Thirsting

As I was praying this morning I felt a depth of spiritual dryness that I am sure many of us are enduring these days.  No amount of worldly goods seem to quench this thirst... 

Spiritual Poverty

Today's topic will be spiritual poverty. What really is spiritual poverty, and is this just a vow that religious take, or is it an attitude that all of us should have? 

The renunciation of worldly material goods has long been seen as a means toward spiritual growth. It is an attempt to live a life in harmony with Christ and to do His will. St. Faustina wrote that the virtue of poverty "is an evangelical virtue which impels the heart to detach itself from temporal things" (Diary, 93). The Catechism teaches us that "All Christ's faithful are to 'direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty' " (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2545).   Read more here

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A lesson in spiritual poverty

"In learning to surrender it all to God, Catholic missionaries allowed love to 

transform them.  Everything they did became a song of praise to God."

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John 4:7-14

The Woman at the Well

 ^7-8 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)


 ⁹ The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)


 ¹⁰ Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water."


 ^11-12 The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?"

^13-14 Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."

Compare the 2 readings the one above from "The Message" and the one below as the New American Bible.

New American Bible Translation


John 4:7-14

7

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

8

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

9

⁵ The Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)

10

⁶ Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

11

(The woman) said to him, "Sir, ⁷ you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?

12

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?"

13

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;

14

but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."