Our prayer service was all about our class saint, St Vincent De Paul.

St Vincent de Paul was born in France. He had 3 brothers and 2 sisters and helped his mum and dad on their farm. He looked after the sheep and pigs and learned how to plant and cut hay. When Vincent was young he was ashamed of how poor his family was and thought the most important thing in life was to be wealthy.Vincent went to university to study to become a Priest. He wanted to make lots of money and be important.  He wanted to help his family because of the way he had treated them.

Vincent got sick and tired of chasing after riches and money. Everything seemed so gloomy and lifeless and so he prayed asking God what he should do. Then he agreed to become the Parish Priest of a poor village in Paris. For the first time in twelve years, since becoming ordained, he really served as a Priest instead of looking for success, wealth and being important. For the first time Vincent was happy and the Parishioners loved him.

St Vincent de Paul, changed his way of life and reached out to the poor. Vincent was born poor and in the beginning he wanted to be rich. Later he changed his mind and decided to spend his life helping the sick and mentally-ill, orphans and old people, beggars and the starving, prisoners and slaves. Vincent’s life is a great reminder for us all to find ways to help those around us by following the Gospel Virtues.

The bible tells us how important it is to love each other and to love God. This is a reading from St Mark’s Gospel.

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’^[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”

This reading tells us how important it is to love everyone and to help them just like St Vincent de Paul.