A MESSAGE FOR THE 12th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
If there is one group within the Catholic Church who truly live according to the words of St. Paul “Our sufficiency is of God,” it is the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.
St. Francis took the vow of poverty seriously. His friars were not permitted to own anything, and even the Order itself refused financial aid. Their simple needs were taken care of by Divine Providence, as they begged for their daily bread and worked to sustain themselves by their own labor.
Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Clare, who founded the female branch of the Franciscans. They were known formally as the Order of Poor Ladies, and even today the insistence on poverty remains in their more familiar title of “Poor Clares.” The Roman Breviary describes her as “an eminent lover of poverty, from which no need ever made her swerve, and she persistently refused the possessions which were offered to the sisters by Pope Gregory IX for their support.”
Poverty, believe it or not, is something to which we allhave a vocation. Certainly, not every one of us is expected to sell all his possessions and live the life of a monk. But the spiritof poverty is the true lot of every follower of Christ. It should be part of our way of life, to practice the evangelical counsel of poverty by detaching ourselves from all distractions of the world, and while retaining private ownership of our goods, using them with a holy detachment and indifference. With an utter contempt for pride, we should, in accordance with the spirit of the vow of poverty, cultivate a warm-hearted generosity towards the poor and unfortunate, and offer our humble aid to pious causes. We should give generously to the Church, and to other worthwhile charities that provide for the alleviation of suffering and hunger in this world.
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