For each of the 12 days of Christmas, I’ll review and fill out one of the “12 Ways of Christmas” …

No matter what happened to the economy this year, compared to most people in the world (ignoring the political stuff, see the video at the end of this post), Americans are downright rich.

We can still be poor in spirit, however, and Christmas can remind us how to do that.
   
In the upcoming Lent/Easter Faith & Family magazine, Rebecca Teti offers a little examination of conscience to ask: Am I poor in spirit, or not?

“What do I assert with my life each day? Do I say with my prayer, ‘I am a child of God, a Christian, a sharer in the three-fold office of priest, prophet, king? I am an intercessor for my family and the whole world whose prayer has meaning not because I am great but because he who is the author of all prayer is? Do I believe union with my Savior is more important than anything else I can do?
   
“Or with my life do I say: ‘Grace is nice, but first I must get my house clean. I want to be holy, but first I want to be thin. Lord, I entrust my children to you, but not enough to sit before the Blessed Sacrament and let you change my heart so that I will know with supernatural prudence how to form their hearts. I want them to be saints, but the example I give is of re-making our schedule to adjust for music lessons and sports and play dates. Not retreats. Not prayer. Not reading the Bible.’”

For men, we can add: With my life do I say: “Prayer is important, but not as important as checking the news, the sports scores, the financial results. My kids are important, but only when it fits into my own schedule or if I’m in the mood to spend time with them. My personal development is important ... but not my personal spiritual development”?

And so, to find God we need to choose to be poor in spirit. Just like he did. Turn the seventh “way” of Christmas into a New Year’s resolution that’s right for you:

“7. God chose poverty. Funny. More people are afraid of the economic crisis of 2008 than were of the moral crises that we have seen for decades. When you have plenty, it’s easy to become a de facto materialist and start relying on your plenty for happiness. In his manger at Bethlehem, God himself points another way.”

— Tom Hoopes