Bro Raj’s Message from SSVDP Selangor 2012 Annual Report 

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”. (Matthew 19 : 26)

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ and in Fraternity,

Greetings of Peace!  Time flies quickly and before we know it, 2012 is over and 2013 is already past “spring” time. As we come together for our momentous 50th AGM, I can’t help but wonder the power of God’s Spirit who enables ordinary Lay men and women like us to remain faithful to His Call asking us to Feed His Lamb (John 21: 15). I can’t help but feel mystified at how our Lord can use mortals like us, who despite all our weaknesses, have been instruments on various occasions to those who needed a lift or a gentle “nudge” to bring hope to their lives; and more importantly in doing so, we receive nourishment from Him and draw ourselves closer to God.  As I went around visiting the various conferences the past twelve months or so, I am indeed encouraged by the continuance of our works glorifying our Lord by working with the meek, the poor and the needy. In this respect, I must congratulate all the conferences in Selangor for remaining faithful to our noble Vocation and Apostolate.

Indeed 2012 has been an eventful and exciting year for us surpassed only by the election of Pope Francis as our Universal Pope! Some of the significant developments and achievements of our Society in Selangor in 2012 and this year thus far, have been in the following areas:-

1. Gradual but steady increase of younger members in a number of our conferences.

2. Increase in the number of volunteers who are coming forward to support the Society in our works.

3. Emergence of new members taking over the leadership in a number of conferences with the older office members continuing to remain active in the conferences.

4. Elaborate fund raising activities to cater for the expansion / acquisition of some of our project  Homes

5. Expansion of our works to include more empowerment activities to the Poor and Marginalised.

6. Development of the Social Development Action Committee (SDAC) to provide more holistic care to the residents and children of our homes as well as the single mothers.

7. Further growth in the enablement activities of our Ozanam Service Centres.

While we must and should feel encouraged by such developments, it is very vital that we don’t allow such growth to get us “swollen headed”. In fact, as called by Pope Francis, we should look at the virtue of meekness in helping us be faithful to God and our Risen Lord.  We should strive to be even more humble in acknowledging that all things become only possible through God (Matthew 19:26) who alone provides for us.  It is also important that our growth be always matched and tempered with constant and continuous reflection, reminding us that the source of our strength and achievements comes from God.  At the same time, we must also, in this process of reflection, continue to search ourselves to identify areas of further growth and development within us as Vincentians. This is necessary so that the works that we do remains current and relevant to the needs of the Poor and Marginalised with the changing times. We must not be afraid to explore new ways and ideas so that the works that we do brings about genuine empowerment and promotes the restoration of the fundamental and basic rights and dignity of all whom we work with.   In this respect, it is important that we continue to revisit the following areas:

1. Personal Engagement to our Vocation by way of constant formation and seeking of God’s wisdom in the encounters that we have during the course of our works. We need to constantly assess our Prayer Life and our commitment to the Social Teachings of the church even as we constantly commit to understand the Rule and Statuettes of our Society in greater depth.

2. Imbibe the values of the Vincentian Virtues to be an ingrained character in all us and especially the Virtue of Humility and Meekness when dealing with the Poor and Marginalised so that in our dealings with the Poor, we are constantly treating the Poor with respect and Dignity.

3. Need to develop new strategies for helping the Poor emerge from Poverty. We need to address this at both fronts i.e. in helping the Poor to address the systems that cause poverty as well as in in helping them fight social ills that hampers their personal and communal growth.

4. To continue to promote our Vincentian Vocation amongst more Catholics and help understand that our Vocation is indeed a call to a closer relationship with our Lord.

5. To expand our network of collaborators and support organisations so that we can invite more like minded individuals and groups to team up with us and join us in our quest to reaching out to more families and individuals who are in need of assistance and support.

6. By standing firm and fearless in our advocacy of Social Justice and in the promotion of Basic Human Rights and Dignity.

7. Make an in-depth review and staying true to our Vincentian call of Visitation in the various projects that we are operating especially in the Homes.

Sisters and brothers, as I went around the conferences for the AGM, most of you would recall that I used the passage from the Scriptures taken from Sirach 4 : 1-10 for our reflections during my address.  As we prepare and participate in this AGM , may I once again ask us to recall God’s guidance to us found in the passage Do not keep refuse the Poor a livelihood ; Do not keep the Poor waiting ; Do not keep the destitute waiting for your alms nor turn your face away from the Poor” – (Sirach 4 : 1,3 ,5).  Let us always keep these teachings in our hearts as we meet the Poor daily in our lives and in our works so our Lord’s Blessings as written in the scriptures may indeed come true in our lives where God may Bless us, keep us, let His face shine upon us and show us His Face and bring us Peace (Numbers 6 : 22-26).

Thank you and let all us pray for a successful and meaningful 50th AGM of our State Council of Selangor.

Yours sincerely

,

Rajenthiran ( Raj ) Narayanan