Peace and Prosperity

Edited from an earlier post this month for inclusion in SynchroBlog:Poverty. This is a few days late and maybe a couple of dollars short... a perfect metaphor for poverty.

Having struggled a bit this week with a case of "more month at the end of the money", I think about the poor and those who chose poverty for a greater purpose. My thoughts and prayers go out to them both. I think of the wishes we have for peace and prosperity and wonder if the two really walk together. One would have to think of the joy of St. Francis, who embraced "Lady Poverty" as a privileged state in which to serve God and others.

Indeed, for Secular Fransicans like myself, we are admonished to order our living for that purpose.


"Trusting the Father, Christ chose for Himself and His mother a poor and humble life, even though He valued created things attentively and lovingly. Let the Secular Franciscans seek a proper spirit of detachment from temporal goods by simplifying their own material needs. Let them be mindful that according to the gospel they are stewards of the goods received for the benefit of God's children.

Thus, in the spirit of the Beatitudes, and as pilgrims and strangers on their way to the home of the Father, they should strive to purify their hearts from every tendency and yearning for possession and power.

Witnessing to the good yet to come and obligated to acquire purity of heart because of the vocation they have embraced, they should set themselves free to love God and their brothers and sisters." The Rule of the SFO, 2:11-12


This part of our way of life is not as easily managed as one would think, in this day and age, believe me. It is hard to be free to love within the chaos of an increasingly "invoicing" world.

As scripture states in Luke 12:48 "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." I'm sure that the demands on the prosperous are many, whether they fulfill those demands or not. I personally know many business owners whose thoughts are consumed obsessively only with their accounting, with little thought for those in need. I contrast that in my mind with poor Francis and the little brothers. How great must have been their peace and prosperity before God.

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These are the bloggers SynchroBlogging on Poverty so far:

Sonja Andrews: Fully Known and Fully Loved
Phil Wyman at Phil Wyman's Square No More
Adam Gonnerman: Echoes of Judas
Cobus van Wyngaard: Luke: The Gospel for the Rich
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
Steve Hayes: Holy Poverty
Jonathan Brink: Spiritual Poverty
Dan Stone at The Tense Before
Jeremiah: Blessed are the poor... churches...
Alan Knox: Boasting in Humiliation
Miss Eagle: Poverty and the Hospitable Heart
Jimmie: Feeding the Poor
KW Leslie: There’s poverty, and then there’s me without cash.
Joe Speranzella: Peace and Prosperity

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