"Elizaveta Iurievna Kuzmina-Karavaeva Skobtsova, later known as Mother Maria, was a Russian Orthodox religious thinker, poet and artist. Her multi-faceted legacy includes articles, poems, art, and drama. In the 1910s she was part of the literary milieu of St. Petersburg and was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. She fled Russia soon after the Bolsheviks' takeover and lived in Paris, where she became a nun. In 1935, she participated in organizing the so-called Orthodox Action, which was designed to help Russian immigrants in France. She and her fellow-workers from Orthodox Action opened a house for homeless and sick immigrants in Paris. During the Nazi occupation of the city, the house was transformed into a refuge for Jews and displaced persons. Mother Maria and her son were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and died in the Ravensbruck camp in Germany. Mother Maria's selfless devotion to people and her death as a martyr will never be forgotten. In 2004, the Holy Synod confirmed the glorification of Mother Maria." - from Columbia University Libraries Special Collection link
Poverty of SPIRIT
"For many perhaps, the promise of the Beatitude of the Poor in Spirit seems incomprehensible. It seems incomprehensible, what is to be understood by the expression, -- poverty of spirit. Certain of the fanatical regard it, that this is an impoverishing of spirit, a freeing it from every thought, lest there be asserted the sinfulness from any thought, of any intellectual life. Others, unreceptive to such an explanation, regard the word "spirit" as an added interpolation not included in the original Gospel text." - Mother Maria of Paris
What if it was just as simple as becoming more simple. What if poverty of spirit just meant to look at everything with a sense of simplicity and an eye toward simplification.
Not some standard measure of how much is too much, just simply always being about the task of simplifying. That is goods, emotions, attitude, projects, knowledge, wisdom, the whole shootin' match.
Tis a gift to be simple.
Ciao!
+Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment