What is Poverty of Spirit?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael16
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Michael16

Guest
I was reading a little booklet on the Rosary by Fr Calloway MIC and he said the fruit of the Nativity Mystery is poverty of spirit. I’ve read of the Desert Fathers and Desert spirituality; but I never have wrapped my mind around the concept. Can anyone help out?
 
I think it means an emphasis on self-denial and simplicity. it is a spirit that is unattached to riches and finery, material possessions. It is a spirit that is at peace with letting these things go. And I do think it means humility. What is humility? An openness to the simplicity of truth above our own worldly ego. And often, the ego is wrapped into personal belongings, relationships, and worldly status.

And I think it’s a firm and gentle realization that we are not God. So that striking contrast of God born in a barn, it really is shocking and amazing, and it’s clarifying of what matters. All the finery, the luxuries, the ego really is human nonsense.
 
Last edited:
I think this

There was a thread on detachment a while back. I think the two concepts are connected.
 
I took a promise of poverty as a Discalced Carmelite, Secular years ago.

It essentially means not attaching to material things, but allowing whatever comes into your life to be used and let go of, according to God’s will. It means not seeking to be wealthy, but to live a simple life and to be charitable in all things.

It does not mean to give up everything and put yourself into a state of destitution.

A good book on the subject is, “Happy are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom” by Fr Thomas Dubay
’
Fr Dubay RIP, gives provides just what living a life in the spirit of poverty means.

Jim
 
Doesn’t it also include being happy to be reliant on God. Leaving our attachment to ‘icons’ of the world behind and instead relying on God to provide us with what we need and not what we want. Or have I just said what Jim said in a different way, lol.
 
In my opinion,the poverty of spirit is the love and the desire of effective poverty in order to conforme to Christ.
Many say that it is a detachment from the heart of goods and riches, it is not false, but we can delude ourselves as long as we have riches, nothing proving that we have indeed the heart detached wealth. It’s when we are in danger of losing all our possessions or when we find ourselves actually poor despite ourselves, that we can actually know whether or not we were poor in spirit
 
Last edited:
Not sure what you’re asking ?

Is the Church parish allowed to have collections ?

Of course, the parish couldn’t function without raising funds.

However, if you ever served on a parish council, you’d know that most parishes operate on a very thin margin.

Jim
 
No, I mean for instance, are you allowed to collect stamps or electric trains or whatever for your private enjoyment.
I mean because of the poverty
 
Of course you can have hobbies and other forms of entertainment which are moral, providing they’re not consuming all of your finances…

The Spirit of Poverty doesn’t mandate that you live in destitution and stop living.

Jim
 
One way to look at it…humility.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1719, “The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to his own beatitude.” And, in paragraph 2546 “…The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace." Thus, the first of the beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the Kingdom of Heaven” is the first in the order of “happiness and grace”. What does it actually mean to be “poor in spirit”? How is being “poor in spirit”, at the same time, both revealing of the goal of human existence and God’s own beatitude?
Strictly by dictionary definitions, being “poor” means that one lacks sufficient resources to live a normal standard of life, and, “spirit” is the qualities forming the character of a person. The phrase “poor in spirit” means one who lacks sufficient resources to live to the normal standard of character. How does this make us “blessed”? Coming to the realization that on one’s own one lacks sufficient resources to be a person of good character is the first step in realizing that we need God. On our own we can do nothing. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who realize that they need God, that they must depend on Him to provide the resources to live a right moral life, to those who have faith, trusting in Him to provide those resources. To those who accept these resources to live a right moral life they are not merely just covered in Jesus’ righteousness but actually provided the resources to improve one’s character and be righteous through, with, and in Him. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

When we start seeing this beatitude and praying that God give us the resources to heal our character we then mourn. We mourn for our sinful lives, all of the times we failed to choose the good and sinned against God. We mourn for the state of the universe, fallen, that man continues to offend God. It is a deep ache in our souls that brings us to tears. We repent of those ways and resolve to turn to Him again, in a deeper more full way. We start to change, to become humble, praying and listening, sensing what is true and good. Desiring to live the way He desires. The cares of the things of the world lessen. Things that seemed so important no longer are. Our emotions and desires are more and more tamed. We meekly accept His will as we understand it. Blessed are the meek!

The beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace. None are possible without the first and hinge on the development of that one.
 
. ‘If anyone wishes to be my disciple let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life, will lose it but whoever loses it for my sake, will save it’ [Mk 8:34f]. Oh, who can make this counsel of our Savior on self-denial understandable, practicable, and attractive! . . . Annihilation of all sweetness in God . . . dryness, distaste, and trial. . . . the pure spiritual cross and the nakedness of Christ’s poverty of spirit. . . . A genuine spirit seeks rather the distasteful in God than the delectable, leans more toward suffering than toward consolation, more toward going without everything for God than toward possession, and toward dryness and affliction than toward sweet consolation, for it knows that in this consists the following of Christ and self-denial, while the other is nothing further than seeking oneself in God . . . Seeking God in God [sic] means43. . . for love of Christ, to choose all that is distasteful whether in God or in the world.”44 The renunciation according to the will of the Savior “must be the dying off and annihilation of all that the will holds in high esteem, whether temporal, natural, or spiritual.”45 But whoever carries the cross in this manner will experience that it is “a sweet yoke” and “a light burden” (Mt 11:30), for they will “discover in all things great relief and sweetness.”46 “Only when the soul is reduced to nothing, the highest degree of humility, will the spiritual union . . . with God be an accomplished fact.

Stein, Edith. The Science of the Cross (The Collected Works of Edith Stein Vol. 6) (Kindle Locations 880-889). ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.

Stein, Edith. The Science of the Cross (The Collected Works of Edith Stein Vol. 6) (Kindle Locations 877-880). ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.
 
I have not read all the replies yet.

But it has multiple meanings.

A big one that first comes to mind is having a profound knowledge of one’s need for God and one’s own spiritual poveery.
 
Good replies, all. I agree with the humility part and the need I have of God. I’m getting that poverty of spirit is the recognition of that. Plus, as FrDavid96 said; its detachment from worldly things.
 
Poverty of spirit is a complete detachment from all created things even those which are necessary for daily living. I remember that once Saint Therese saw that one of the dainty cups they were using was replaced by a big, ugly one with a chip on it and reflected how it also means having lower quality objects. She also mentions how she did not have a lamp in her room so she could do her prayers and had to pray in the darkness.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top