The basis of Francis’ exaltation of Holy Poverty was his understanding of the poverty of Jesus: born in a stable to a homeless couple, died naked and abandoned on the cross, and in between, a poor itinerant teacher. One of the early Franciscan sources puts it this way: “Lady Poverty was waiting in the cave in Bethlehem to greet Christ when he was born. She walked with him through his life when he had nowhere to lay his head. She stayed with him through his trials when everyone else deserted him, mounted the cross with him and was buried in the tomb with him. Later when he was resurrected and ascended, Lady Poverty was left alone and an outcast in the world. Francis was grieved that Poverty was no longer wanted and resolved to take her as his bride as Christ had done.” (Sacrum Commercium).
So it was because of his lifelong effort to imitate Christ that Francis came to exalt Poverty... For Francis, poverty was not just a penitential practice, an ascetical discipline. It was not in and of itself blessed, holy or virtuous. Poverty was a spiritual path which followed in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God...
What are we talking about when we speak of poverty as a virtue, as a valued companion on the spiritual journey? Material poverty is the poverty of the Beatitudes according to Luke 6:20. (Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven). As a virtue, it involves a simplification of life. It leads to the recognition that God alone can fill us and supply our every desire. Spiritual poverty is the poverty of the Beatitudes according to Matthew 5:3. (Blessed are those who are poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God). It means relying on God’s gifts and graces rather than necessarily living in material poverty.
For Francis poverty was “living without grasping.” This went beyond money and riches to touch every part of life. Francis taught his brothers not to seek after positions of authority, not to seek to do their own will, not to hang on to anger. Poverty means “letting go” or practicing “a relaxed grip.” This refers to more than our material possessions, it also could mean our good looks, our gifts, our knowledge, our reputation, our will, our identity, so that we come to stand before God in simplicity.
For Francis poverty was more about possession than about possessions per se. In other words, our attitude toward our possessions along the lines of the question of “Do we possess our possessions or do they possess us?” Why this kind of radical non-possessing? Because everything is gift. To Francis everything was gift rather than property. Possessing nothing, he received everything as gift. Poverty takes pleasure in a thing because it is, not because it can be possessed. Not owning things allowed Francis to enjoy the world without being anxious about losing a bit of it or acquiring a bit of it. For us to pretend that anything we have or are belongs to us as “property” is an affront to God from whom all good things come. As we come to acknowledge everything as gift, we see that all good things belong to God alone and to appropriate to ourselves anything is to attribute to ourselves what belongs to God. When Francis looked at Jesus he saw the good God who gives generously, even of divine life itself.
Paradoxically this way of stripping and dispossession is also a way of immense richness. We are left empty, with space to receive in abundance all that God gives. “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or field, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” (Matt. 19:29)
The above was taken from http://www.communitystfrancis.org/Canticle%2012-09.pdf
below is taken from chapter 31 of Imitation of Christ
Lord, I stand much in need of a grace yet greater, if I must arrive so far, that it may not be in the power of any man, nor anything created, to hinder me. For as long as anything holds me I cannot freely fly to Thee...
What can be more at rest than a simple eye that aims at nothing but God? And what can be more free than he who desires nothing upon earth?
A man ought, therefore, to pass and ascend above everything created, and perfectly to forsake himself, and in ecstasy of mind to stand and see that Thou, the Creator of all, infinitely transcendest all creatures.
And unless a man be at liberty from all things created, he cannot freely attend to things divine.
And this is the reason why there are found so few contemplative persons, because there are few that wholly wean themselves from transitory and created things.
For this a great grace is required, which may elevate the sould and carry her up above herself.
And unless a man be elevated in spirit, and set at liberty from all creatures, and wholly united to God, whatever he knows, and whatever he has, is of no great weight.
Long shall he be little and lie grovelling beneath, who esteems anything great but only the one immense, eternal good. And whatsoever is not God is nothing, and outght to be accounted as nothing.