poverty of spirit
Recognizing spiritual need
Poverty of spirit is a state of spiritual humility—recognizing one's own inadequacy or emptiness before God.
The phrase comes from the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
It suggests not material poverty but an inward condition of dependence and openness, the opposite of spiritual self-sufficiency or pride.
- humilityFreedom from arrogance
- meeknessGentle, unassertive disposition
- emptinessAbsence of substance
- surrenderCease resistance, yield
- letting goReleasing one's grasp
empty hands · brokenness · broken heart · contrite · lowliness · blessed · beatitude · kingdom of heaven · humble · dependence · weakness · mourning · cry out · grace · kingdom · repentance · clean slate · on my knees
- humilityhumbleness, humble, meekness, modesty, modest
- Jesus' teachingsSermon on the Mount, beatitudes, Beatitudes, love your enemies, Lord's Prayer
- CarmelitesTeresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Mount Carmel, dark night of the soul, Carmel
poverty of spiritself-righteousness
Smug moral superiority
hardness of heart · smugness · self-satisfaction · complacency · imperviousness
poverty of spiritpride
Satisfaction from one's achievements
arrogance · hubris · haughtiness · vainglory · self-righteousness
poverty of spiritworldliness
Secular, experienced outlook
materialism · avarice · covetousness · mammonism · acquisitiveness
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