Dear Sisters and Brothers,
We are nearing the most important week of the year––Holy Week––and our celebration of the most important event in all of history––Jesus Paschal Mystery, his death and resurrection.
But there is still some time left in Lent. There is still time to grow in what matters most––love. There is still time to rededicate ourselves to striving to cooperate more fully with God’s will and gifts in our life. We know that the three principle ways that we do that are with a renewed focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
I recently came across a powerful passage from St. Leo the Great on almsgiving that I want to share with you. I hope you find it as edifying and inspiring as I did. May we all not only listen to his words, but also act on them, and so become a little more like God.
And to the poor also, and to those who are afflicted in various ways, let us show a more open-handed generosity so that God may be thanked through many voices and the needy may be fed as a result of our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than the support that is lavished on his poor. Where God finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognizes the reflection of his own fatherly care.
Do not be put off giving by a lack of resources. A generous spirit is itself great wealth, and there can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. His hand is present in all this activity: his hand, which multiplies the bread by breaking it and increases it by giving it away.
When you give alms, do not be anxious but full of happiness. The greatest treasure will go to the one who has kept the least for himself. The holy apostle Paul tells us: He who provides seed for the sower will give bread for food, provide you with more seed, and increase the harvest of your goodness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
This weekend (March 21-22) I am away on a retreat. Be assured of my prayers for you all as I seek my own deeper conversion and God’s will for myself and our parish.
May God bless you and your family abundantly this week.
Fr. Jonathan