On 23rd September 2023, Stephen D’Souza and nine other former Vincentian Volunteers plus Sister Marie Raw DC, gathered at the Sister’s house in Carlisle Place, Central London for a reunion. Stephen writes:
” Yesterday evening was a 30 year reunion of being a Vincentian Volunteer. That year was the most fulfilling, formative, memorable and life-changing year of my life. It was before there was a concept of a gap year and unusual to step off the “school to uni” treadmill. The year had three components:
COMMUNITY
– we lived together and learned to live well with others – to work through all that entails, especially when you start as strangers.
SERVICE
– volunteers worked in homeless shelters, schools, prisons, with elderly people, with youth at risk and in the community. I had one year as a youth retreat leader and in an Alzheimer’s Day Care Centre.
SPIRITUALITY
– the programme was grounded in the charism of Vincent de Paul, whose mission was to serve the poorest of the poor. This included poverty in its widest sense, not just material.
I would say that I learned more in that year than in many years of formal study. It’s one of those experiences that lays seeds and you might only see the impact years later.”
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