Poverty January 7
. . . then these latter ought to consider how far these others have come in passing from their life in the world down to this life of ours (Rule of St. Augustine, 17).
In the great spiritual tradition of the Crosiers, the whole of life is seen as a way of the Cross that leads to resurrected life. All the elements of the charism (the vows, the three pillars, the spirituality of the Cross) are, in effect, an invitation to participate in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. Evangelical poverty illustrates this very well. To abandon all human security in order to confide oneself into the hands of the Provident God is to die. One dies in accepting willing or unwilling privations so as to be more effective in the mission of Christ. It is death to relativize personal needs, giving priority to the needs of others. To lift one’s voice in protest against attitudes, structures and decisions that offend against justice is to die. What a resurrected person one is in dying: free, strong, compassionate, courageous! Observing the vow of poverty is a passage to incomparable riches. The Crosier who dies to himself by the practice of poverty is the Crosier risen to new life.
It is better to have a stiff neck looking up in the air than to become a hunchback looking down. (Senegal)
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