The spirit of poverty opens our heart to experiencing the providence of God. Regarding providence for God’s servants, God the Father told St. Catherine of Siena, “I provide for all of them, but they receive my help perfectly or imperfectly according to how perfect or imperfect, how detached from the world and themselves, they are.”
God the Father explained how he provides for his servants who are poor: “The poor, though they do not enjoy plenty, have their every need fulfilled; I never fail them so long as they put their trust in me. True, I sometimes bring them to the brink so that they will better see and know that I can and will provide for them, so that they will fall in love with my providence and embrace true poverty as their bride.”
St. Catherine understood that those who make wealth their god would grieve more when they lose their temporal possessions than when they lose God through mortal sin. Much evil comes from the perverse desire and disordered affection for wealth. These are related to pride, for wealth gives a person a sense of superiority.
All created things are made to serve people, and people are created to serve God. Wealth is given by God to man so that man can use it to serve God. Man must put his trust not on wealth, but on God. God the Father told St. Catherine: “What cruelty and unfaithfulness to me, because they presume on themselves as if they had acquired their wealth by their own power! They do not see that they neither gain nor keep it by their own power but only by mine.”
“They lose their trust in me and trust only in their riches. But their trust is empty, for it will fail as soon as they have no more riches. Either they will lose them in this life by my dispensation and for their own good, or they will lose them in death.”
Christ said, “it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Mt 7:14). He also said, “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:24).
St. Catherine understood that the “rich” are those who possess or desire wealth with disordered affection. Regarding those people, God the Father told St. Catherine: “Only if they throw their load to the ground and restrain their affection for the world and bow their head in humility will they be able to pass through. And there is no other gate but this that leads to eternal life.”
Some people throw down the “load” of disordered affection for wealth by observing the counsel of poverty in fact, and some throw it down by observing the counsel in spirit by stripping oneself of attachment to wealth, so that they possess it, not with disordered love, but with holy fear. They act as distributors for the poor rather than possessors of wealth.
Those who have a disordered affection for wealth experience a foretaste of hell even in this life. God the Father told St. Catherine: “They are always suffering because they are wanting more than they can have. They suffer over what they do not have, and what they lose they lose with grief. Their grief is as great as was their love in possessing. They lose all affection for their neighbours and have no care for acquiring virtue.”
On the other hand, those who are poor in spirit experience happiness. God the Father said, “I am telling you that every good, peace, rest, and calm comes from poverty. Only look at the faces of those who are truly poor: how happy and joyful they are!”
神貧是福
神貧的人打開他們的心扉，感受到天主聖意下的恩祐。有關天主照顧祂的僕人，天主聖父告訴聖嘉琳說：「我供給他們每一位，但他們接受得完全或不完全是依照他們是否完全或不完全，即他們如何捨絕世俗和他們自己。」
天主聖父解釋：「貧窮的人，雖然他們享受不到豐盈，但他們一切的需要得到滿足。只要他們繼續信賴我，我不會讓他們失落。的確，有時我會讓他們走到邊緣，好使他們更能看到和知道我能夠和願意看顧他們，好等他們會愛上我的照願並擁抱真正的神貧作為淨配。」
聖嘉琳明白，那些把財富看做神的人，當失去暫世擁有時，會感到非常苦痛，甚至大於失去天主寵愛的苦。邪惡源自對財富邪惡的慾念及鍾愛，與驕傲的心態不無關係，因為財富帶給他們高人一等的感覺。
萬物是為人而受造，人是為天主而受造。財富是天主交給人，人要用財富侍奉天主。人必須信賴天主，而不是財富。天主聖父指出世人對祂是多麼狠心不忠，因為他們妄想他們所得的財富，是純因他們自己的能力！他們看不到只因天主的得能，他們才可以擁有和善保他們在世的所得。
天主聖父說：「他們失去對我的信賴，而只信賴他們的財富。但他們的信賴是空虛的，因為當他們沒有財富時，信賴將告吹。或是因我的決定和為他們的好處，他們在今世失去財富，或是他們將在死時失去它們。」
基督曾說過：「那導入生命的門是多麼窄，路是多麼狹！找到它的人的確不多。（瑪竇福音7:14）」祂又說過：「駱駝穿過針孔，比富人進入天國還容易。（瑪竇福音19:24）」聖嘉琳明白到，基督所指的富人，是那些只沉醉於鍾愛世俗財富的人。他們要把對世物錯亂的愛放到地上，克制他們對俗物的追捧，謙遜地低下頭來，才能進入和走過那度窄門。只有那度窄門才能通往永生。
為了聽從神貧的忠告，有人實在地去過窮人的生活，也有人在心神上守神貧：脫去對世物的眷戀，即使他們擁有財富，在敬畏天主的驅使下，仍會正當地擁有、正確地運用；更好地說：他們願意向貧窮者分施，卻不自私地據為己有。
一心追求世俗財富的人，在此生已始嚐地獄之苦。因為他們會貪得無厭，屢拚不獲之時，會感到痛苦，甚至失去所得時，更見悽傷；他們悽傷的程度與他們愛擁有的程度，成了正比，他們失去對近人的關愛，且談不上修德成聖。另方面，神貧的人卻能享有喜悅。天主聖父說：「我告訴你，良善和平、神寧心靜，均來自神貧。看看真正神貧的人，他們的臉上，常展示歡樂和喜悅。」
