The first Beatitude: "How blest is the poor in spirit: the reign of God is theirs."
What does 'poor in spirit' mean? I wasn't sure until I came across Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis' beautiful explanation. Note that this Beatitude is in the present tense.
In essence, he explains: "The poor in spirit are those who literally 'beg for their life's very breath' ~ those who depend upon God the way we all depend upon air to breathe. Poverty of spirit is the grace of those who have emptied themselves of everything but the desire for God's presence. And those who achieve poverty of spirit have their reward in the present as well as the future, for to live in poverty of spirit is indeed to live in God."
Praised be Jesus.
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