a question of being tricked. They know how to take necessary measures and to give advice marked by good sense and experience.<\/p>\n As we see already, this country man is not a brute; he is not crude or stupid. He is full of sensitivity, ingenuity and intelligence.<\/p>\n We need to imagine this peasant arriving in Paris in 1608. Right away, he knows how to form the best relationships: with Gascons, so as not to forget his roots; with clerics, so as to advance in his position; with bourgeois, to accomplish his goals, and in spiritual relationships, to change his manner of being a priest and apostle.<\/p>\n Thus, he quickly becomes friends with Berulle, Duval, and a doctor of the Sorbonne through whom he made other acquaintances. He becomes one of the chaplains of Marguerite de Valois, the first wife of Henri IV, Queen Margot…. He makes connections with the first Oratorian priests. He enters the home of the de Gondis, one of the most powerful families in France. In a few years, he enters into Court life, he assists King Louis XIII who is overcome by illness; he is a mem\u00adber of the Council of Conscience; he rubs shoulders with Richelieu, he dares to speak out against Mazarin… at the same time, he frequents the company of Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Jane de Chantal, Saint Louise de Marillac. His correspondences are highly varied: several popes, cardinals, bishops, founders of orders, abbots, priests, religious. This little peasant of Landes never imagined such a destiny! Even as a young man, he had famous acquaintances, thanks to his relatives on his mother’s side of the family in Peyroux, near the Arthous Abbey, but not to the extent of those of his adult life.<\/p>\n However, his humility constantly leads him to the truth: he knows that he is a swineherd, the son of a poor labourer.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> And he admits with no guile: “As for myself, if I were not a priest, I should still perhaps be tending swine as I once used to do.”<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> With this same accent on truth, he will become the Abbot of Saint Leonard de Chaumes, the pastor of the parish at Clichy, the head of the College des Bons-Enfants, General Chaplain of the galley slaves, Superior of the Visitandines in Paris, Superior of the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity.<\/p>\n Pay careful attention: he is a man in contrasting situations who never destroys his balance by favouring one situation over another. Without a doubt, his life can be summed up in this observation made one day in the autumn of 1657, as if, in the evening of his life, he is judging it: “Sisters, we come from poor people, you and I. I am the son of a tiller of the soil; I was fed as country people are fed and now that I am Superior of the Mission, shall I grow conceited and wish to be treated as a gentleman? 0 Sisters, let us remember our station in life, and we shall see that we have good reason to thank God.”<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n On the psychological level, Saint Vincent is also a master of balance. At first glance, his nature betrays him: he is a southerner, with all the signs of an impulsive and hotheaded character, hearty and overflowing with life.<\/p>\n He lives!<\/strong> At a speed of 100 km an hour, we would say today. During his youth, we never see him staying in one place for very long…. He is at Dax, only as long as necessary, then he leaves for Toulouse, Bidache, Perigueux, Italy, Buzet, perhaps Barbary, Avignon, again in Rome, then finally in Paris. In looking at a geographical map that he drew, Father Dodin remarked without malice: “God writes straight with crooked lines.”<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This is true on the psychological level as well as the geographical one.<\/p>\n He speaks.<\/strong> His eloquence, never strained, always natural, enraptures crowds and inspires generosity. We see this well at Folleville and at Chatillon: he moves hearts and impels them to action. He has obvious success with women, with his twinkling eyes that say as much as his articulate words. He can turn them “like a cr\u00eape.”<\/p>\n He bubbles with enthusiasm. <\/strong>He allows himself to be moved before moving others. He can never resist those in misery. He states without boasting: “the poor people who do not know where to go or what to do, who are already suffering and who become more numerous each day, they are my burden and my sorrow.”<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> We understand how he can say, in all honesty, in speaking about the disenfranchised he meets: “If he is sick, I am sick also; if he is in prison, I am there, too; if he has irons on his feet, so have I.”<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> It is no exaggeration; it is his heart expressing itself, overflowing with compassion and mercy, the spirit with which he wants to see us clothed.<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n He is expressive. <\/strong>In his conferences and writings, I am struck by all of his expressions. We have a sense that his listeners who took notes and reconstructed his texts in secret were always impressed by his very southern manner of speaking: he encourages with ah!s and oh!s; he calls out to his listeners: “Oh Fathers, Oh Brothers;” he uses little expressions that indicated movement and life: “thus it is!” or “let’s go, let’s see;” the expressions which show the commitment of his whole being: “let us give ourselves to God.” He often speaks in the infinitive verb form, which in French indicates order and decisiveness. We sense that his will has been convinced and that he wants to engage others. His style simply flows from his heart and soul.<\/p>\n He prays wholeheartedly. And <\/strong>he addresses God in a direct and passionate way: “Oh my Jesus!,” “Oh my Saviour Jesus Christ,” “Oh Saviour,” “Saviour of our souls,” “Oh infinite Providence,” etc. The passion that lives within him is the passion of God.<\/p>\n But he must also deal with a character marked by impetuous\u00adness. He easily becomes angry and he complains about it himself. He admits in public: “Oh! wretch that I am! I have been studying this lesson (on meekness) for so long and have not yet learned it! I fly into a passion; I lose my temper; I complain; I find fault…. I have not yet learned to be meek.”<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> To the Sisters, he confesses his fits of anger:<\/p>\n “I am astonished at how they bear with me in my fits of hastiness, passion and my other failings; yes, I am astonished at how they put up with me.”<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n His irritable temper would come up against others. In par\u00adticular against some brothers, not all of whom had the same easy spirit and the same culture as Brothers Regnard, Parre, Ducourneau, Robinau. Here is how he interacted with one of them: “Ah! brother, it is true that it is a great fault, and one that I do not think is committed even amongst poor people in the world. To tear a coat deliberately! to tear a gift that was given to you! What! You should rejoice if it was not such as you would desire! And to tear it to pieces! 0 Savior! 0 brother! What a great fault! What a great fault! Humble yourself profoundly for it. Has anyone ever seen a peasant, a countryman, tearing a coat that was given him, however poor it may have been! And you brother, you tear a coat that was given you! Perhaps you need one and, instead of wearing it, no matter what sort it may have been, and accepting it gratefully, you tear it! Ah! my poor brother, what a great fault, humble yourself profoundly for it.<\/p>\n But did you not commit this fault because of another, a still greater fault, which you committed the previous day! 0 brother, shall I mention it? I, as well as you, must swallow down the shame because I, too, am guilty. Brother, the day before yesterday you drank to excess, and did so even so far as to let it appear when you came into the house from outside. 0 Savior! to take too much wine so that it became apparent! To behave like a drunken man! 0 wretched man, it is I, a sinner who am the cause of this disorder, and it would not have happened were it not for the sins of this wretched man. 0 Brother, let both of us be filled with shame and confusion! And then, you fell asleep in the kitchen in the presence of our brothers! What an example for newcomers! What will they say of you? What will they say of me for allowing such persons in the Company? `Do people here live like this? What! do they encourage and tolerate such vices?’ 0 Savior! what a scandal! 0 Gentlemen, pray for us! 0 brothers, have compassion on our brothers and pray that you may be able to bear with us. He is our brother. For the love of God, have pity on his misery. Ah! my poor brother, this fault must have been the result of some other fault. People do not fall into gross faults all of a sudden, but rather for a punishment for other failings. 0 brother, you have, thanks be to God, been often humiliated for this failing. But you must have grown lax. You must have been unfaithful to God. Ah! brother, what shall we do now? You have failings, you have passions and you give into them after all those humiliations, prayers, recommendations and the resolutions you have taken! What shall we do now? What has become of the spirit of humility? What has happened to all the good advice that was given you? What has become of it? Where now are all those protestations? Where are they, brother? Where are the resolutions you took to serve God faithfully? What has become of them? 0 my poor brother! And what will be the result of the humiliation you are now undergoing? What will be the result of this cup of confusion which we are drinking? 0 brother, will you change on account of it? We should hope so, seeing that God has given you the grace to humble yourself. Accept in good part this humiliation in the presence of all and offer it to God as a satisfaction. We will pray to God for you and hope that He will give you, if you desire it, the grace to behave better in the future.”<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n He also knows how to reprimand the priests: “Yesterday I happened to speak abruptly to a priest of our Company in a sharp, harsh manner.”<\/span>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n He calls to mind the wrath of God in reprimanding the Sisters of Nantes who were becoming careless, and uses the following terms:<\/p>\n “God says: ‘I called you from your home to enjoy the rewards promised to those who serve Me, and you have made yourself unworthy of them; therefore, I shall give to someone else the crown I had prepared for you;’ and He will call a young woman from Touraine, or Saintonge, or Brittany to come here to receive the crown that, in His mercy, He had intended for Marie, Francoise, Jeanne, or someone else whom He had called and who made her\u00adself unworthy of it.”<\/span>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n It is amusing to read according to the pen of Abelly: “M. Vincent was irritable by nature, a lively spirit, and consequently easily prone to anger.”<\/span>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span> It is worth noting that the biographer entrusted with preparing Vincent’s beatification process would say that he was notorious for his temper!<\/p>\n An anecdote appearing in the writings of Collet states that at the time of Vincent’s autopsy (required for famous people!) his spleen was as hard as bone: “Many people attribute this insoluble produc\u00adtion to the violence that he had to inflict upon himself to combat a strict and melancholy disposition, which nature and temperament had given to him.”<\/span>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This stone is still on display in the museum of Saint Lazare.<\/p>\n Violence and passion that would become mild and temperate! From this, what lessons he gives. He calms those who need to be moderated.<\/p>\n To Louise de Marillac, lively and impatient, he writes: “Mon Dieu, <\/em>my daughter, what great hidden treasures there are in holy Providence and how marvellously Our Lord is honored by those who follow it and do not try to get ahead of it!’<\/span>19<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n To Robert de Sergis, very impulsive and too selfish: “let us abandon ourselves to Divine Providence. It will know quite well how to procure what we need.”<\/span>20<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n To Bernard Codoing, always in a hurry: “I have a particular devotion to following the adorable Providence of God step by step.”<\/span>21<\/sup><\/a><\/span> We could give other examples…<\/p>\n Saint Vincent, categorized by the philosopher Lescene as emotional, active, secondary to his passionate nature, succeeded as a shining example of gentleness. In contact with Francis de Sales and his writings, he became a man who was so affable, cordial and friendly that his biographers were mystified. For Vincent, “gentleness wins hearts.”<\/span>22<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Gentleness is the essence of being missionary. It is essential for the missioners and the Daughters of Charity.<\/p>\n I like very specially the following remark about affability, the daughter of gentleness, which seeks the union of hearts and mental\u00adities. It is like a work of art that reflects from a person:<\/p>\n “We have all greater need of affability inasmuch as we are obliged by our vocation to hold converse frequently amongst ourselves and also with our neighbour. And this conversation is all the more difficult, either amongst ourselves, because we come from different countries, or are of very diverse characters and temperaments or, with our neighbor, because he frequently tries our patience severely. The virtue of affability removes these difficulties and as it is the soul, as it were, of good conversation, it renders the conversation not only useful but agreeable. Affability causes us to be polite and courteous when conversing, and to be deferential towards one another.”<\/span>23<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n One night, I was meditating on the Latin word for “earth” and I decided to create a link with Saint Vincent around three related words in French that I would like to propose to you: Humus (earth)… humour (humor)… humeur (temperament).<\/p>\n It seems to me that their common root best sums up the human balance of M. Vincent.<\/p>\n All his life, Saint Vincent loved earth. We can say that he remained in physical contact with it. Throughout his life, he was alternately a farmer and a shepherd….<\/p>\n Two memorable scenes illustrate this very well.<\/p>\n – First, the loss of the farm at ORSIGNY. Even if he recounts the events of that day in order to announce the unfortunate conclusion of the process, with a great spirit of abandonment to Divine Providence, it does not prevent him from expressing some profound sentiments:<\/p>\n “…it has now pleased His Providence to deprive us of a property that has just been taken away from us! The loss is a considerable one for the Company, yes, very considerable.”<\/span>24<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n This farm was located in the hamlet of Orsigny, close to the current plateau of Saclay where the Mission has had something since 1642. It was given to the Congregation on December 22, 1644, thanks to M. and Mademoiselle Norais. According to a study done by a confrere, Father Marius Denigot, it was 60 to 70 hectares in size.<\/p>\n On the same topic, we should also add Sevran, Gonesse, Grigny, Freneville and even others; some have spoken of a “real estate management” of Saint Vincent, and the expression is accurate, for he was a good manager who knew the inestimable value of earth. At the time, Orsigny provided the means for Saint Lazare to exist and permitted an efficient way to combat poverty. Vincent was a country man exiled to the city surrounded by peasant towns. He was proud of this, and played a part in making the poor people the primary beneficiaries.<\/p>\n – The second scene to which I refer in order to illustrate the earthy realism of M. Vincent also involves farms. We are at the time of the Fronde, a civil war involving the Ile-de-France in 1648 and 1649. M. Vincent leaves Paris and goes to find the Queen at Saint Germain en Laye to request from her the resignation of Mazarin.<\/p>\n Saint Vincent failed in this request, as is evident by the nego\u00adtiations between the Queen and Mazarin. Vincent is forced to flee the city, heading west to seek shelter in a series of houses belonging to the Congregation.<\/p>\n At his departure, he stops at Villepreux and learns that the farm at Orsigny is being pillaged. Aware of the coming danger, Saint Vincent goes to “salvage the remains” which consist of 240 sheep and 2 horses. He heads off leading this convoy of animals all the way to Richelieu, marching all day February 23 in the snow, until he comes to the home of a lady he knows.<\/span>25<\/sup><\/a><\/span> From there, he departs for Mans, and then leaves that city very quickly. The passage along the streambeds of Potline, near Durtal, proves almost fatal for him. Horse and rider fall into the water, and he requires the assistance of a confrere to free him from the horse. He dries off in a nearby cottage, conversing in a friendly manner with the owner and leaving once more on horse\u00adback until he reaches a lodge in which to spend the night, where, his biographer assures us, he ate with a good appetite and catechised the adults and children after the meal!<\/span>26<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n We can see that Saint Vincent is a man of the land. To keep him in his office in Paris would be to amputate the best part of him. He is a man of reality, of experience! He is a man of the weather, of nature, of practical details. He demonstrates this himself in the midst of an inspiring spiritual instruction with a young superior, an instruction momentarily interrupted by a brother who comes to speak about another matter:<\/p>\n “You see, Sir, how I must pass from the things of God, of which we were speaking just now, to temporal matters; from this you should learn that it is the duty of a Superior to provide not only for spiritual things but also to extend his care to temporal ones…. This seems to me to be a very powerful consideration for enabling you to understand that one should not only devote oneself to that which is noble, such as functions concerned with spiritual matters, but also that a Superior, who represents in a manner the full compass of the power of God, should apply himself to the care of the smallest temporal affairs, reminding him\u00adself that such care is not unworthy of him. Give yourself to God then to procure the temporal prosperity of the house to which you are going.”<\/span>27<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n As a peasant, he is always attentive to events. He likes to reflect on creatures and things. He verifies the guidance of the Holy Spirit in his life.<\/span>28<\/sup><\/a><\/span> He is open to the great events of his life and times as well as the multiple facets of everyday. God is at work in the framework of each day, and Saint Vincent delights in examining and reading the “signs of the times.”<\/p>\n Those who rub shoulders with people from the Landes region know that they love clever words. Their humor is created through finesse, irony, cutting remarks, with loud bursts of laughter, a twinkle of the eye, shoulders heaving with laughter and spirited plays on words. I cannot imagine them any other way. Humor is a work of art for M. Vincent because he experienced the ruthless rhythms present in nature, the tradition passed on by his family, common sense, sayings, proverbs and country wisdom. I will gladly give a few examples here.<\/p>\n He has an innate gift of observation and he appreciates nature and animals:<\/p>\n “As to what you say about honor not making you vain but that dishonour saddens you, I must tell you, Monsieur, that you know the anatomy of the human will better than<\/p>\n I for you are a learned man and I am a nitwit…. We are, indeed, more sensitive to pain than to pleasure, to the prick of a rose than to its fragrance.”<\/span>29<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n Saint Vincent especially likes clever words, little remarks that spice up a conversation and show his origins; in correct French this is called a gasconnade <\/em>(gasconism).<\/p>\n To Saint Louise, who was too possessive and worried about her son: “Oh! Our Lord most certainly did well not to choose you for His mother.”<\/span>30<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n To a confrere who was struggling to learning Italian: “I am greatly consoled that Brother Demortier has already made such progress in the language that he knows how to say Signor, si.<\/em>“<\/span>31<\/sup><\/a><\/span> One day he discusses the virtues of medicine: “People think that doctors kill more patients than they cure,”<\/span>32<\/sup><\/a><\/span> or on another occasion: “exceedingly good health indicates an impending illness.”<\/span>33<\/sup><\/a><\/span> “Health is a precarious state that leads to no good!” The following will make wine producers very happy: “Confidence in God is truly an excellent remedy but God did not forbid us to take, along with it, a little drop of wine before going out.”<\/span>34<\/sup><\/a><\/span> And finally, this trait that was among the treasures of his life was destined for a confrere who wanted to go visit his “elderly” father: “Your father is only forty or forty-five years of age at the most, enjoying good health, able to work and who is, in fact, working. Otherwise, he would not have re\u00admarried… a young woman eighteen years of age, who is one of the most beautiful girls in town…”<\/span>35<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n We see that M. Vincent was not lacking in mischievousness and spirit. I quite admire the judgment of a Priest of the Mission who was a great deal like M. Vincent, Father Gaston Pierre, former Superior of the Berceau of Saint Vincent de Paul. He described Saint Vincent’s judgment in the following way: “His humour was very effective, it had a way of sweetening medicine, teaching a lesson with\u00adout offending, giving advice without wounding, helping others to swallow half-truths while leaving aside innuendos” (L’ humour gascon chez Saint Vincent de Paul, <\/em>p. 178). I like to listen to Saint Vincent explain another characteristic of Gascon humor, its clever ability to disguise the truth, as he is in the process of rebuking a confrere who arranged a large loan without consulting him about it: “If you were a Gascon or a Norman, I would not find it strange. To think, however, that a straightforward man from Picardy, whom I consider one the most sincere men in the Company, would have hidden that from me\u2014how can I not be surprised…?”<\/span>36<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n Only simple peasant origins could allow him such keenness. This is a reminder to us, perhaps, that in doing great deeds, he did not believe it necessary to put on great airs or to speak in eloquent terms. The earth had taught him two key virtues: simplicity and humility. He became what he received from earth!<\/p>\n Saint Vincent had a fiery temperament. To put it simply, let us say that he had a strong personality. Caught up with his appearance, we can forget to note the strength that emanates from his jaw. His goatee hides the sureness and the energy of his expression.<\/p>\n Having delicate health, often confined at home by a high fever, with his legs in poor condition beginning early on in life, obliging him to be bled or purged often as was the custom of his day, sent for treatment at Forges-les-Eaux (coastal area of the River Seine), a frequent sufferer of insomnia, he keeps on going, on horse back, travelling, giving missions, using a carriage that he referred to as his “disgrace” or “ignominy,” when he was prevented from travelling in another manner. His personal motto that guides all of his life is: “All our work is in action.”<\/p>\n The number of his works, his interventions and foundations demonstrate his zeal. France has retained his charitable activities and often represents him with children surrounding him or in his arms; other countries have been more sensitive to the image of his mission\u00adary preaching. We need to keep in mind the synthesis of these two commitments. We need to hear him tirelessly repeat: “We should hasten to render assistance to the spiritual needs of our neighbour as though we were running to put out a fire”<\/span>37<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and confess with a cry of alarm: “This thought often occurs to me and it fills me with shame. ‘Miserable man, have you earned the bread you are about to eat, this bread which comes to you by the work of the poor?'”<\/span>38<\/sup><\/a><\/span> When he would come back from a mission, it would seem that on returning to Paris, the city gates should fall upon him and crush him, because the Good News had not yet been proclaimed to other villages.<\/span>39<\/sup><\/a><\/span> We forget too often that he himself continued to give missions until the age of seventy-six!<\/p>\n He is also a tireless worker. In the office. On the road. In Paris. In the provinces… His days are seventeen hours in length: three hours of prayer, nine and one-half hours of work itself, and three and one-half hours of diverse activities. Such a schedule did not just happen; it began in his early childhood, from his custom of going forward despite all opposition, in spite of the whims of time and temperature, his hand to the plough or the shepherd’s staff.<\/p>\n To his confreres, and especially to the Sisters, he inculcates a deliberate way, and true spirituality of work. He uses strong words that communicate clearly his intent: God works and God wants us to work;<\/span>40<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Jesus never ceased working day and night at all hours;<\/span>41<\/sup><\/a><\/span> it was important “to not be a burden to anyone;”<\/span>42<\/sup><\/a><\/span> “to earn one’s own living.”<\/span>43<\/sup><\/a><\/span> “We should sell ourselves to rescue our brothers and sisters from destitution.”<\/span>44<\/sup><\/a><\/span> It is all summed up in the famous saying: “We are living on the patrimony of Jesus Christ, on the sweat of the poor.”<\/span>45<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n Fiery temperament… Gascon to the core… man of the earth, here is a peasant man much at home among us. Thus, it gives me great pleasure to call to mind with you his enduring memory. Listen to him revealing himself in confessing his God. He shares with us the secret of his heart as he situates his earthiness, his sense of humour and his overflowing personality all under the mark of humility.<\/p>\n “A truly humble spirit humbles itself as much amid hon\u00adours as amid insults, acting like the honeybee which makes its honey equally well from the dew that falls on the wormwood as from that which falls on the rose.”<\/span>46<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\n This Monsieur Vincent shows us balance and life. How I love him!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
I. A realistic and adaptable country man<\/h2>\n
II. A man, master of self<\/h2>\n
III. Proposal for synthesis<\/h2>\n
1. Humus (Earth)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Humour (Humor)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n3. Humeur (Temperament)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n