As a Discalced Carmelite Secular, OCDS, my wife and myself have taken
vows of poverty.
That is, "spiritual poverty." God does not ask us to live in destitution, but
to surrender ourselves to Him alone, and not to things unimportant for
life in the spirit.
St. John of the Cross described it best in the Spiritual Canticle;
ccel.org
"Oh! who can heal me?
Give me at once Yourself,
Send me no more
A messenger
Who cannot tell me what I wish."
In other words, as the soul matures spiritually, she seeks only Christ and no longer
do the words of writers, preachers and others feed them. The soul detaches from
everything, even religious things and becomes spiritually poor as she seeks Christ.
The soul seeks a relation with Christ, as Christ is, not as the imagination creates.