It is from your hands that Our Lord, in the person of the sick, seeks relief.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of serving others, particularly the sick, as a means of serving God.
In this quote by St. Vincent, the idea conveyed is that acts of kindness and service, especially towards those who are ill, are ways through which divine love and compassion are expressed in the world. It suggests that our hands, symbolizing our actions and efforts, are the instruments through which God seeks to alleviate the suffering of others. This reflects a deep connection between spirituality and social responsibility.
In practice
In a speech advocating for community service, this quote can inspire volunteers to engage with the sick.
It ought to be considered a great misfortune, not only for individuals, but also for Houses and Congregations, to have everything in conformity with their wishes; to go on quietly, and to suffer nothing for the love of God. Yes, consider it certain that a person or a Congregation that does not suffer and is applauded by all the world is near a fall.
Let us love God my brothers, let us love God. But let it be with the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brow.
Charity is the cement that unites communities to God and individuals to each other_x000D_ so that he who contributes to the union of hearts in a community_x000D_ binds it indissolubly to God.
We ought to deal kindly with all, and to manifest those qualities which spring naturally from a heart tender and full of Christian charity; such as affability, love and humility. These virtues serve wonderfully to gain the hearts of men, and to encourage them to embrace things that are more repugnant to nature.
However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.
Fervor is a fire that makes things boil and grow hot, just as fire causes water to boil. It is, properly speaking, charity on fire, and that is what you should have because a Daughter without Charity is like a body without a soul.
A cleric who loses his faith abandons his calling; a philosopher who loses his redefines his subject.
There are some things about myself I can’t explain to anyone. There are some things I don’t understand at all. I can’t tell what I think about things or what I’m after. I don’t know what my strengths are or what I’m supposed to do about them. But if I start thinking about these things in too much detail the whole thing gets scary. And if I get scared I can only think about myself. I become really self-centered, and without meaning to, I hurt people. So I’m not such a wonderful human being.
Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.
We forget that, although freedom of speech constitutes an important victory in the battle against old restraints, modern man is in a position where much of what "he" thinks and says are the things that everybody else thinks and says; that he has not acquired the ability to think originally - that is, for himself - which alone gives meaning to his claim that nobody can interfere with the expression of his thoughts.
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
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