Excerpt from “The Road to Daybreak” by Henri J.M. Nouwen “To be called to serve the poor permanently is what makes a covenant possible, creating a lasting bond with the poor. Poverty is neither nice nor pleasant. Nobody truly wants to be poor. We all want to move away from poverty.And still God loves the poor in a special way. Jesus did not say,“Happy are those who serve the poor,” ‘but’,“Happy are the poor.” Being poor is what Jesus invites us to, and that is much, much harder than serving the poor. The unnoticed, unspectacular, unpraised life in solidarity with the people who cannot give anything that makes us feel important is far from attractive. It is the way to poverty. Not an easy way, but God’s way, the way of the cross.”