Lenten fasting works best when accompanied by almsgiving and works of mercy, says Leo the Great, writing around AD 450. This powerful combination brings healing, spiritual renewal, and progress in virtue....
Basil the Great here urges generosity in almsgiving. Basil views works of mercy as sowing seeds of charity that bears the fruit of eternal happiness....
This excellent reflection on one of the three pillars of Lenten penance, almsgiving or generosity, is an excerpt from a sermon on the love of poverty by Saint Gregory of Nazianzen. It is also a very clear statement on stewardship -- that we are stewards,...
These words of St. Vincent de Paul so clearly capture the essence of his vocation and ministry that they are read every year on the occasion of his feast day on September 27. The poor, when viewed with eyes of faith, give us the...
John Chrysostom warns against giving honor to Christ by adorning the Church building to the neglect of the poor and suffering members of Christ's body, the Church in the truest sense. ...
St. Maximus the Confessor here makes clear the nature of true charity or love of God (one of the theological virtues), and affirms that it is not by faith alone that we secure our salvation, but also by a positive act of love of God...