“Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither wrath nor disturbance. Where there is poverty with gladness, there is neither cupidity nor avarice … Where there is fear of the Lord to guard the entrance hall, there the enemy can have no place to enter.” (St. Francis of Assisi)
It is said that the opposite of charity is not hate, but fear. How does fear inhibit you in your ministry? How might God be calling you to throw off this fear?
“Poverty with gladness” is not what first comes to mind. No one would relish living without basic needs. But, to recognize our poverty before God – our need for God, our small intellect beside God’s Intellect; our small patience beside Infinite Patience; our small heart beside the Sacred Heart – this can be acknowledged with great gladness and joy because we know – we do, yes? – that God will lend God’s Intellect, God’s Patience, God’s Heart to us, if only we ask.
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