ascension catholic church oak park

 

Ascension Church
808 S. East Avenue
Oak Park, IL 60304

Phone: (708) 848-2703
Fax: (708) 848-2773

 

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 Ascension Catholic Church

St. Vincent de Paul Society

The Society helps those less fortunate in our Parish and our community. As our Mission Statement says: Make us responsive to the Christian calling to seek and find the forgotten, the suffering or the deprived so that we may bring them God's love.

We believe
In the dignity of the human person
In the identification of Jesus with the poor
In the preferential option for the poor
That Jesus is the Evangelizer and Servant of the poor
That growth in intimacy with Jesus is a lifelong process
That poverty of spirit is the primary beatitude
That our primary concern is charity and justice
That prayer is essential: personal and communal
In the virtue of humility: personal and corporate
In the virtue of charity, inside and outside the society
In Divine Providence
In Friendship
In Community
In Simplicity.


The following article appeared in the Ascension Parish Newsletter: In Service in February 2008.

Working steadily in the background at Ascension is the local chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. St. Vincent's is the largest lay Catholic charitable organization in the world. Known for its thrift stores and food pantries and the personal visits of its members to the homes of those in need, the Society today has more than 690,000 members operating in 142 countries.

The Society was founded in Paris in 1833 by a 20-year-old college student named Frederic Ozanam, and is celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2008. Ozanam founded the organization so that he and his friends could put their faith into action. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

Jim Schwarber has been active in the Ascension chapter since he became a parishioner about fourteen years ago. "I think St. Vincent's has been around Ascension since the beginning of the parish," he says. "We work with families in need, mostly parishioners and mostly short term. We help with rent, with food vouchers, utility bills. We sometimes refer clients to other agencies for help that we can't provide: legal assistance, job counseling, etc. Our list of services is endless. As St. Vincent said, ‘Charity is infinitely inventive.’"

In addition to their traditional role of helping parishioners, St. Vincent has assembled bags for distribution to clients who come to the parish office seeking help. The bags contain hats, gloves, coupons for food, vouchers for public transportation. Jim says, "We sometimes serve as a sort of first aid for clients who need immediate help. We can direct them to the PADS site for a place to sleep but sometimes they need something to eat and a pair of dry socks right now!"

"We can see that things aren't as good right now as they were," Jim continues, "because we're getting more calls for help." Clients are directed to St. Vincent de Paul by the parish office staff, by Father McNally and by parishioners.

Ascension's St. Vincent de Paul Society receives funding from individual donors, from the "poor box" in the back of church and from two collections annually, Holy Thursday and Thanksgiving. "We really are a low-profile group," says Jim. "We meet once a month to go over the clients' needs and we offer the help that we can. Once a year we have a very modest dinner for our benefactors."

St. Vincent de Paul welcomes the involvement of any parishioner who would like to put their "faith in action."

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