St. Elizabeth is best known for her love for the poor, something that reflects her true Franciscan spirit. Our task this year is to explore her life in relation to our calling as Secular Franciscans. We can learn much from her example and the example of St. Francis about how to approach and meet with the poor.

First, we should always look on the poor person as Christ to us. St. Francis said, "when you see a poor man, an image is placed before you of the Lord and his poor mother" (II Celano 85). When Elizabeth bathed and covered a poor man at her hospital in Marburg, she said to her companion Irmingard: "How good for us, that we can bathe and cover our Lord in this way" (Statements of the Four Handmaids).

To reach out to the poor we must be willing to really know them. Aren't we often tempted to prejudices, to hasty judgments about the lives of others, especially those who are struggling with poverty? St. Francis made one of his friars ask for forgiveness after he had harshly judged the intentions of a poor man (II Celano 85). Elizabeth kew that it was important to meet and learn about the poor before helping them. Her lady-in-waiting Isentrude testified: "She would ask where they lived, so that by examining them, she would be inspired to mercy and compassion. No matter how distant their poor dwellings and no matter how muddy or difficult the road was, she would visit them, entering their shabby little rooms" (Statements of the Four Handmaids).

Our SFO rule asks us to "establish community" with the poor. To do this we must be willing to enter their lives, and be willing for them to enter ours. This is what Elizabeth did when she acted as godmother for poor children and attended the funerals of the poor.

Our rule asks us to be "on an equal basis" with the poor. St. Francis said that he did not want his friars to sit on fine seats when the poor had to sit on the ground. Elizabeth stood among the poor women at church services as one of them. Because of this, the poor knew that her love for them was authentic.

Our rule also asks us to help create for the poor "conditions of life worthy of those redeemed by Christ." Therefore it is necessary not just to offer momentary aid. We must work so that the situation of the poor can be improved and made into one of real human dignity. Elizabeth did this with the poor affected by the famine in Thuringia. She gave them not just food and clothes, but an opportunity to work and support themselves. She also worked to give them new life for their souls by helping them approach the sacraments.

Above all, Elizabeth spread Franciscan joy to all the sick and poor she cared for, as she met them "with the greatest cheerfulness" (Testimony of the Four Handmaids). Her unique style of love for poor is symbolized in story of the bread she was carrying in her skirt for the poor that changed to roses. It is a legend, in fact, that has been told about a number of saints. Its literal historical truth in Elizabeth's life is questionable, but it is a real reflection of the attitude in which she approached her help for the poor. The beauty and fragrance of the roses represent the attitude in which we should approach our encounter with the poor – one that tries to spread the beauty of God's love for them. It reminds us that we should bring God's love in this way to everyone we meet.

Am I willing to go beneath appearances when I consider the lives and appearance of the poor and disadvantaged? Do I make hasty judgments or do I make an effort to discover their real situation? Am I aware that when I meet the poor I am meeting Christ? How should I act knowing this? How can we establish community and equality among the more well-to-do and the poor in our parish? In meeting the others, the sick the poor, and those in need, do I give them the things like bread, which are absolutely necessary for life, and those like roses, which give joy and radiance?

Rich and poor have a common bond: the LORD is the maker of them all (Proverbs 22:2).

[Jesus said]: "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14:12-14).

"Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me" (Mt. 25:35-26, 40)

A sense of community will make them joyful and ready to place themselves on an equal basis with all people, especially with the lowly for whom they shall strive to create conditions of life worthy of people redeemed by Christ. (SFO Rule II, 13).