You and I will be blessed if we are poor in spirit, meek, etc.

Friday, 11/1/14

There is a double meaning in each of these Beatitudes which opens with the words “Blessed are the . . . “ One meaning refers to the saints in heaven. Those blessed ones are in heaven because in life they were poor in spirit, meek, etc.

The second meaning of the Beatitudes is that you and I will be blessed and happy if we are poor in spirit, meek, etc.

We should make use of the Beatitudes to school ourselves in being what God wants us to be. One way of making use of them would be to substitute the eight Beatitudes for mysteries of your rosary.

For the first mystery we could say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” then, while saying the Our Father and the ten Hail Mary’s, you check yourself on being poor in spirit. You ask yourself if you are greedy, or if you should be more generous with your time and money.

For the second mystery we could say, “Blessed are they who mourn,” but instead of mourning for the dead, you ask yourself to give thought to people you know who are suffering. You make that decade of your rosary a prayer for those people in pain. I read a few words on prayer written by a fine Irish priest who was shot by the Japanese in the Philippines. He wrote, “Your prayer goes straight to God, and with that, within the soul of someone struggling with pain, enters God’s grace, a torrent on the desert places of the soul.”

For the third mystery on the Beatitudes we can  check ourselves on meekness. Is there any meekness surviving inmy ego?

And so you go through the Beatitudes, realigning yourself with Christ. It makes for a nice thirty-minute morning walk.