The portrait of Christ

The Beatitudes are eight short sayings of Jesus at the start of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. Read by themselves, they look like a list of paradoxes. Read as a portrait, they are something else entirely. They describe Jesus. The poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemaker. He is the man he is asking us to be.

This is why the Catechism calls them the heart of Jesus' preaching (CCC 1716). To live the Beatitudes is to be conformed to Christ. Slowly, over years, in small choices that nobody else sees.

The eight blessings

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3-10.

Authentic witness draws converts

One of the great pastoral facts of our 175th anniversary year is the surge of adult converts. 171 candidates at the 2026 Rite of Election in Shrewsbury Cathedral. Twice as many as 2025. Two services were needed because one Cathedral could not hold them all. Bishop Davies has named what is drawing them.

This new generation of converts have been drawn to the Church by no special initiative on our part, rather by the constancy of faith, the reverence of worship and the authentic witness they have found.

Pastoral Letter for Lent 2026.

Authentic witness. That is the Beatitudes lived in public. The world is not converted by argument. It is converted by Christians who actually look like Christ.

How to begin: one Beatitude at a time

Take them one at a time. A month each, perhaps a year for the harder ones. Live with one. Pray it. Notice where you fall short. Notice the small graces.

• Poor in spirit. Recognise that you depend on God for everything. Practise it: refuse to congratulate yourself this week. Thank God instead.
• Those who mourn. Grieve what is right to grieve. Sin in yourself, suffering in others, the broken state of the world. Go to confession.
• Meek. Strength under control. Do not return the sharp word. Do not insist on being right.
• Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Want goodness more than comfort. Read scripture daily. Pray for justice and mean it.
• Merciful. Forgive the person you do not want to forgive. The one whose face you can see right now.
• Pure in heart. Single-minded for God. Watch what you watch. Watch what you say.
• Peacemakers. Be the one who restores rooms. Apologise first.
• Persecuted for righteousness' sake. Accept being misunderstood for the sake of Christ. Do not retaliate.

The Beatitudes and the saints

This is what holiness looks like. Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, whose relics came to Shrewsbury Cathedral and St Werburgh's Chester in September 2022, was meek and pure of heart in a way that made bishops weep. Saint John Henry Newman, declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV in November 2025, hungered and thirsted for truth across forty years. Saint Carlo Acutis, whose heart relic visited the diocese on 21 September 2024, was poor in spirit and pure in heart at fifteen. Each saint is a Beatitude with a face.

Bishop Davies, on the saints:

The saints are the great evangelisers in every time and place and the saints show us the Gospel. They show the authentic face of the Church.

The promise

Each Beatitude has a promise. Not a reward earned. A gift given. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They shall be comforted. They shall see God. The Beatitudes are not a moral programme. They are an invitation into the life of Christ himself, where these promises come true.

The Catechism puts it like this: The beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness (CCC 1718). Christ is not asking for misery. He is showing the only path to a happiness that does not run out.

Your next step this month

Pick one Beatitude. Write it on a card. Carry it in your wallet for thirty days. Read it every morning before you check your phone.

• If you would like to study the Sermon on the Mount with others, ask your parish priest about a Lent or Advent group, or write to info@dioceseofshrewsbury.org.
• If you can, walk into Shrewsbury Cathedral for the 12 noon weekday Mass and pray your chosen Beatitude before the new altar, where the relics of Saint Polycarp, Saint John Vianney, and the Uganda Martyrs witness to lives lived to the end.

The Beatitudes are not abstract. They are a face. Begin to wear it.