PRAISE OF CHARITY – BY SAINT AUGUSTINE

The love with which we love God and neighbor summarizes in itself all the greatness and depth of the other divine precepts. This is what the only heavenly Teacher teaches us: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your understanding; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37-40). Therefore, if you lack the time to study page by page all the Scriptures, or to remove all the veils that cover their words and penetrate all the secrets of the Scriptures, practice charity, which encompasses everything. Thus you will possess what you have learned and what you have not been able to decipher. Indeed, if you have charity, you already know a principle that contains within itself what you perhaps do not understand.  In the passages of Scripture open to your intelligence, charity is manifest, and in the hidden ones, charity is hidden. If you put this virtue into practice in your habits, you possess all the divine oracles, whether you understand them or not.

Therefore, brothers, pursue charity, the sweet and healthy bond of hearts; without it, the richest person is poor, and with it, the poor person is rich. It is charity that gives us patience in afflictions, moderation in prosperity, courage in adversity, joy in good works; it offers us a safe refuge in temptations, generously gives hospitality to the helpless, gladdens the heart when it finds true brothers, and lends patience to suffer traitors.

Charity offered pleasing sacrifices in the person of Abel; it gave Noah a safe refuge during the flood; it was Abraham's faithful companion on all his journeys;  She inspired Moses with gentle sweetness in the midst of insults and David with great meekness in his tribulations. She softened the devouring flames of the three Hebrew youths in the furnace and gave courage to the Maccabees in the tortures of the fire.

Charity was chaste in Susanna's marriage, chaste with Hannah in her widowhood, and chaste with Mary in her virginity. It was the cause of holy liberty in Paul to correct and humility in Peter to obey; human in Christians to repent of their faults, divine in Christ to forgive them. But what praise can I give to charity, after the Lord Himself did so, teaching us through the mouth of His Apostle that it is the most excellent of all virtues? Showing us a path of sublime perfection, He says: Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not charity, I am as resounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have faith so great as to remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing. And though I distribute all my goods to the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity is patient, it is kind. Charity does not envy, it does not act rashly, it is not arrogant, it is not ambitious, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily provoked, it thinks no evil, it rejoices in evil, it rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things. Charity never fails (1 Corinthians 13:1-8).

How many treasures charity contains! It is the soul of Scripture, the power of prophecy, the salvation of mysteries, the foundation of knowledge, the fruit of faith, the wealth of the poor, the life of the dying.  Can greater magnanimity be imagined than to die for the wicked, or greater generosity than to love one's enemies?

Charity is the only one that is not saddened by the happiness of others, because it is not envious. It is the only one that is not proud of prosperity, because it is not vain. It is the only one that does not suffer the pangs of a guilty conscience, because it does not act thoughtlessly. Charity remains calm in insults; in the midst of hatred it does good; in anger it is calm; in the schemes of enemies it is innocent and simple; it groans in injustice and expands with the truth.

Imagine, if you can, something stronger than charity, not to avenge injuries, but rather to heal them. Imagine something more faithful, not out of vanity, but for supernatural motives, looking toward eternal life.  For all that one suffers in the present life is because one firmly believes in what is revealed of the life to come; if one tolerates evils, it is because one hopes for the good things that God promises in heaven; therefore, charity never ends.

Seek, then, charity, and meditating on it in holiness, strive to bear fruits of holiness. And whatever you find most excellent in it that I have not noticed, let it be manifest in your habits.

“Sermons”.

CHARITY

 

THE GREATEST ACT OF CHARITY

And he did not preach this truth to the air, because thousands of souls were saved thanks to his ministry.

How many souls have been saved or will be saved by your apostolic work? How big is your charity?

CHARITY

 

Let us not forget that in the evening of life, we will be judged according to the measure of love. Of love for God and of our neighbor. It will all depend on how much you loved, fulfilled, gave yourself and helped. Do not close your hand, help the neighbor who needs it.

Mark 12:28-31: 

“And there came one of the scribes that had heard them reasoning together, and seeing that he had answered them well, asked him which was the first commandment of all. And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

THE PRIMARY DUTY OF CHARITY

"The same applies to the notion of Fraternity which they found on the love of common interest or, beyond all philosophies and religions, on the mere notion of humanity, thus embracing with an equal love and tolerance all human beings and their miseries, whether these are intellectual, moral, or physical and temporal. But Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged, but in the zeal for their intellectual and moral improvement as well as for their material well-being. Catholic doctrine further tells us that love for our neighbor flows from our love for God, Who is Father to all, and goal of the whole human family; and in Jesus Christ whose members we are, to the point that in doing good to others we are doing good to Jesus Christ Himself. Any other kind of love is sheer illusion, sterile and fleeting.” 

ENCYCLICAL LETTER NOTRE CHARGE APOSTOLIQUE BY POPE SAINT PIUS X 

THE BEST KIND OF CHARITY

"Unquestionably, the pity which we show to the poor by relieving their needs is highly commended by God. But who will deny that a far higher place is held by that zeal and effort which applies itself to the work of instruction and persuasion, and thereby bestows on souls not the passing benefits of earth but the goods that last forever." 

Saint Pius X, Encyclical on the teaching of Christian doctrine, April 15, 1905

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False Charity and False Mercy: Weapons to Attempt to Destroy the Catholic Church

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Genuine Charity

Do You Often Insult Your Neighbor?

If We Judged Our Neighbor with the Same Benevolence that We Judge Our Sins, We Would Not Be So Hard of Heart

“Charity is patient, is kind… is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil.” 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5