“Blessed are you who are poor... Blessed are you who are now weeping" Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 6:20-26.

Letter to the Colossians 3:1-11. 

Brothers and sisters:  If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,  where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.
Because of these the wrath of God is coming (upon the disobedient).
By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way.
But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths.
Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.



Psalms 145(144):2-3.10-11.12-13ab.

Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
His greatness is unsearchable.

Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.

Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.




Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 6:20-26.

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

“Blessed are you who are poor... Blessed are you who are now weeping"

“Blessed are the poor.” Not all the poor are blessed for poverty itself is a neutral thing. There may well be both good and wicked poor people… “Happy the poor man who cried out and the Lord heard him” (cf Ps 33[34],7): poor in sins, poor in vices, poor in whose house the prince of this world has found nothing (cf Jn 14,30), poor in imitation of that Poor man who, though he was rich became poor for our sakes (2Cor 8,9). For this reason Matthew gives a full explanation: “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, for the poor in spirit do not make much of themselves, do not exalt  themselves in their carnal minds. Thus this is the first beatitude.

[“Blessed are the gentle,” Matthew writes next.] After forsaking sin…, being content with my simplicity, stripped of evil, I have only to moderate my character. What use is it for me to lack earthly goods if I am not gentle and peaceful? For following the right road means, of course, following him who said: “Learn of me for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt 11,29)…

Having done this, remember you are a sinner: weep for your sins, weep for your faults. It is good the third beatitude is for those who weep for their sins because it is the Trinity who forgives sins. Purify yourselves, then, by your tears and wash yourselves with your weeping. If you weep over yourselves then no one else will have to weep for you… Everyone has their dead to weep for; we are dead when we sin… So let he who is a sinner weep over himself and reprove himself that he may become righteous, for the just man accuses himself.