Matthew 5: 1 - 12

The blessings in the Beatitudes are primarily future blessings, but there can be an anticipation of the blessings in the present. At first reading some Beatitudes may seem to describe circumstances that you would like to avoid at all costs. Read them slowly. Stay with each one for a while. Let yourself get a sense of the paradox involved in each one. Perhaps you have had an experience of a deeper and more authentic life, a blessing, when

• you were poor - you knew your need of God • you mourned - could feel for others
  
• you were meek - neither spineless nor emotionally out of control
  
• you hungered and thirsted for some cause • you were merciful rather than vengeful
  
• you were pure in heart - a person of integrity, whose actions and intentions correspond
  
• you were a peacemaker • you were persecuted because you stood for something