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Poverty
Poverty, as an evangelical counsel and spiritual beatitude, is the detachment from material wealth to depend entirely on God.
In Catholic teaching, poverty has two dimensions. Material destitution is an evil that the Church seeks to alleviate. However, "poverty of spirit" is a beatitude and an evangelical counsel—a voluntary detachment from wealth and material goods in order to rely entirely on God's providence (CCC 2544, 915).
The Call of Christ
Jesus proclaimed, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3) and lived a life of radical poverty. Christians are called to rightly order their desires, preventing the love of money from replacing the love of God. In the consecrated life, the vow of poverty involves the actual renunciation of personal property (CCC 2544–2547).
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
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