Pope's Intentions
Universal: That refugees, forced by violence to abandon their homes, may find a generous welcome and the protection of their rights.
For Evangelization: That Christians in Oceania may joyfully announce the faith to all the people of that region.
Tuesday of the Twentieth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day
Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
Counsels and maxims, nos. 352, 355, 356, 364, 1693 edition (trans. David Lewis, rev.)
Spirit of ownership or poverty of spirit?
Have no other desire but to enter, for love of Jesus, upon detachment, emptiness and poverty in everything in the world… You will never have to do with necessities greater than those to which you submit your heart. The poor in spirit (Mt 5,3) are most happy and joyous in a state of privation, and whoever desires nothing finds fullness everywhere.
The poor in spirit give generously all they have and their pleasure consists in being thus deprived of everything for God’s sake and out of love for their neighbor (Mt 22,37f.)… Not only do temporal goods, the delights and the tastes of sense, hinder and thwart the way of God, but spiritual delights and consolations also, if sought for or clung to eagerly.