Last year I stumbled upon a different volume in this series, 15 Days of Prayer with Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati by Père Charles Desjobert, OP, and really enjoyed it. I did some research on the series and this was the fourteenth volume I have worked through. In my research to date there have been at least 40 volumes in this series. Many written in French and then translated, including this volume, this book was first published in French in 2000, the English edition appeared 2010, part of the series rebranding, this is one of only a handful with digital copies currently available. There appears to be a French reprint from 2024 listing it as number 45 in the series.
I believe as of the writing of this review there have been 40 volumes in the series in English and at least 55 in French; the earliest I found was from 1999 through to a volume which was published in 2025 in English. Only about a dozen seem to be in print currently and of those only a handful appears to have eBooks. With my dual form of dyslexia this is disappointing. I greatly prefer eBooks so I can change the font, and the colour of font and page to make reading easier. I have added all the eBook editions I could find to my wish list. About the Series we are informed:
“15 Days of Prayer Series
On a journey, it’s good to have a guide. Even great saints took spiritual directors or confessors with them on their itineraries toward sanctity. Now you can be guided by the most influential spiritual figures of all time. The 15 Days of Prayer series introduces their deepest and most personal thoughts.
This popular series is perfect if you are looking for a gift, or if you want to be introduced to a particular guide and his or her spirituality. Each volume contains:
• A brief biography of the saint or spiritual leader
• A guide to creating a format for prayer or retreat
• Fifteen meditation sessions with reflection guides”
The description of this specific volume states:
“The universally recognized Saint of Charity, Vincent de Paul, lived a rich and complex life. Intensely devoted to Jesus, especially Jesus suffering in the poor, Vincent’s way of reading the gospel has special resonance for today. Throughout his long life, he managed to bring together both prayer and action. Although some mystery shrouds his younger years, he conducted his priestly life in full view through great activities that continue today. His two religious families (the Congregation of the Mission, or Vincentians; and the Daughters of Charity) as well as other groups he founded or inspired (such as the International Association of Charities and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul) still look to him for guidance. This humble son of French peasants would be surprised at the millions today who count themselves as members of the Vincentian Family, but would be grateful for God’s grace spread about on the poor and those who serve them in his spirit. ABOUT THE AUTHORJean-Pierre Renouard, a Vincentian, has devoted more than forty years of his priestly life to spiritual formation and Vincentian spirituality. For several years he directed the Vincentian Center at the Berceau de Saint Vincent de Paul, Vincent's birthplace.”
There is no ‘about the author’ section in the book or on the back. But we are informed on the page with the book description that:
“Jean-Pierre Renouard, a Vincentian, has devoted more than forty years of his priestly life to spiritual formation, and Vincentian spirituality. For several years he directed the Vincentian Center at the Berceaau de Saint Vincent de Paul, Vincent’s birthplace.”
The chapters in this volume are:
How to Use This Book
References
Glimpses of a Life
His Journey
1 Baptism Taken Seriously
2 A Faith Remade
3 Rooted in God
4 Totally Given to God and to the Poor
5 Passion for the Kingdom of God
6 Following Christ, Evangelizer of the Poor
7 With Christ, Servant of the Poor
8 The Poor, Our Lords and Masters
9 The Church, City of the Poor
10 Prayer, the Soul of Action
11 “To Leave God for God”
12 Daily Life, Source of Inspiration and Action
13 A Priest Serving Priests
14 Fundamental Virtues
15 To Serve and Evangelize Together
For Further Reading
Also available in the “15 Days of Prayer” Series
I highlighted a few of passages while reading this volume some of them are:
“On a journey, it’s good to have a guide. Even great saints took spiritual directors or confessors with them on their itineraries toward sanctity. Now you can be guided by the most influential spiritual figures of all time. The 15 Days of Prayer series introduces their deepest and most personal thoughts.”
“After more than three centuries, Monsieur Vincent is still with us! Not a year goes by without some book or article being published that brings a new perspective on the past, and that shines new light on a life overflowing with an amazing and productive energy.”
“We have eight volumes of his letters, only 3,000 out of a total of about 30,000. We find the real man in his letters: active, a real Gascon, skillful, a diplomat, serious, humorous, but deep, spiritual and resonating with his correspondents like no one else.”
“As part of his behavior he emphasized five basic virtues for his priests and brothers and three virtues for the Daughters of Charity (Day Fourteen).”
“When Vincent meditated on his baptism, he discovered that the Holy Spirit had given him the very spirit of Jesus, his very thought processes. He was fascinated by the One who made him live with the very spirit of his Savior. But what is the Spirit of Our Lord? It’s a spirit of perfect charity, filled with a marvelous esteem of the Divinity and an infinite desire to honor it in a worthy manner, together with a knowledge of the greatness of His Father, in order to admire and extol them unceasingly.”
“To instinct he joined popular Christian wisdom, which gave this gesture a sacred value. When he made the sign of the cross he was living in God, strengthening his faith and his entire being.”
“Everything for him was infused with a dynamic faith, transforming his daily rhythms, undertakings, conversations, even the daily mail.”
“Although he suffered long periods of spiritual darkness, he still knew that faith takes root in peace and joy.”
“He always insisted: we must begin with faith. Then he added: Eternal truths alone can fill the heart and lead us with assurance.”
“I recite the Creed at Sunday Mass, but what does it mean to me in my daily life? In my own dark moments of doubt and fear, do I turn to God in prayer? If so, what do I say? What can I do to strengthen my faith?”
“The essence of all sin is to replace God with ourselves, taking care of “Number One,” in the popular expression. Instead, we should try to look deeply into ourselves and find our roots in God, who welcomed us in baptism.”
“God holds him by the right hand, as it were; by their holding on to one another with entire submission to this divine guidance, you’ll see him tomorrow, the day after, all week long, all year long, in a word, throughout his life, peaceful and tranquil, zealously tending constantly toward God and always spreading in the souls of his neighbor the gentle, beneficent effects of the Spirit that animates him.”
“Where are my inner roots? When I worship, do I bow down before an image of myself as my creator and guide? How present is God in my daily life?”
““What shall I do to make God reign supreme in my heart? What shall I also do to extend the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ throughout the world? My good Jesus, teach me to do this and help me to do it!” (C-CM 198)”
“And we can conclude with these words taken from his first biographer, Louis Abelly: Nothing pleases me except in Jesus Christ. (A: 1: 19) There can be no doubt that the imitation of Jesus is his concern at every moment, his book and mirror in same author’s beautiful expression. (A: 3: 8: 2)”
“We are thus resolutely missionaries following the one and only perfect Missionary. The Gospel is the essential word to be announced to the poor. This is your principal concern. (C-DC 75) If this is true, our response cannot be half-hearted.”
“As we examine our commitment to Jesus, we meditate on his life. Vincent proposes a new lens through which to see him, as servant of the poor.”
“To become a servant following Christ is also a state of life. “Being in the service of” implies a total and complete engagement. One is never “out of service,” but instead always alert and ready.”
“Jesus and Mary send us out to the responsibility of service. Being servants, no matter what kind, even useless servants, focuses on the word “is.” It moves us away from “do” at all costs, to guide us from quantity into quality, from activity into listening.”
“Paul the Apostle taught the Church about the mystical body of Christ. We meditate on this reality, not with tender and warm emotions alone, but with an experience of life in all its difficulties.”
“In this way he began a new way of“ doing Church.” He knew instinctively that God does not distinguish among human beings, and he had meditated enough on the Acts of the Apostles to remember that the earliest Church was inviting its people to this same union in the Spirit.”
“The great spiritual teachers tell us that we must draw our strength from deep wells. If we draw only from ourselves, we will go dry. If we draw from prayer, waters will flow incessantly. This is what we meditate on today.”
“In short, this is a constant precept, but flexible and balanced. We understand this affirmation: The duty of charity is above all rules (L2110) which he wrote to a Sister with problems in her community and in communication with her spiritual director. When she stood back from herself, he brought a personal correction to passing problems. Helping the sick is the antidote for every difficulty.”
“Even today, those who follow Vincent are invited to live in awareness, always on the lookout for the “signs of the times,” a Gospel expression used by the Second Vatican Council that puts us in a state of watching.”
“Saint Vincent is now pointing out the five virtues that he liked to call “fundamental,” and which we can today call basic virtues: simplicity, humility, gentleness, mortification and zeal. These are the virtues proper to his Missioners.”
“Whether we live alone or share our life with others, we live in community with all the faithful, joined with them in the Mystical Body of Christ.”
“Beginning with a meeting, his organizational reflexes came to the fore, and each new “Charity” was a masterpiece of structure. The human side was clear: a rector, a prioress, the first assistant, the second assistant, the servers, etc. We sense here a practice that touched persons who were already committed, and so the regulations developed almost automatically: admission of new members, the daily schedule, charity toward the sick, visits to prisoners, spiritual assistance, and burial of the deceased poor.”
“Vincent wanted communities for evangelization or for service. We can wonder about this purpose. An attentive rereading of Vincent de Paul shows that community is the privileged means to reach an effective mission. Bringing it about implies a serious examination of conscience.”
A sample day is:
“13 A Priest Serving Priests
Focus Point
The People of God are priests for God. The Church chooses some members to follow Jesus the priest in ordained ministry. We meditate today on Jesus the priest and his priestly commitment to the poor and marginalized.
The distinguishing mark of priests is a participation in the priesthood of the Son of God, who has given them the power to sacrifice His own Body and to give it as food, so that those who eat it will have eternal life. That’s a totally divine and incomparable characteristic, a power over the Body of Jesus Christ that angels admire, and a power to forgive the sins of the people, which is a great source of amazement and gratitude to them. Is there anything greater and more admirable? Oh, Messieurs! What a great thing a good priest is! What is there that a good priest can’t do and what conversions can he not obtain? … The success of Christianity depends on priests. (C-CM 4)
This passage is famous in Vincentian literature. It brings us directly into what is best in Saint Vincent de Paul. He was a priest of Jesus Christ and fully a priest for the poor. His priestly journey was jumbled and chaotic, but it grew. He moved step by step into the excellence of the priestly vocation, such as it was understood in the seventeenth century, when the spirit of the Council of Trent was being awakened.
His vocation was proposed to him by his family. An active and passionate person, he took up the challenge, and he was called to priesthood. From 1613 on, we can say that he was a good priest and a zealous pastor. He had interiorized and personalized his vocation. He had become a man of prayer, a careful reader of spiritual authors, an excellent preacher, an eminent catechist, and he was surrounded by fervent priests and laity. By then he had moved from priesthood as an idea to priesthood as a reality, from wishes to a firm and tenacious commitment. He could pray: O Lord, give us the spirit of Your priesthood, which Your Apostles and the first priests who followed them had; give us the true spirit of this sacred character you bestowed on poor fishermen, artisans, and needy people of that time, to whom, by Your grace, you communicated this great, divine spirit. For we, too, are only weak people, Lord, poor workers and peasants; and what comparison is there between us, wretched men, and such a holy, distinguished, heavenly ministry! (C-CM 141)
By the year 1617 he was well prepared spiritually for his mission. He knew that he owed everything to the grace of God, as his various comments showed. Concerning a relative who was looking toward priesthood, he wrote to a compatriot, Canon Saint-Martin: As for myself, if I had known what it was when I had the temerity to enter it — as I have come to know since then — I would have preferred to till the soil than to commit myself to such a formidable state of life. (L 2027)
These lines testify to his vivid awareness of the greatness of the priesthood. He humbled himself only to exalt the excellence of the priesthood. In this, he was reflecting his own period. In Paris, he shared the insights of the pioneers of the French School of Spirituality, grouped around Pierre de Berulle, who looked at priests as “another Christ.”
Vincent had a great esteem for the sacrament of Holy Orders. There’s nothing greater than a priest, to whom Christ gives all power over His natural and His mystical Body, the power to forgive sins, etc. (C-CM 195) The priest gives life to the Mystical Body, he teaches it, he helps to unify it, to reconcile it, and he prays with its members. The road to holiness par excellence is being identified with Christ the Priest. Everyone, both clergy and laity, are called to this. But priests do so in a specific way, when, like Jesus, they practice two great virtues: reverence toward His Father and charity toward mankind. (L 2334) Adoration and mission are two predominant themes in Berulle. For Vincent, the priest must celebrate the Eucharist with great respect. It’s not enough for us to celebrate Mass, but we must also offer this Sacrifice with the greatest devotion possible, in accord with God’s Will, conforming ourselves, as far as is in us, with His grace, to Jesus Christ offering himself, when He was on earth, as a sacrifice to His eternal Father. (C-CM 75) The priest builds up the Mystical Body of Christ by his pastoral work and by taking on himself the burden of his people’s sorrows: Those poor people give us their goods for that purpose; while they’re working and struggling against poverty, we’re like Moses and must continually raise our hands to heaven for them. (C-CM 84)
Vincent does not separate the spirituality of the priest from the spirituality of the baptized. He loved to repeat that his Congregation was made up of both clergy and laity who were following the way common to all Christians, since its members belonged to the “Order of St. Peter.” He did not distinguish between a properly priestly spirituality and a pastoral and missionary spirituality. To be a lay brother, for him, derives from the person’s baptismal dignity and this colors his entire Congregation.
That said, Saint Vincent had a priestly spirituality, orienting it toward his confreres in formation, the ordinands, and the members of the Tuesday Conferences. He wanted them to be formators for the clergy.
What a great service this is, the formation of priests! New needs demand new men. The urgent need of seminaries became evident as priestly spirituality developed. Beginning in 1631, he was working for candidates for ordination, and in 1641 he opened his first seminary, at Annecy. From that point on, the formation of good priests was a major concern of his. You will have plenty of them if you take the trouble to form them in the true spirit of their state, which consists especially in the interior life and the practice of prayer and the virtues…. What is important is to form them to solid piety and devotion…. We must be full reservoirs in order to let our water spill out without becoming empty, and we must possess the spirit with which we want them to be animated, for no one can give what he does not have. (L 1623)
Basically, he was concerned about the salvation of everyone, and especially those left behind by the Church. The specific style of Vincentian formation is a deliberate attention to the poor. But there’s something else: the Church’s need for good priests to make up for all the ignorance and vice that cover the earth and to rescue the poor Church from that deplorable state, for which good souls should weep tears of blood. (C-CM 195)
This consideration coincides with Vincent’s own spiritual journey. It knits together his kinds of activity and is a sign of his personality. It even obliges us in conscience. In the same conference he adds: Aren’t those who are poor the afflicted members of Our Lord? Aren’t they our brothers and sisters? And if priests abandon them, who do you think is going to help them?
Reflection Questions
What is my esteem for the sacrament of Holy Orders? Do I perceive the spirit of Jesus in the priests I know? What one thing could I do to help priests, especially those who are troubled and suffering?”
I hope those quotes and sample day give you for this volume. This is a great volume in an excellent series. Spending these 15 days with Saint Vincent de Paul was inspiring. It was eye-opening as well to the number of organizations he founded and inspired. The written reflections and the discussion questions were engaging. I just really wish all of the 40 volumes were available as eBooks, I would work through them all if so.
A great read in a wonderful series!
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