Bob's Beatitudes for Ordinary People

1. Blessed are you if you are a little poorer than you might otherwise be because you give away a little more money than you should to the poor. You are their hope, their life, and their joy on many occasions. It is because of you that they bless and praise God. Blessed are you who are a little more generous than sensible, because your anxiety for the needy and suffering often relieves a pain and suffering experienced that you will seldom know.
2. Blessed are you if you are not hungry but help those who are. Blessed are you if you pray to God and work hard to help those who are hungry and in need. You are the one whom God rewards with security and the one prayed for by those who live in fear of the pain of hunger.
3. Blessed are you because you live a life of prayer, charity, faith and hope in God. You are blessed because you share that with others to drive away their sorrow and give them hope. Blessed are you in your happiness because it is a foretaste for the suffering of the life of the Kingdom. Blessed are you if the happiness you find from this life is the comfort of the sorrowing, for you take part of their pain to yourself.
4. Blessed are you when others vilify and ridicule you because you believe in and serve God. They do this because they have been too hurt to believe and hope in God anymore. By not returning their sneer, mockery, scorn, or curses and fueling their anger and frustration, but responding with a prayer, you make it possible for faith and hope to be born in them again. It is God's love you seek, and turning the other cheek to them shows the strength of your love for God.
5. Blessed are you if your career is not going as well as it might because you have scruples about fairness, honesty, justice, and charity. Blessed are you if you think you are going to finish not last, but far down on the list because that puts you very close to Christ, who truly finished last on earth. Your honesty, charity, and justice are the hope of those who have been crushed and used by the vruel, mean, and avaricious. The simplicity and generosity of your life gives encouragement to those who are even farther behind than you.
6. Blessed are you if you are somewhat unsatisfied with what the world has dealt you because you place your hope and trust in God. Be patient and wait for what the world cannot give you, for the Spirit of God, as it will provide for all which you long. Be patient and walk in prayer, for your God will not diappoint and you will guide your steps along the way. Wait in prayer for Your God will not disappoint, and you will be filled by the Spirit of God. Blessed are you if you seek your fill from the table of the Lord. You see that you are a pilgrim on the way to the Kingdom, and being too much at home in this world might be a sign that there is not other home waiting for you.
7. Blessed are you if you are weary and tired, sore and aching from serving God by serving others, for you are carving out your path to the Father. The hard and rocky path you walk is the one to Heaven, the road that you take leads you through a place called Calvary. You will stay there briefly on the way to your final destination...a place called the Table of the Lord. Blessed are you if you would rather walk on this lonely path because God is your constant but quiet companion. Your weariness in the service of the Lord shows that there is not darkness or emptiness at your heart. Your suffering is a sign that you are carrying your Cross. The fire of the Holy Spirit that enlivens you through prayer lives deep within you. You who labor are the people who build up Christ's body on earth. You are the people who quietly show forth the splendor of Christ, who proclaim his love quietly and gently.
8. Blessed are you if others think you a pious fool who wastes his or her time on a Saturday evening or Sunday morning. That shows that the wisdom and knowledge of God lives deeply within you. It is a sign that you are more than an empty suitcase, that your life is a mystery, that you seek God in your days here. Let them think this, for it might well be that the Kingdom of God is hidden deeply within you.