Pax Vobiscum!

I was thinking about the vow of Poverty that many of the Religious profess. At first glance/thought it seems like a loss of something. It seems as if you are giving something up, giving something away. For it is a vow of material poverty, so you are giving up the material goods. But when you think about the Cause of that Vow, you begin to understand that you are not giving up anything. And I trully mean, you give up nothing! The cause of this Vow, of material poverty, is for the sake of obtaining everything. We give up our material goods, our worldly possesions. And to be honest, how much good is present within a material, tactial object that we use for a couple years until it breaks...not much. For such goods are nothing but dust, they are from dust, and to dust they shall return. As a matter of fact the only good that is in such objects are so becaue they lead to a great Good, an Ultimate Good. So when one takes this vow, one gives up their Dust for the sake of obtaining Gold. The Gold one obtains is the purpose of life, that which is to be sought out by all. But too often does our Dust blind us from the sight of the true Gold. Too often does our Dust obfuscate the true riches of Eternal Life. Whereas they should not blind us, rather they should magnify and guide us to the Gold, but too often they do not. Yet there are those who clean themselves from their Dust and are able to see such riches which are being held out to all. Those who are able to trully see these riches we call the poor. In actuallity the poor are rich and the rich are poor. The poor are rich with the Gold of Eternal Life, and the rich are poor with the Dust and the Rubbish of their Earthly Life. "Do you wish to be saved? Go and sell all your possesions and come follow me."

Totus Tuus,
Andrew Joseph

nice^

amen....

I think about that sometimes, too. It seems to be in perfect conformity with the Little Way of St. Therese. That makes it all the more desirable.