What Does It Mean?
You see here the emblem of the Knights of St John International. A Maltese Cross transfixed with two swords. The eight points of the cross are the signs of the eight beatitudes which we always preserve.
Being a soldier of Christ, the Knight is a man in whom the beatitudes are verified and actualised.
What the beatitudes promised can be desired only by one who has been renewed by Grace, a heart liberated from the attractions of this world and its values. To the worldly man, one cannot be considered blessed when one is poor. On the other hand, it is the rich who are enviable because of the security and comfort that those riches promise. To the worldly man, meekness is not a virtue but rather a mark of weakness and lack of courage.
All the beatitudes are the expression of one basic beatitude which is the blessedness of belonging to and opting for the kingdom of God. Living out the beatitudes is the practical consequence of being invited to the wedding feast of the Kingdom.
Happy Are The Poor In Spirit
These are those who place their total dependence on God and not on the limited security of material wealth or temporal values.
Happy Are The Meek
Meekness is the distinguishing work of love. Those who are meek are the men of hope and patience who rely on the gentle power of love to deal with men. Allied to the beatitude of meekness are humility, tolerance, an open heart and self-mastery.
Meekness is intimately connected with compassion and the right disposition for peace. In this light, three beatitudes belong together…Blessed are the merciful…and blessed are the peacemakers.
Happy Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Justice…
In thy Strength O Lord, the just man shall exalt…This beatitude implies that the Knight at always should seek to put God above everything else in his right place. Justice cannot be obtained until God is given his absolute rightful place in all things.
Happy Are The Poor In Spirit
These are those who place their total dependence on God and not on the limited security of material wealth or temporal values.
Happy Are The Meek
Meekness is the distinguishing work of love. Those who are meek are the men of hope and patience who rely on the gentle power of love to deal with men. Allied to the beatitude of meekness are humility, tolerance, an open heart and self-mastery.
Meekness is intimately connected with compassion and the right disposition for peace. In this light, three beatitudes belong together…Blessed are the merciful…and blessed are the peacemakers.
Happy Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Justice…
In thy Strength O Lord, the just man shall exalt…
In thy Strength O Lord, the just man shall exalt…This beatitude implies that the Knight at always should seek to put God above everything else in his right place. Justice cannot be obtained until God is given his absolute rightful place in all things.
Happy Are Those Who Mourn
They are those Knights and Ladies who sincerely care and thereby truly enter into the sorrow and pain of others. Such are the compassionate ones who cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of others but share in it to lighten their burden. The promise made in this beatitude is that those Knights who practice this kind of compassionate solidarity will succeed in bringing upliftment and consolidation to men even here on earth.
Happy Are The Pure In Heart: They Shall See God
The pure in heart are those who are single-minded or single-hearted. To be single-hearted means to have no other motive than to seek God in all things; and to do this one has to go the way of self-denial and mortification. Only by a steady and resolute practice of self-denial can one succeed in becoming single-hearted.
Such disposition is indeed indispensable for the Knights if he seeks to have such conviction and credibility of a true soldier of Christ who is regarded as a true ambassador of Christ.
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