Over and over again in the history of the Church, the saints have emphasized poverty. They ask us to meet the poor face-to-face, to share in their poverty, to lead a life of simplicity, to divest from our attachments that exploit the vulnerable and distract us from God and His creation.
To live a life of voluntary poverty is to accept precarity, the uncertain life of the poor. Uncertainty about how to pay the next heating bill or feed everyone who comes to the table. Yet, the very word “precarity” is based on the Latin precarius,which means to obtain by asking or praying. This trust in God’s loving providence is at the heart of the Catholic Worker movement. And voluntary poverty is the cornerstone.
