Blessed Are You Poor: A Daily Call to Surrender

Blessed are you poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours…

Woe to you rich, for you have received your consolation.

The sole way to put flight into the wing

is to heed humbly every smallest thing

with which the Christ in us has [will] to do.

So will the Christ from child to manhood go

obedient to the Father Christ and so

sweet holy change will turn all our thoughts to new.

—George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul, July 9th.

Introduction

Once upon a time there was a man named Gus who had a seemingly perfect life. He was a hotshot public speaker. He lived with his mother, his baby mama, and his son in the most powerful city on earth. He had caught the attention of some VERY influential people who had plans to make him a star. One day, he heard his rival speaking and was struck with the thought, “What if it was all wrong? What if my perfect life is a sham? What if everything I’ve worked for is as meaningless as it feels in my late-night moments of reflection?” …And his carefully constructed house of cards began to come crumbling down.

Blessed are the poor…

While Jesus had a special love for the poor, this beatitude was meant for all men and women, including the materially wealthy like Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, and Susanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza who were all among his first followers, not to mention Matthew the tax collector and his friends.

Poverty in this beatitude is a metaphor. How are even rich men poor? None of us can do anything to merit divine life. It’s a gift. We can accept it, reject it, or even try to ignore it. What we can’t do is get it on our own. “Woe to you rich, for you have received your consolation.”

The Consolation of Pop Psychology

Years ago there was a slogan going around, “I’m ok. You’re ok.” It was innocent. It was well-intentioned. It was tolerant. It promised confidence, popularity, and success for us and for our children. It gave us permission to do whatever we felt like… as long as we didn’t hurt anyone… who could pay us back. It felt good. It was a lie. “Woe to you rich, for you have received your consolation.”

It made us pretend to be ok when we weren’t. It made us smile through our pain. It made us achieve pointless goals, and goad our children to do the same. It made us look good on the outside when we were a hot mess inside. It made us white-washed tombs. It made us Pharisees. It made us hypocrites. It promised us life and left death in its wake.

Go ahead, and search the Gospels. Jesus never told anyone, “You’re ok.” The first word out of His mouth when He began His public ministry was, “Repent.” In other words, “You’re not ok. What you’re doing, the way you’re living, the way you treat people, yourself, creation, even God, is NOT ok.” Repent.

Repent?

What’s another word for “repent”? How about surrender? Abandon? Trust? Faith? Wait, aren’t we saved by faith? Yep, and faith means repentance. We’re saved by turning away from the World with its ruthless expectations and rules, the Flesh with its twisted desires, and Satan with his lies and empty promises AND turn towards the Father with His loving expectations and life-giving rules, the Spirit with His desires, and Jesus with His truth and His kept promises. Repentance is giving God permission to come into our lives and wreck the place until we live the way He wants us to.

But What Does Repentance Look Like?

If you’re asking me what God wants you to do, I don’t know. If you’re asking me how to find out, I do know. And you probably do too. Whether you do it or not is another matter: Daily Personal Prayer. Dedicate 20-30 minutes a day to turning away from the unholy trinity of the World, the Flesh and the Devil and towards the Most Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

If this is new to you, or if your personal prayer time has grown stale or been left by the wayside, here’s a little refresher course in 5 steps.

Step 1: Find a nice quiet place.

Jesus often retired to a “quiet place.” This place has been identified as a cave in the Holy Land you can still visit to this day. Its name is “Quiet Place.” We are bodily beings and our minds can easily be distracted, so dedicated prayer time requires a dedicated prayer place whether that’s a corner of a room, an adoration chapel, a back porch…wherever you feel calm, comfortable, and able to listen for His voice.

Step 2: Enter into His Presence

Prayer is not reading, studying, or journaling. Prayer is not self-analysis. Prayer is an encounter with Him. This step can take some time. It’s worth it. St. Francis de Sales mentions some options that can be useful:

• Remember God is present everywhere

• Remember the Trinity dwells within you

• Look at Jesus on the Cross or another holy image

Step 3: Feed Your Mind

St. Teresa of Avila recommended using a book to prepare for meditation. She believed reading from a book helped her collect her thoughts and bring her mind and heart to prayer. Music and sacred art can also be options if that suits you better. I know one seminarian in Rome who spent 5 days a week meditating on the statue of James the Greater… for 5 years. My personal preference is still Scripture, In Conversation with God by Fr. Fernandez, or a spiritual classic like Abandonment to Divine Providence, but your personal preference should be what moves you closer to God.

Step 4: Process What You’ve Read/Heard/Seen

Feeding our minds is a good first step in letting God into our lives, but it’s not enough. We need to fall in love with His Truth, His vision for our lives. I’ve come across at least 4 general ways to do this. Each of them has its own validity and fruitfulness. I’ve used them all and taught them all and found that some people flounder with one and take off with another. Why? I have no idea. I just go with it.

• Repetition: In traditional lectio, a monk would find a word or phrase in a passage of Scripture would “stick out” to him. He would then repeat this word or phrase silently or quietly and allow his mind to free associate, linking it to other passages of Scripture, to the lives of the saints, and ultimately to his own life. This method is very freeing, but sometimes it can lead one “into the weeds.”

• Q&A: Some people don’t like the randomness of free association. They like a little more control over where their mind goes. For those, I offer the 3-H questions. When you find a word or phrase that sticks out to you, try asking yourself:

o Head: What does this mean? What does it mean to me?

o Heart: Why is this important? Who would I become if I lived this out? What might happen to me if I don’t?

o Hands: If I wanted to, how could I live this out today?

• Dialogue with Jesus: Teresa of Avila told her sisters that prayer was nothing more or less than a “conversation with our best friend, Jesus.” Just talk to him about what you’ve read. Ask Him questions. Watch Him answer with a question of His own… or an answer that’s not-an-answer-to-our-question-but-an-answer-to-our-real-question. This avoids the danger of self-absorption in the 3-H method.

• Put yourself in the scene from the Gospel: Ignatius of Loyola calls this method “contemplation.” If you have an active imagination, it can be life-changing. If you don’t, it can be frustrating to no end. You don’t have to be perfect. This is a bit more involved than the conversation with Jesus as it typically involves all 5 senses. For example: If you were there with Jesus in the Garden, what would you say to Him? How would you console Him? Would you touch Him or keep your distance? What would you hear Him say? Would He acknowledge your presence or ignore you as He prayed to the Father? Etc.

We can’t speak of processing in prayer without talking about journaling. There are many reasons for and against journaling. Those who oppose it will say something like: “Journaling distracts me from prayer. It feels like I need to write when I’d rather be praying.” This is a totally valid position. If that’s your experience, don’t journal. Or perhaps journal AFTER your prayer time is done. This is Ignatius of Loyola’s counsel: do your prayer, then journal for a few minutes after.

Those in favor of journaling during prayer say that it helps them focus and thus avoid distractions. The act of writing forces their wandering mind to focus on what they are saying to Jesus, or what Jesus is saying to them. If this is your experience, by all means journal DURING your prayer time. I have a very active mind, and writing during prayer keeps my mind on prayer and away from a million other things I find interesting that are not God and not the subject of my prayer time that day.

There is no one right answer. Your best bet is to try both and see which way works better for you.

Step 5: Application

You’ve taken in God’s Word. You’ve processed it, moving it from your head to your heart. Now it’s time to move it to your hands by making a decision, a.k.a. a resolution. Just asking, “How am I going to live this out today?” can shut down our brains as we try to find one “right” answer. Sometimes, it’s more fruitful to ask, “How could I live this out today if I wanted to?” This opens us up to possibilities. Let’s say you come up with 5 things you could do. Now you have the freedom to choose one. I know many who find this freeing.

There are a few criteria for what makes a good resolution:

1. It’s ONE. Don’t pick 5 things today. Pick 1. Just 1. Exactly and only 1. It will focus your soul’s energy rather than dispersing it.

2. It’s SMALL. By that I mean you can do it today. You can’t write a book today (ok, maybe you can if you’re a genius or it’s a very short book). You can begin to write a book today. You can buy a notebook or a folder. You can put a pen and a piece of paper on the kitchen table. You can write a paragraph, maybe a chapter… or an outline. Pick something you can do today.

3. It’s CONCRETE. Being “nicer” is not concrete. Smiling at your difficult co-worker is. See the difference? Literally, if you can see yourself doing it, it’s concrete. If you can’t, it’s not.

4. It’s POSITIVE. Not using bad words is a negative resolution. It’s not a bad resolution, but it presents some challenges. If using bad words is a habit of yours, what happens when you catch yourself? What happens if you don’t catch yourself? See how tricky it is? One way to have a positive resolution when trying to overcome a bad habit is, “Next time I catch myself using a bad word, I’ll silently say the name of Jesus with my hand on my heart.” Don’t try to get rid of the bad habit directly, respond positively when you catch yourself in the negative behavior. This will slowly re-wire your brain.

One last tip on your resolution: Never leave the site of your resolution without taking some step towards its completion. If possible, do it right now. If not, schedule it in your calendar. Set a reminder on your phone. Or if it involves another person, shoot them a text about it. Also write it down and schedule a time to check in later that day. Is that a lot? I don’t know. It takes about 58 seconds out of the 86,400 seconds you have today. Is that a lot? It’s less than 1/10th of 1% of your day. No, it’s not a lot.

Conclusion

Gus was in a bad way, struggling to eat, to sleep, to think. He fell into a bit of a frenzy, ran off into a garden, put his head between his knees and wept. Then he heard a child at play singing, “Take and read. Take and read.” At these strange words, Gus picked up the book he’d brought with him, opened it at random, and his gaze fell on this:

Let us behave decently as in daytime,

not in carousing and drunkenness,

not in sexual immorality and debauchery,

not in dissension and jealousy.

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ,

and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. (Rm 13:13-14)

Gus’ house of cards came crumbling all the way down. He left his home, his job, the woman he’d been with for fourteen years. He lost his influential friends. You may know Gus as St. Augustine of Hippo and his rival as St. Ambrose of Milan who would baptize him and be his first mentor in the Catholic faith. He was transformed by God’s Word, a word that went from his head to heart to his hands… changing his life and the history of Western civilization.

It was just one day. It was just a few minutes out of his day. And it changed everything. Blessed are you poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.

If you are someone who finds a worksheet helpful, here you go: Daily Prayer Worksheet

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