Tag: money
Psalm 49(48):1-13: In his riches, man lacks wisdom!
1. Our meditation on Psalm 49[48] will be divided into two parts, just as it is proposed on two separate occasions by the Liturgy of Vespers. We will now comment in detail on the first part in which it is hardship that inspires reflection, as in Psalm 72[71]. The just man must face “evil days”… Read More ›
St. Basil: Who is the greedy person?
The harshest form of covetousness is not even to give things perishable to those who need them. “But whom do I treat unjustly,” you say, “by keeping what is my own?” Tell me, what is your own? What did you bring into this life? From where did you receive it? It is as if someone… Read More ›
Say a Little Prayer For The Rich
Last week, we attended a conference for the 1%. ‘Everybody thinks the rich have such easy lives,’ said a psychologist and family therapist. ‘But you wouldn’t want the lives that a lot of 1% have. They’re often so cut off from meaning in their lives… from the warmth of normal relationships… and from the psychological rewards… Read More ›
No one can serve two masters
‘No one can serve two masters.’ What sort of masters? Christ explains it to you when he continues: ‘You cannot serve God and Mammon.’ [Matt. 6:24] It is clear then. Those who make Mammon their master cannot serve God, but they serve the master they have freely chosen. They love to be at Mammon’s disposal,… Read More ›
The noxious weed: the love of money
Now nothing is more effective against the devil’s wiles, dearly beloved, than tender compassion and unselfish love; by these every sin can be either avoided or conquered. But such a degree of virtue cannot be attained until its contrary is overcome; and there is surely nothing so hostile to mercy and works of charity as… Read More ›
Basilica for Sale?
In 1948 the Communist regime of Yugoslavia seized the property of the Italian Benedictines of Dajla near the city of Novigrad and banished the monks. Although the monks received 1.7M lire in 1975, the Holy See is demanding that compensation for the property, now being used as a retirement home, be given to the Italian… Read More ›
God’s greatest rival
“If you have no money, be polite!” I heard someone say. It says a lot about money; it says that money is that which makes it possible for you to be rude to people. Money means a lot of different things; it is much more than it appears to be. It is God’s greatest rival:… Read More ›
Perchance it is my Christ
While there was a crowd of refugees in the city, one of the strangers, noticing John’s remarkable sympathy, determined to test the blessed man. So he put on old clothes and approached him as he was on his way to visit the sick in the hospitals (for he did this two or three times a… Read More ›
The Purpose of Wealth
Clearly, the purpose of wealth is not security. The purpose of wealth is reckless generosity, the kind that sings of the lavish love of God, the kind that rekindles hope on dark days, the kind that reminds us that God is with us always. It creates in the holy heart a freedom of spirit that… Read More ›
The Problem of Individualism
We have to recognize that a spirit of individualism and confusion has reduced us to an ethic of ‘every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This ethic, unfortunately sometimes consecrated by Christian formulas, is nothing but the secular ethic of the affluent society, based on the false assumption that if everyone is… Read More ›