About the Series
St. Vincent de Paul encouraged five particular traits in his comrades: simplicity, meekness, mortification, humility and zeal. Come discover the stories of these virtues and how they are alive in the daily experiences of those around us. Throughout the 40 days of Lent, a new story will be posted daily. See how the everyday practices of being honest, approachable, self-disciplined, realistic and hardworking, in the spirit of St. Vincent, can transform your own life and the lives of others.
Drawing Deeper to Christ this Lent
Have you missed a Lenten reflection story? Don’t miss your chance to draw deeper to Christ this Lent.
Day 24: Reach Out
As Vincentians, we seek Christ in the faces and hearts of the people we encounter every day. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6, and continuing throughout the Lenten season, men and women just like you will share stories of...
Day 23: A Bridge to Mercy
As Vincentians, we seek Christ in the faces and hearts of the people we encounter every day. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6, and continuing throughout the Lenten season, men and women just like you will share stories of...
Day 22: Gratitude & Openness
As Vincentians, we seek Christ in the faces and hearts of the people we encounter every day. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6, and continuing throughout the Lenten season, men and women just like you will share stories of...
Day 21: The Ones Who Teach Us
As Vincentians, we seek Christ in the faces and hearts of the people we encounter every day. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6, and continuing throughout the Lenten season, men and women just like you will share stories of...
Day 20: In the Details
As Vincentians, we seek Christ in the faces and hearts of the people we encounter every day. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6, and continuing throughout the Lenten season, men and women just like you will share stories of...
It’s delightful hearing how God continues using Father Lou Trotta as His means of grace. Being a Vincentian priest has always defined Father Lou as I remember his ministry when Father Lou served as our prefect of students at Saint Joe’s preparatory seminary. For example,when I returned from summer vacation in 1956,Father Lou broke the news to me that I had been placed on probation for my final year prior to my candidacy for entrance into the Vincentian internal seminary (novitiate). Father Lou not only delivered this reality with the hope of Jesus Christ Himself but remained available to me for supportive priestly counsel throughout the 1956-57 academic year. In reviewing all of this and pondering today’s meditation on mortification, I know how Father Lou Trotta played a vital priestly role in dispensing Christ’s grace so that I did not walk away from my vocation when I was twenty years old. At the end of that year,I even moved on to the internal seminary honored by Father Lou’s recommendation. Indeed,if it were not for Father Trotta’s personal Vincentian mortification,the twists and turns of my own life would not have resulted in the success which I have enjoyed as a result of Christ’s “grace alone”.
Ed Ambrose,St. Joe’s, AA,1957