Most of the attendees were students at one of the three Vincentian universities : Niagara, St. John's, and De Paul itself. In addition, there was a small but strong showing of volunteers and former volunteers and seven brave "other" souls. The strong student contingent tinted the entire conference with a decidedly collegiate focus. Still, most of it was applicable to the life of a Vincentian volunteer as well.
We started out the weekend with a service activity. Try as I might, I cannot escape education; I helped prepare activity supplies for De Paul's Jumpstart. As a teacher's aide this year and a teacher's daughter for life, I understand the importance of the prep work of coloring, cutting, and laminating, but after a long early morning drive, the repetitive activity got to me and I had a very hard time staying awake for the end bit. However, I had a nice nap afterwards and was surprisingly awake for the reflection and dinner (Chicago pizza -- yum!).
Dinner was followed by a boat ride on the river and lake, with a tour of the architecture of the shoreline. Apparently Chicago has the longest uninterrupted shoreline of any city in the US. Some highlights of the tour : 1) Part of downtown, the "Gold Coast," was once owned and declared independent from the city and the state by Streeter, a man who had dirt dumped in the river to form the land. 2) The Chicago River's flow was reverse, because Chicagoans (is that right?) were concerned about waste flowing into Lake Michigan. Instead it flowed south to St. Louis. Gee, thanks, Chicago. 3) One of the largest LEED certified buildings stands along the Chicago shoreline. The green roof collects rainwater, which is used to help cool the building.
Sunday and Monday were sit-and-listen days, with "plenary" and "concurrent" sessions. I kept forgetting the word "concurrent," and calling them "breakout" sessions, and I discovered at lunch on Monday that really no one knew what plenary means. Kudos for the cool words, De Paul leadership, but I think your genius was largely lost. Sister Patricia Connelly, DC, who represents the Daughters of Charity in the UN, gave the keynote address about systemic change as part of the Vincentian charism. We also had plenary sessions on an international Vincentian group called MISEVI and on Haiti. I attended sessions on different models of leadership (the colors, for those of you who know whether you are blue, green, yellow, or red), women's stories, forgiveness, and the Vincentian archives at De Paul. We had Mass together and ice cream and prayed some.
You'll hear more about the content and suchnot of the the sessions over the next few days. Some I enjoyed, some challenged me, some worried me. We started and ended with the "Vincentian question," a question Vincent de Paul asked at the beginning of his ministry, and one I struggle to answer and invite my dear readers to consider.
Seeing the condition of the poor in the villages of France, Vincent turned to his friend, Madame de Gondi, and asked, "What must be done?"
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