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SATURDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n 1 Cor 4: 6-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ps 145: 17-21\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lk 6: 1-5<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n GLORY IN YOUR POVERTY<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Paul asks an interesting question today: \u201cWhat do you possess that you have not received?\u201d Everything is gift. Our talents, our virtues, even our faith \u2013 all are given to us by God. We have nothing of our own to boast about. This radical acknowledgment of our poverty before God is the starting point of authentic prayer. In the Ascent of Mount Carmel, St John of the Cross teaches that we must become nothing to possess everything. His famous maxim echoes Paul\u2019s teaching: \u201cTo come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing.\u201d In other words, clinging to anything \u2013 even spiritual gifts, even the consolations of prayer \u2013 prevents us from receiving the one thing necessary: union with God.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Paul describes the apostles as \u201cthe scum of the earth.\u201d What does he mean? Those whom the world considers worthless are often the very ones God has chosen for his greatest work. Paul is not complaining but testifying to a mystery: weakness is the space where God\u2019s power works most freely. St Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux wrote: \u201cIt is my very weakness that gives me boldness to offer myself.\u201d She understood that her limitations were not obstacles to holiness but the very means by which God\u2019s mercy could be displayed. Like Paul, she learned to glory not in her strengths but in her poverty.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Today, Paul challenges our addiction to security, status, and self-sufficiency. He invites us to ask: What am I clinging to? Do I seek my identity in what I possess, what I achieve, what others think of me? Or have I learned to find my identity solely in God\u2019s love? True spiritual poverty is not about having nothing. It is about recognizing that we have nothing of our own and discovering that this admission opens us to receive everything from the One who is everything. May we seek always the grace to embrace our poverty, and to allow God\u2019s power to work through our acknowledged weakness.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n Response: The Lord is close to all who call him.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Copyright \u00a92026 \u00a9Springs of Living Water\u00a0 https:\/\/springs.carmelmedia.in<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SATURDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME \u00a0 1 Cor 4: 6-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ps 145: 17-21\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lk 6: 1-5 \u00a0 GLORY IN YOUR POVERTY \u00a0 Paul asks an interesting question today: \u201cWhat do you possess that you have not received?\u201d Everything is gift. Our talents, our virtues, even our faith \u2013 all are given to us … <\/p>\n
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