I challenge everyone to Give something this Lent

Will you accept my challenge?

The Three Pillars of Lent are Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. Of these Almsgiving is the most neglected of all!

span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.22;">LOS ANGELES, CA - It is common practice for us Catholics to 'give up' something for Lent. It is usually something silly and frivolous like, I'm giving up chocolate for Lent, or I am giving up ketchup or I am giving up my iPod for lent and so on.

Really? Lent is supposed to be about sacrifice and becoming closer to the Lord.

'Give alms...Pray to your Father...Fast without a gloomy face...' (Matthew 6:1-18)

Is giving up frivolous things really a sacrifice?  How will giving up chocolate bring you closer to God? While giving up chocolate will have health benefits for you, is it truly a worthy Lenten sacrifice.

Feed a hungry child for a month

Giving needs to be a sacrifice to us. Whatever we give should be something of ourselves, something that costs us. We will receive blessings from God in return.

I challenge everyone to Give something this Lent, something that will result in a true sacrifice, rather than giving up something. By giving you are inviting God in, to fill the space you give. Giving is a form of prayer. It is a sacrifice to give and we need to give even when it hurts. Whatever we give should also be something of ourselves, something that costs us. We will receive blessings from God in return.

What shall we give to the needy this lent? In deciding, decide generously. After all, before us is the great alms Jesus gave: "He loved us, and gave himself up for us."

Almsgiving is more than giving money; almsgiving is putting down your electronic devices and spending more time with your family. It's saying something nice to some. It's volunteering to help others whether in a soup kitchen or shoveling snow. Its being kind to someone who is not kind to you. It is being there for others.

It is taking the money you spend on frivolous things you are going to give up and giving that to someone else.

The sacrifice of Lent is not only to remove bad or unnecessary things from our lives. We are sacrificing to make more room for God in our lives.

Help Persecuted Christian today

Giving alms, Jesus teaches, means making the needs of others our own, especially the needy of our world. They are all around us: children and the old, the sick and the suffering, families and individuals, next-door neighbors and people in lands faraway.

What will you do to love Him more and open yourself more to His Love?

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