Theme
Witnesses on money
Those who had to decide what they kept and what they gave — and what that did to their prayer.
A few words
The bread you are holding back belongs to the hungry; the coat you keep locked away, to the naked; the shoes rotting in your house, to the shoeless; the silver you keep buried, to the needy.
Praised be You, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Do not, my excellent friend, strive after wealth, which is the parent of pride and arrogance, brings upon us a band of destructive pleasures, is the architect and fabricator of every evil, and alienates us from the love of God.
My Communion is my breakfast.
If you wish, my lord, to live in continence with me and to dwell with me under the law of chastity, I name you lord and master of my own life. But if this seems too heavy for you, and you cannot bear the fire of youth, then see: all my goods lie before you; become their master from this moment and use them as you will. Only set my body free.
I have nothing of my own, but it is all my God's own, and I am only a steward appointed over it.
All 24 witnesses on money
- Basile de Césarée Gathering the scattered mind back to God, and letting prayer open our hands to the poor.
- Chiara Gambacorta Prayer that is not ashamed to count what is missing.
- Dorothe Engelbretsdatter The evening prayer of someone who has counted what is left.
- Enrique Shaw Answering for those who depend on us; other people's work carried as a charge before God.
- François d’Assise Poverty as radical freedom, creation as family.
- François Massabki What cannot be taken from us, even when everything is taken.
- George Müller The concrete trust that places each need into God's hands and waits, with the books open.
- Glückel de Hameln Praying in the middle of the accounts, the childbeds and the debts, without separating the two lives.
- Isidore de Péluse The prayer of someone who treats other people's ordinary business as serious business.
- Jean Chrysostome The word that defends the poor, and thanksgiving held even in the loss of all.
- Jean l'Aumônier Seeing in the one who lacks everything someone who has credit with God.
- Joseph Wresinski Refusing to let poverty silence anyone; treating dignity as a right and not as alms.
- Julia Greeley Giving at night to spare the shame of the one who receives; a charity that refuses to be seen.
- Katharine Drexel Wealth and time poured out without return, for the sake of the despised.
- Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort The prayer of someone who has put nothing aside for tomorrow.
- Mélanie l'Ancienne Naming oneself by belonging to God, and not by what one owns.
- Mélanie la Jeune Letting go of possessions in order to become free again; the marriage bond widened into brotherhood.
- Olympias de Constantinople Standing with those we love when they fall; giving away without measure what was received.
- Paula de Rome Stripping oneself bare by choice, late and in full strength, and a taste for the Scriptures learned for good.
- Pedro de San José Betancur The charity of one who, having known destitution, makes it the place of his prayer.
- Philipp Jacob Spener Prayer given back into ordinary people's hands, at home.
- Pierre Toussaint The quiet, stubborn charity of daily life, working in order to be able to give.
- Théodoret de Cyr Consolation written to someone one actually knows, and dispossession quietly kept up for twenty-five years.
- William Law The devotion that reaches all of ordinary life, down to work and the use of money.