JV Lent: Almsgiving

Almsgiving is the final, and least remembered, Lenten value. Lent isn't just a personal spiritual journey. It's also about service.

Catholic Relief Service's Operation Rice Bowl is a great Lenten guide that links all three value together. It especially brings the focus of almsgiving on your personal wealth. There are days where you have to give based on how many water faucets you have in your house, or how much you spent on snacks in a day. Such focus highlights the difference between extreme poverty and comfortable middle class life in the States. At home my family follows Operation Rice Bowl each Lent.

But I'm not at home, and I'm not following Operation Rice Bowl. My Lenten almsgiving focus isn't on how many water faucets are in the Mountain House,* it's on time. Having a small stipend means I don't have a lot of extra money for charitable donations. But no matter how much or little money I make in life, I'll always have just as much time as anyone else. This Lent I'm trying to be generous with my time – to sit and chat even when I'm ready to go home and read my book, to play catch with a kid even when I'm tired from a whole day of working with her classmates, to come out of the house and visit even when I'm warm and comfortable at home.

This kind of almsgiving doesn't go to help the millions of nameless poor in the world;** it's scope is limited to the small number of people in my weekly life. It won't solve any problems or save any lives, but it will create bonds of love. I hope that is enough for now.

What are you giving as alms for these 40 days?

PS – If you're looking to make a charitable donation to a worthy NGO, allow me to suggest the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I've heard good things about them. Such good things that I decided to give them 2 years of my life! I'd put my money where my mouth is, except that my money is $60 a month. But trust that I'll be giving to JVC once I'm back in the States and making a wage that exceeds an average of $2/day. Go to http://jesuitvolunteers.org/supportjvc/

*In case you're wondering it's 6. And only 2 of them leak.

**Don't get it twisted. I'm not suggesting that charitable donation isn't a Christian thing to do.