Prayers for Family

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Only What is Given Away Will be Ours to Keep

By: Guest blogger December 26th, 2024

If you are someone who lends your favorite books to family members or friends only to find that the loan has become permanent, or sends thank you notes and birthday cards only to realize with a heart that sits somewhere between resignation and a slight ache that not everyone remembers your birthday or sends you messages of thanks, then the Church’s teaching on almsgiving and charity will be a source of much consolation—for in essence it is that only what is given away will be ours to keep. St Augustine places this teaching in the mouth of Christ as Augustine speaks of this to his congregation: “…on earth, my members were suffering, my members were in need. If you gave anything to my members, what you gave would reach their Head….I placed them on earth for you and appointed them your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury.” Then Christ laments to those who have not given to the poor and suffering, “But you have placed nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence” (Sermon 18, 4.).