The SVS Motto

SVS Motto:
When Msgr. Harris arrived at St. Vincent's Services over 40 years ago, the nation was undergoing a period of intense social turbulence. New questions were being asked, and old patterns were being challenged. Msgr. Harris and SVS's Board of Directors sensed that it was a good time to take stock of where the agency had come in its first century of existence, and the direction it wanted to take in the next. It was in that climate and spirit that the SVS motto-"Believe, Belong, Become, Benefact"-was born.

As members of a community are interrelated, so are the precepts of the SVS motto. Each individual precept derives its strength and meaning from the others, and fuels our approach to our work with the young people and families in our care.

First one believes and learns to have faith and trust in oneself, and in others.

With belief, one is able to belong to the larger community, and to participate meaningfully in the groups, organizations, and institutions that serve the community and make it stronger.

Through belonging, one has the opportunity to become the person one wants to be, and to aspire to greatness in all areas of life.

And in so becoming, one learns to benefact, to give back to the community in order to make the world a better place for the next one who dares to believe.

The Bee Skep
The bee skep was chosen as the symbol of the "Four B's" of our motto as a result of a series of fortuitous events. Several years ago, in a little-trafficked corner of our chapel at 66 Boerum Place, a staff member happened to look up and see several quite old, but still beautiful, stained glass windows. These windows (which were located in an area of the chapel that was difficult to access) were in need of renovation, so at first it was hard to see the designs that had been worked into the glass. Upon further inspection, the staff member was able to recognize four distinct images in the windows:

• An open book with a quilled pen
• A pierced heart
• A bishop's mitred hat
• An old fashioned straw bee skep of a type that would have been used by bee keepers centuries ago to house their bees

The staff member became curious as to why a bee skep would have been included amongst the other windows, and decided to investigate. Her research uncovered the fact that bees were a highly regarded symbol of the early religious communities. Bees were seen as being highly industrious, and were therefore looked upon as creatures whose qualities humankind could seek to emulate. Early clergy such as St. Ambrose taught that the church is a beehive and the bees are the faithful, laboring ceaselessly in service to the betterment of the community. The bee is indeed a busy insect: it is active at least twelve hours of every day in all twelve months. The fruits of their labors-beeswax and honey-serve to supply the community with two precious resources: light and food. The tenets of Christianity are often associated with these important products of the beehive. Beeswax candles illuminate the darkness, just as Christ's teachings bring the light of understanding. Honey is used to depict both the sweetness and the sustenance of Christian faith. So, it is easy to see how the beehive became perhaps the first symbol of "sweetness and light!"

After the window containing the bee skep was restored, the SVS community decided that this model of productivity would be a fitting symbol for our organization, and would provide a compelling visual representation of the "Four B's" of our motto. The window that was found in the chapel, however, had only three bees surrounding the bee skep. In replicating the image from the window for use as the visual depiction of our motto, a fourth bee was added to symbolize the "benefactor bee" who is flying away on its own strong wings in order to nurture the next generation of those who dare to believe.

Here are some further examples of the ways in which the history of Christianity was closely associated with bees and beehives:

• In Luke, the risen Jesus shows his astonished disciples that he has truly returned by eating a piece of honeycomb.
• The early Christians incorporated milk and honey into their baptism ceremonies, where it remains to this day among churches like the Coptic and the Ethiopian.
• In the Middle Ages in Europe, huge quantities of candles were burned on church alters each year. The demand was so great that some people paid their taxes in beeswax!
• Few monasteries were without wax- and honey-making operations, and the monks learned many lessons from the hardworking inhabitants of the beehives. Well-run monasteries were often compared to beehives by medieval writers, and the connection survives to this day in the word "abbey," a word that suggestively echoes abeille, the French word for bee.