July 18: Letter from the VMY International President

July 18, 2017
Madrid – Spain

Dear VMY friends,

“Let us give life to the Vincentian charism”

Another year and with great joy, we celebrate once again the request of our Mother to Catherine Labouré to form the Association. Yes, we are a desire of the Virgin Mary and we are celebrating at this moment what happened on July 18, 1830. We are an expressed longing of our Mother and now more than ever, this longing must be present. As her children, we are called to imitate her service and availability in the establishment of the Kingdom of her son Jesus on earth, and just how she said with that firm YES!, we must also say Here I am! … to do Your will.

As an international association, we face several challenges that I will describe below, as during the coming years, the International Council together with the members of the International Secretariat of VMY will be ready to comply, saying in a loud voice that “Here I am. I am available and ready to serve!”.

1. Collaboration with the International VMY. In our journey we are not alone. Thousands of young people all over world are walking together with other groups in each of their countries. The international nature of our Association teaches us that being Marian-Vincentian is a shared path. Since its inception, our Association relies on each National Council, on the Fathers of the Congregation of the Mission and on the Daughters of Charity. A few years ago we started a project with the objective to be more economically independent, a self-financing project that was welcomed by many countries and partners. But we still have a long way to go. Therefore in the coming months, the International Council will communicate with each National Council asking to go back to the plan that will allow us to continue our path of economic independence, making use of the Final Document of the GA in Salamanca 2015.

2. Review of the International Statutes. As requested in our General Assembly 2015 in Salamanca, the Council will begin the process of reviewing the International Statutes. For this, in the same way, we count in the participation of each and every member of the Association. Between us we will define what we want to reflect in our statutes and what we want to revise from them. Therefore, we will communicate with you through a questionnaire where we will ask you to state your concerns and inquiries.

3. “Here I am!”: will be the theme for the year 2018. As we know, it is a phrase that leads us to act like our Mother. We are many and to know where we are, what we do, we share our joy and Vincentian-Marian service with the others and we make ourselves known. Vincentian Marian Youth, where are you? What is your location? Let us know where you are by saying … Here I am!

Finally, we continue “Giving life to the Vincencian Charism”. We are ready to meet as members of the Vincentian Family at the Symposium with Pope Francis in October in Rome, and from there we will say, “Here we are!” regaining energy from the family to continue our service.

May the Lord continue to renew and motivate our Association, always bearing in mind that our strength is the Lord, and that we may receive many graces through the rays of Our Mother.

VMY, where are you?… Here I am! Happy Anniversary!

To Jesus with Mary,

Yancarlos de Jesús Carrasco de los Santos
VMY International President