Blessed Attitudes
Let us reflectively consider the eight Beatitudes made in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–11) as descriptions we are to imitate.
First, we are to be poor in spirit. Not proud or arrogant, humbly obeying God’s will.
Second, we are to be meek, overcoming evil with good. Not retaliating against those who persecute, ridicule or scorn us.
Third, we are to be mournful, lamenting the loss of spiritual goods given up when we willfully sin, grieving that we worship the fleeting, passing things of this world, when we are to worship God alone above all else.
Fourth, we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness, believing that Christ died for us, to win for us the grace of salvation, to do the Father's will as He did.
Fifth, we are to be merciful, uniting our heart with Christ’s Heart broken and crushed with the weight of His mercy. Seeing us in our miserable condition, He came down from heaven, brought the Good News of salvation, and won heaven for us by His sufferings.
Sixth, we are to be pure of heart, with one goal, to reach the salvation Christ won for us, by keeping our heart purely fixed on God.
Seventh, we are to be a peacemaker. Christ brought peace between God and man, reconciling us to God by atoning for our sins. This is the key to perfect peace, since peace with God is the key to peace within us and with one another.
Eighth, we are to be like Christ, sharing in His persecution when the world hates us and reviles us for following Him. And follow Him we must, in order to receive the rewards He promised; to inherit the earth, to receive comfort, to see God, to be filled with virtue which is the root of happiness, to obtain mercy, and so to be received into the kingdom of heaven forever.
First, we are to be poor in spirit. Not proud or arrogant, humbly obeying God’s will.
Second, we are to be meek, overcoming evil with good. Not retaliating against those who persecute, ridicule or scorn us.
Third, we are to be mournful, lamenting the loss of spiritual goods given up when we willfully sin, grieving that we worship the fleeting, passing things of this world, when we are to worship God alone above all else.
Fourth, we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness, believing that Christ died for us, to win for us the grace of salvation, to do the Father's will as He did.
Fifth, we are to be merciful, uniting our heart with Christ’s Heart broken and crushed with the weight of His mercy. Seeing us in our miserable condition, He came down from heaven, brought the Good News of salvation, and won heaven for us by His sufferings.
Sixth, we are to be pure of heart, with one goal, to reach the salvation Christ won for us, by keeping our heart purely fixed on God.
Seventh, we are to be a peacemaker. Christ brought peace between God and man, reconciling us to God by atoning for our sins. This is the key to perfect peace, since peace with God is the key to peace within us and with one another.
Eighth, we are to be like Christ, sharing in His persecution when the world hates us and reviles us for following Him. And follow Him we must, in order to receive the rewards He promised; to inherit the earth, to receive comfort, to see God, to be filled with virtue which is the root of happiness, to obtain mercy, and so to be received into the kingdom of heaven forever.