In Marilynne Robinson`s novel Gilead, the Reverend John Ames meets and marries a young woman called Lila whose life has been very difficult.  She has not been baptised and he baptises her, but she washes it off afterwards because she feels it prevents her from identifying with the people she knew in her very difficult past.  When John Ames tells her he has no money to leave to her and their child, she says to him, do you think I don`t know how to be poor.

Today is the Feast of All Saints; they are the countless men and women through history, and that includes pre Christian history who knew how to be poor.

Do you know how to be poor?