Dear Parishioners and Visitors,
The poverty of living on the street, next to smelly garbage dumps or under viaducts and roaming from place to place to beg and scrape for a meal or a blanket or a bus ticket to anywhere else is not a good. Those who are "poor in spirit" know that all mercy and love originates in God. One who is therefore poor in spirit understands that he or she needs God. Jesus' beatitudes are grounded in blessing and mercy and that those who offer it even in suffering and persecution, even to those who harm us, will experience mercy and its accompanying consolation from God. The encouragement from Jesus to "Rejoice and be glad" when we are insulted and persecuted by others for the sake of love for Christ by living a life in obedience to Him is a mission which requires humble perseverance. The harvest of accomplishing God's Will by living the beatitudes is seeing and abiding with God forever. Alleviating the suffering of those who smell bad will be as a sweet fragrance before God and others, much more fragrant than any perfume or cologne.
In God's loving kindness,
-fr. Chris, O.P.
