Nick Cardilino

Director of Neighborhood Ministries, St. Vincent de Paul Dayton

Every Monday afternoon, ISP team members lead a reflection circle at St. Vincent de Paul’s shelter for women and families in Dayton, Ohio. Nick is director of Neighborhood Ministries at St. Vincent de Paul Dayton and has consistently supported the circle. 

This story is drawn from a July 2026 conversation with ISP and keeps his words, lightly edited for length and clarity.

Why spiritual care belongs in a shelter

At St. Vincent de Paul, we are a Catholic organization, and we are committed to being a Catholic organization, so we’re going to care for people’s needs for food, shelter, and clothing. But we also believe very strongly that people’s spirituality is extremely important. So with our program here, we have a full-time and a part-time chaplain, both Byzantine priests, who lead Mass every day, evening prayer, and Eucharistic Adoration. When they’re not leading the liturgies, they’re out there meeting with people and getting to know them.

We want to offer as many opportunities for spiritual growth as we can though, and so we heavily encourage groups to come in throughout the week and lead Bible studies and other spiritual programs at the shelter. The ISP group is the one I know best. I’ve known Barb and Ellen, the team members who lead it, for many, many years.

What changes in people

A lot of our participants have become really enthusiastic about the programs, with many learning and relearning how to pray through them. One woman comes to mind who has been at the shelter a long time. She comes to the circle on a regular basis, and encouraged by our ISP group and our chaplains, she started coming to Mass too. This spring, at the Easter Vigil, she was received into the Catholic Church, supported through that whole process by our ISP folks. I’ve been able to see a pretty big growth in her. She’s happier.

Another woman never comes to Mass, but she comes religiously, every Monday, to ISP. When the ISP team members arrive, she is waiting right outside the door to come in, and she brings her friends with her. She has become very much a Pied Piper; a lot of the women hear about ISP by word of mouth from regulars like her.

With ISP in particular, a lot of the people that attend are very much regulars at this point. I think they are able to find a supportive community there which really wants to hear their stories. It’s an opportunity for them to explore their faith and spirituality more deeply, but it’s also a safe and reflective space where they can talk about their life experiences with others and feel a sense of companionship and warmth.

The signs it’s working

I don’t sit in on the circle myself; my office is just down the hall. But I can usually tell when ISP is here: I hear music through the walls. They always play a couple of songs. Sometimes they bring me samples of the faith-based art projects: little rocks painted with the word “peace,” that sort of thing.

I often catch ISP facilitators as they are leaving and ask, “So how did it go today?” Some weeks they tell me about a great discussion on the Holy Spirit where a couple of the women were really touched. Some weeks, two of the women cried telling their stories. And some weeks, it just went fine.

What tells me the most is that the women keep coming back. The room is pretty full every Monday, and longtime participants are always bringing new people in.

A mini-retreat every week

I like to think of the spiritual reflections as a kind of mini-retreat, where people get to see aspects of the big retreats on a weekly basis, and I think that’s invaluable.

Nick Cardilino, St. Vincent de Paul Dayton