Contemplative Worship Team - October 26, 2025
Hope in Focus: Week 4
"This is certainly appropriate since the Son of God, the Lord of virtue and the King of glory, (Ps 24:10) fell in love with this virtue, Holy Poverty, with a special affection. He sought, found, and embraced Her while achieving our salvation in the middle of the earth. (Ps 74:12) At the beginning of his preaching he placed Her as a light of faith for all who would enter harbor, and even set Her as the foundation stone of the house. While the other virtues receive the kingdom of heaven only by way of promise from Him, Lady Poverty is invested with it by Him without delay. Blessed, he said, are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. (Mt 5:3) At the beginning of his conversion, therefore, blessed Francis, as the Savior's true imitator and disciple, gave himself with all eagerness, all longing, all determination to searching for, finding, and embracing Holy Poverty. He did so neither wavering under adversity nor fearing injury, neither shirking effort nor shunning bodily discomfort, in order to achieve his desire: to reach Her to whom the Lord had entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven." The Sacred Exchange Between St. Francis and Lady Poverty, 13 th century
From Series: "Contemplative Worship"
Contemplative Worship with The Center for Christian Spirituality in Houston, Texas. A ministry of Chapelwood United Methodist Church
