A Prayer from St. Clement I (StVdP)

A Prayer from St. Clement I
Reflection for St. Vincent de Paul Meeting, January 11, 2016
Dcn. Bob Bonomi

“Lord, we entreat you to help us. Come to the aid of the afflicted, pity the lowly, raise up the fallen, show your face to the needy, heal the sick, convert the wayward, feed the hungry, deliver the captives, support the weak, encourage the fainthearted. Let all nations know that you alone are God; Jesus Christ is your Son, and we are your people and the sheep of your pasture.”

This prayer is part of today’s Office of Readings and comes from a letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement I, pope and martyr.  It is an excellent prayer for Vincentians to recite before we meet with or provide assistance to one of our clients.  Let’s look at the prayer in detail.

“Lord, we entreat you to help us.”  There is humility in our acknowledgement that WE need God’s help before we can help others.  We depend upon the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide us in our dealings with others, and we should ask for His help before we embark on our missions of mercy.

“Come to the aid of the afflicted, pity the lowly, raise up the fallen, show your face to the needy, heal the sick, convert the wayward, feed the hungry, deliver the captives, support the week, encourage the fainthearted.”   We recognize that it is God that comes to the aid of others, and there is more to helping another than just feeding them.  Like we see in the Beatitudes, for a person who is in physical need of food or shelter, there are usually other needs that are present which may be even more important than material needs –a person trapped by their circumstances, a broken spirit, a lost soul hungry for love more than food.  God provides for these needs and more through our efforts and through His own mysterious providence.

“Let all nations know that you alone are God; Jesus Christ is your Son.”   Our mission is not just to provide material assistance to our clients; it is to open people to the love and mercy of God and to share the Good News of Jesus.  Our goal is to point them to the gates of Heaven – and to point us there, too.

“We are your people and the sheep of your pasture.”   We are not in charge.  As we pray in our closing prayer, “May we never claim that the fruitfulness of our apostolate springs from ourselves alone.” We follow the Great Shepherd and, like our clients, are dependent upon the love and mercy of God. 

Let us always remain in humble service to God.