"No money in their belts"

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:7-13.
He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick--no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them."
So they went off and preached repentance.
They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.


Commentary of the day : Saint Francis of Assisi
"No money in their belts"

The Lord commands us in the Gospel: «Watch, be on your guard against all malice and greed» (cf. Lk 12:15). «Guard yourselves against the preoccupations of this world and the cares of this life» (cf. Mt 6,25; Lk 21:34). Therefore, none of the brothers, wherever he may be or wherever he goes, should in any way carry, receive, or have received either money or coins, whether for clothing or books or payment for any work-indeed, for no reason-unless it is for the evident need of the sick brothers; for we must not suppose that money or coins have any greater value than stones. And the devil would like to blind those who desire it or consider it better than stones. Therefore, let us who have left all things behind take care that we do not lose the kingdom of heaven for so little (cf. Mt 19:27; Mk 10,24.28). And if we were to find coins in any place, let us give them no more thought than the dust which we crush with our feet; for all this is «vanity of vanities, and all is vanity» (Eccl 1:2).

All the brothers should strive to follow the humility and the poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ... And they must rejoice when they live among people who are considered to be of little worth and who are looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars by the wayside. And when it may be necessary, let them go for alms. And they should not be ashamed, but rather recall that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living and all-powerful God... was a poor man and a transient and lived on alms, he and the Blessed Virgin, and His disciples