From today's Spiritual Reading: The Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence and Happiness

1. Nothing happens in this world but by the direction or permission of God.

2. Therefore, when we are robbed of our good name, despoiled of our wealth, abused, or otherwise wronged, we must ascribe it to the will of God. It is His hand that is visiting us; all is the work of His providence.

3. God wills you to be humbled and deprived of temporal goods, that thereby you may become better and more virtuous.

4. We must always discriminate between what God accomplishes through the instrumentality of men and what their own evil will may add thereto.

5. We should rest satisfied that, however hostile or inimical they may be toward us, they are only instruments of salvation in the hands of an All-good, All-wise, All-powerful God.

6. God deals with us in mildness. He takes into consideration the natural character, the talents of each individual.

7. God tries us only that we may attain perfection and this for the holiest and noblest end that can be conceived, His own glory and honor.

8. All things would contribute to our perfection if we corresponded to the intentions of Divine Providence.

9. Tribulations are, indeed, an essential feature in the means that work unto salvation.

10. God intends to fashion us to His own image; therefore, we must passively submit to His skillful hand. Every stroke is a master-touch toward our sanctification.

11. Perfection consists in nothing else than in conformity to the will of God. The more fully we submit to the Divine Will the more we advance; when we resist it, we go backward.

12. A soul truly resigned to God is like our Divine Lord, who, though scourged and fastened to the ignominious wood of the cross, yet ceased not to be happy. Immersed as He was in an ocean of suffering, His Sacred Heart still overflowed with infinite joy.

The Way of Interior Peace
Rev. Fr. De Lehen, SJ

HOLY PURITY

“He that loves wisdom, ”saith the Holy Ghost, “will obtain it, for it will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins”(Wis.i.4). St. John was from his childhood an angel of purity, on which account he was particularly beloved by Jesus, and endowed by the Holy Ghost with such wisdom and knowledge that, as St. Augustine has remarked, he begins his gospel in a manner more lofty and sublime than the other three evangelists. For while they walk with the God-man upon earth, speaking comparatively little of His divinity, St. John, as if despising the world, soars beyond the vault of heaven, above the hosts of angels, and comes to Him by Whom all things are made, saying, “In the beginning was the Word. “At the Last Supper he was permitted to lean on the bosom of Jesus, but what he there drank in secretly he imparted openly. Apply thyself, therefore, to purity of heart, and thou shalt be like St. John, a beloved disciple of Jesus, and shalt be filled with heavenly wisdom.

CHANTING THE DIVINE OFFICE

“The liturgy of the hours, like other liturgical services, is not a private matter but belongs to the whole Body of the Church, whose life it both expresses and affects.” (GILH 20)

I have been praying the Divine Office (aka Liturgy of the Hours) since my high school and college days. Lauds is prayed at 5:00 in the morning, Vespers at 6:00 in the evening after work, and Compline at the end of the day before going to bed. It provides my day with spiritual nourishment and soaks me in to the liturgical life of the Church.

The Divine Office is simply recited on week days and chanted on Sundays, Feasts and Solemnities. During summer and Christmas vacation, the Liturgy of the Hours is chanted daily. 

For chanting the Divine Office, I use the following books / resources. Some of these I downloaded and printed myself.

TEXTS of the DIVINE OFFICE:

• CHRISTIAN PRAYER (Paulines Edition) 
• DAILY ROMAN MISSAL (3rd Edition) for the Collects

MUSIC

A. English (Contemporary)

• Tunes for Christian Prayer - a hand-copy I made of the one used by the Poor Clare nuns of Palasao, Cantilan, Surigao del Sur. I borrowed a copy of this book when I was in college and I copied it for one month. It is a compilation of tones for the antiphons and psalmody made by the FMM sisters. Psalm tones are mostly from Murray and Bevenot. There is an appendix of settings for the Magnificat and Benedictus.
• Breaking Bread and Today's Missal (Oregon Catholic Press) - for the Lord's Prayer and for some hymns
• Music for the Liturgy of the Hours (ICEL) - a companion volume of the one-volume Christian Prayer published by Catholic Book Publishing. I has all the hymns as suggested by the Christian Prayer pointed to music, musical settings for the introductory verses,  psalm tones (Murray, Bevenot), selections for the antiphons, responsories, tones for the intercessions, Gospel Canticles, etc.

B. English ("Gregorian Chant"): Lauds and Vespers

     Introductory Verses

• Cantorinus 
• Sunday Lauds and Vespers (http://www.saintmeinradmusic.org/downloads/SLV_Cantor.pdf) 

     Hymns

• Hymnal Noted (http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=2E3Dya5ON5oC&printsec=frontcover&hl=tl#v=onepage&q&f=false)
• Hymner 

     Antiphons (Psalmody and for the Gospel Canticles)

• Ormonde Plater's English version of the new Antiphonale Monasticum (http://www.oplater.net/)
• Fr. Samuel Weber's antiphons (https://sites.google.com/a/sacredmusicus.org/sacred-music-us/divine-office)

     Psalm Tones

• St. Meinrad Modal Psalm Tones (http://www.saintmeinradmusic.org/downloads/Modal%20Psalm%20Tones%20%28Chnt%29.pdf)

     Responsories

•  Ormonde Plater's English version of the new Antiphonale Monasticum (http://www.oplater.net/)

     Gospel Canticles

• Gospel Canticles for Weekdays (https://sites.google.com/a/sacredmusicus.org/sacred-music-us/divine-office)

      Lord's Prayer

• Parish Book of Chant (http://www.musicasacra.com)
• Music for the Roman Missal (http://www.icelweb.org/musicfolder/openmusic.php)

 C. Latin (occasionally)

•  Liber Usualis (http://www.musicasacra.com)
• Antiphonale Romanum (1912) (http://www.musicasacra.com)
• Holger Peter Sandhofe's Antiphonale Romanum (http://web.ist.utl.pt/~duarte.valerio/HPS.zip)
• Parish Book of Chant (http://www.musicasacra.com)
• Dominican Rite Liturgia Horarum (http://dominican-liturgy.blogspot.com/)

A SAMPLING FROM TODAY'S OFFICE:

The introductory verses were taken from:

 
The hymn, Deus Tuorum Militum, for St. Stephen, martyr, is from:

The antiphons (Psalmody and Benedictus/Magnificat) were from:

(Ormonde Plater's English Version of Antiphonale Monasticum)

The Psalm Tones used:

(St. Meinrad Modal Psalm Tones)

Texts:

The Benedictus and Magnificat tones were from:

(Fr. Weber's The Gospel Canticles)

The Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster) was from:

 (The Parish Book of Chant)

The collect was taken from:

 

"The sung celebration of the divine office is more in keeping with the nature of this prayer and a mark of both higher solemnity and closer union of hearts in offering praise to God. . . . Therefore the singing of the office is earnestly recommended to those who carry out the office in choir or in common." (GILH 268)

It's always a joy to have the opportunity to sing the Office and offer a sacrifice of praise to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit with the Church. May God grant me the grace of perseverance...

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

December 8, 2005

Pope Paul VI solemnly concluded the Second Vatican Council in the square in front of St Peter's Basilica 40 years ago, on 8 December 1965. It had been inaugurated, in accordance with John XXIII's wishes, on 11 October 1962, which was then the Feast of Mary's Motherhood, and ended on the day of the Immaculate Conception. 

The Council took place in a Marian setting. It was actually far more than a setting:  it was the orientation of its entire process. 

It refers us, as it referred the Council Fathers at that time, to the image of the Virgin who listens and lives in the Word of God, who cherishes in her heart the words that God addresses to her and, piecing them together like a mosaic, learns to understand them (cf. Lk 2: 19, 51). 

It refers us to the great Believer who, full of faith, put herself in God's hands, abandoning herself to his will; it refers us to the humble Mother who, when the Son's mission so required, became part of it, and at the same time, to the courageous woman who stood beneath the Cross while the disciples fled. 

In his Discourse on the occasion of the promulgation of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Paul VI described Mary as "tutrix huius Concilii" - "Patroness of this Council" (cf. Oecumenicum Concilium Vaticanum II, Constitutiones Decreta Declarationes, Vatican City, 1966, p. 983) and, with an unmistakable allusion to the account of Pentecost transmitted by Luke (cf. Acts 1: 12-14), said that the Fathers were gathered in the Council Hall "cum Maria, Matre Iesu" and would also have left it in her name (p. 985). 

Indelibly printed in my memory is the moment when, hearing his words:  "Mariam Sanctissimam declaramus Matrem Ecclesiae" - "We declare Mary the Most Holy Mother of the Church", the Fathers spontaneously rose at once and paid homage to the Mother of God, to our Mother, to the Mother of the Church, with a standing ovation. 

Indeed, with this title the Pope summed up the Marian teaching of the Council and provided the key to understanding it. Not only does Mary have a unique relationship with Christ, the Son of God who, as man, chose to become her Son. Since she was totally united to Christ, she also totally belongs to us. Yes, we can say that Mary is close to us as no other human being is, because Christ becomes man for all men and women and his entire being is "being here for us". 

Christ, the Fathers said, as the Head, is inseparable from his Body which is the Church, forming with her, so to speak, a single living subject. The Mother of the Head is also the Mother of all the Church; she is, so to speak, totally emptied of herself; she has given herself entirely to Christ and with him is given as a gift to us all. Indeed, the more the human person gives himself, the more he finds himself. 

The Council intended to tell us this:  Mary is so interwoven in the great mystery of the Church that she and the Church are inseparable, just as she and Christ are inseparable. Mary mirrors the Church, anticipates the Church in her person, and in all the turbulence that affects the suffering, struggling Church she always remains the Star of salvation. In her lies the true centre in which we trust, even if its peripheries very often weigh on our soul. 

In the context of the promulgation of the Constitution on the Church, Paul VI shed light on all this through a new title deeply rooted in Tradition, precisely with the intention of illuminating the inner structure of the Church's teaching, which was developed at the Council. The Second Vatican Council had to pronounce on the institutional components of the Church:  on the Bishops and on the Pontiff, on the priests, lay people and Religious, in their communion and in their relations; it had to describe the Church journeying on, "clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification..." (Lumen Gentium, n. 8). 

This "Petrine" aspect of the Church, however, is included in that "Marian" aspect. In Mary, the Immaculate, we find the essence of the Church without distortion. We ourselves must learn from her to become "ecclesial souls", as the Fathers said, so that we too may be able, in accordance with St Paul's words, to present ourselves "blameless" in the sight of the Lord, as he wanted us from the very beginning (cf. Col 1: 21; Eph 1: 4). 

But now we must ask ourselves:  What does "Mary, the Immaculate" mean? Does this title have something to tell us? Today, the liturgy illuminates the content of these words for us in two great images. 

First of all comes the marvellous narrative of the annunciation of the Messiah's coming to Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth. The Angel's greeting is interwoven with threads from the Old Testament, especially from the Prophet Zephaniah. He shows that Mary, the humble provincial woman who comes from a priestly race and bears within her the great priestly patrimony of Israel, is "the holy remnant" of Israel to which the prophets referred in all the periods of trial and darkness. 

In her is present the true Zion, the pure, living dwelling-place of God. In her the Lord dwells, in her he finds the place of his repose. She is the living house of God, who does not dwell in buildings of stone but in the heart of living man. She is the shoot which sprouts from the stump of David in the dark winter night of history. In her, the words of the Psalm are fulfilled:  "The earth has yielded its fruits" (Ps 67: 7). 

She is the offshoot from which grew the tree of redemption and of the redeemed. God has not failed, as it might have seemed formerly at the beginning of history with Adam and Eve or during the period of the Babylonian Exile, and as it seemed anew in Mary's time when Israel had become a people with no importance in an occupied region and with very few recognizable signs of its holiness. 

God did not fail. In the humility of the house in Nazareth lived holy Israel, the pure remnant. God saved and saves his people. From the felled tree trunk Israel's history shone out anew, becoming a living force that guides and pervades the world. 

Mary is holy Israel:  she says "yes" to the Lord, she puts herself totally at his disposal and thus becomes the living temple of God. 

The second image is much more difficult and obscure. This metaphor from the Book of Genesis speaks to us from a great historical distance and can only be explained with difficulty; only in the course of history has it been possible to develop a deeper understanding of what it refers to. 

It was foretold that the struggle between humanity and the serpent, that is, between man and the forces of evil and death, would continue throughout history. 

It was also foretold, however, that the "offspring" of a woman would one day triumph and would crush the head of the serpent to death; it was foretold that the offspring of the woman - and in this offspring the woman and the mother herself - would be victorious and that thus, through man, God would triumph. 

If we set ourselves with the believing and praying Church to listen to this text, then we can begin to understand what original sin, inherited sin, is and also what the protection against this inherited sin is, what redemption is. 

What picture does this passage show us? The human being does not trust God. Tempted by the serpent, he harbours the suspicion that in the end, God takes something away from his life, that God is a rival who curtails our freedom and that we will be fully human only when we have cast him aside; in brief, that only in this way can we fully achieve our freedom. 

The human being lives in the suspicion that God's love creates a dependence and that he must rid himself of this dependency if he is to be fully himself. Man does not want to receive his existence and the fullness of his life from God. 

He himself wants to obtain from the tree of knowledge the power to shape the world, to make himself a god, raising himself to God's level, and to overcome death and darkness with his own efforts. He does not want to rely on love that to him seems untrustworthy; he relies solely on his own knowledge since it confers power upon him. Rather than on love, he sets his sights on power, with which he desires to take his own life autonomously in hand. And in doing so, he trusts in deceit rather than in truth and thereby sinks with his life into emptiness, into death. 

Love is not dependence but a gift that makes us live. The freedom of a human being is the freedom of a limited being, and therefore is itself limited. We can possess it only as a shared freedom, in the communion of freedom:  only if we live in the right way, with one another and for one another, can freedom develop. 

We live in the right way if we live in accordance with the truth of our being, and that is, in accordance with God's will. For God's will is not a law for the human being imposed from the outside and that constrains him, but the intrinsic measure of his nature, a measure that is engraved within him and makes him the image of God, hence, a free creature. 

If we live in opposition to love and against the truth - in opposition to God - then we destroy one another and destroy the world. Then we do not find life but act in the interests of death. All this is recounted with immortal images in the history of the original fall of man and the expulsion of man from the earthly Paradise. 

Dear brothers and sisters, if we sincerely reflect about ourselves and our history, we have to say that with this narrative is described not only the history of the beginning but the history of all times, and that we all carry within us a drop of the poison of that way of thinking, illustrated by the images in the Book of Genesis. 

We call this drop of poison "original sin". Precisely on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we have a lurking suspicion that a person who does not sin must really be basically boring and that something is missing from his life:  the dramatic dimension of being autonomous; that the freedom to say no, to descend into the shadows of sin and to want to do things on one's own is part of being truly human; that only then can we make the most of all the vastness and depth of our being men and women, of being truly ourselves; that we should put this freedom to the test, even in opposition to God, in order to become, in reality, fully ourselves. 

In a word, we think that evil is basically good, we think that we need it, at least a little, in order to experience the fullness of being. We think that Mephistopheles - the tempter - is right when he says he is the power "that always wants evil and always does good" (J.W. von Goethe, Faust I, 3). We think that a little bargaining with evil, keeping for oneself a little freedom against God, is basically a good thing, perhaps even necessary. 

If we look, however, at the world that surrounds us we can see that this is not so; in other words, that evil is always poisonous, does not uplift human beings but degrades and humiliates them. It does not make them any the greater, purer or wealthier, but harms and belittles them. 

This is something we should indeed learn on the day of the Immaculate Conception:  the person who abandons himself totally in God's hands does not become God's puppet, a boring "yes man"; he does not lose his freedom. Only the person who entrusts himself totally to God finds true freedom, the great, creative immensity of the freedom of good.

The person who turns to God does not become smaller but greater, for through God and with God he becomes great, he becomes divine, he becomes truly himself. The person who puts himself in God's hands does not distance himself from others, withdrawing into his private salvation; on the contrary, it is only then that his heart truly awakens and he becomes a sensitive, hence, benevolent and open person. 

The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people. We see this in Mary. The fact that she is totally with God is the reason why she is so close to human beings. 

For this reason she can be the Mother of every consolation and every help, a Mother whom anyone can dare to address in any kind of need in weakness and in sin, for she has understanding for everything and is for everyone the open power of creative goodness. 

In her, God has impressed his own image, the image of the One who follows the lost sheep even up into the mountains and among the briars and thornbushes of the sins of this world, letting himself be spiked by the crown of thorns of these sins in order to take the sheep on his shoulders and bring it home. 

As a merciful Mother, Mary is the anticipated figure and everlasting portrait of the Son. Thus, we see that the image of the Sorrowful Virgin, of the Mother who shares her suffering and her love, is also a true image of the Immaculate Conception. Her heart was enlarged by being and feeling together with God. In her, God's goodness came very close to us. 

Mary thus stands before us as a sign of comfort, encouragement and hope. She turns to us, saying:  "Have the courage to dare with God! Try it! Do not be afraid of him! Have the courage to risk with faith! Have the courage to risk with goodness! Have the courage to risk with a pure heart! Commit yourselves to God, then you will see that it is precisely by doing so that your life will become broad and light, not boring but filled with infinite surprises, for God's infinite goodness is never depleted!".

On this Feast Day, let us thank the Lord for the great sign of his goodness which he has given us in Mary, his Mother and the Mother of the Church. Let us pray to him to put Mary on our path like a light that also helps us to become a light and to carry this light into the nights of history. Amen.

December 8: IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

A desire to know more than the here and now, the driving desire to know the difference in essence and nature of good and evil drove Adam and Eve to the drastic state of alienation from the Creator, Who up until that moment, walked intimately with them, “at the breezy time of the day,” (cf. Gn 3:8) enjoying gifts greater than we could ever imagine.

Due to this inordinate desire to know as God knows, to control self and all around self by controlling power put all into the sphere of ignorance rather than knowledge - actually the rug was pulled out from under mankind’s feet. Alienation from the benevolent Creator, the intimate friend Who warned that good could be lost if obedience were not followed. Eve spoke the truth when asked by the tempter why they were not eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the middle of the Garden of Eden: “The woman answered the serpent: ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'’ But the serpent said to the woman: ‘You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.” (Gn 3: 1-5)

The desire to know good and bad, to be in full control of their lives and destiny blinded Eve to full truth and simply caused her to cave in under her desires. “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” (Gn 3:6-7) As their eyes opened, they saw themselves as they really were, driven by unbridled desires, lusts - their naked selves and they were ashamed. As humans discover self, inner self as well as outer self, they notice that the drives lead to slavish lives, pure intimate interdependence gives way to fear in all proportions - the cup is full, not of grace but darkness, of death.

“The LORD God then called to the man and asked him, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.’ Then he asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!’ (Gn 3:10-11) Why do we hunger for that which destroys us and makes us impure? Because we too become disobedient, want to know and have things our way, thus tripping over self.

Let us look on the purity of Mary, realize she is the first believer in Jesus that she is the first to know Him. Let us hear her say: “do whatever He tells.” In her immaculate love she knows good and bad in our everyday struggles against temptation and sin, the memory of events in the past that have hurt us, the slavishness of disobedience. She knows by the Wisdom of the Incarnate that all bad will be pushed away if we trust her Son and show Him love by living His commands. We can and should be one in Mary to help us on our journey, to help us fight temptation and sin. She is the New Eve because she is the mother of all those born into new life through the grace of Christ. In our moments of trial let us turn to Mary for help. She like us had to struggle with what it means to be a follower of Jesus. In the temple Simeon predicted that a sword of sorrow would pierce her soul (Luke 2:35). When Jesus was lost she had to learn that Jesus’ heavenly Father comes first (Luke 2:49). Mary too had to take up her cross after Jesus even though she was immaculate. Mary as the Immaculate Conception longs only to live the Father’s will.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception be our health and our protection!

http://www.padrimariani.org/en/laity/meditation.php?NID=4716

ALMSGIVING (Mark Aquilina)

Of the three marks of Lent — prayer, fasting and almsgiving — almsgiving is surely the most neglected.

And yet, in the only place where the Bible brings all three together, the inspired author puts the emphasis firmly on the last: “Prayer and fasting are good, but better than either is almsgiving accompanied by righteousness … It is better to give alms than to store up gold; for almsgiving saves one from death and expiates every sin. Those who regularly give alms shall enjoy a full life” (Tob 12:8-9).

Why is almsgiving better than prayer and fasting? Because it is prayer, and it involves fasting. Almsgiving is a form of prayer because it is “giving to God” — and not mere philanthropy. It is a form of fasting because it demands sacrificial giving — not just giving something, but giving up something, giving till it hurts.

Jesus presented almsgiving as a necessary part of Christian life: “when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Mt 6:2-3). He does not say IF you give alms, but WHEN. Like fasting and prayer, almsgiving is non-negotiable.

The first Christians knew this. “There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need” (Acts 4:34-35).

That was the living embodiment of a basic principle of Catholic social teaching, what tradition calls “the universal destination of goods.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it succinctly: “The goods of creation are destined for the entire human race” (n. 2452).

But they can’t get there unless we put them there — and that requires effort.

As with prayer and fasting, so with almsgiving. If we have a plan, we’ll find it easier to do. Throughout history, many Christians have used the Old Testament practice of “tithing” as a guide — that is, they give a tenth of their income “to God.” In practice, that means giving it to the poor, to the parish, or to charitable institutions.

My friend Ed Kenna, an octogenarian and dad, remembers the day he decided to start tithing. “When I was a senior in high school, back in 1939-40, I read an article on charitable giving in a Catholic newspaper,” he recalls. “And it had a lot of testimonies to the fruits of tithing. Breadwinners told how God provided whenever they were in need or had an emergency. I decided, then and there, to start tithing, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

For Kenna, those 65 years have had their financial ups and downs. He served in the military during World War II, went to college and raised a family of nine children. Through it all, he says, he was often tempted, but he never wavered in his tithing. “There were many times when I reached a point where I said, ‘Something has to give — but I’m not going to give up on my tithing.’”

It’s a matter of trusting God, Kenna adds, “and God will not be outdone in generosity.”

Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), but those who tithe often find themselves on the receiving end as well. “I worked as an industrial engineer through the highs and lows of American industry,” Kenna recalls. “Twice my job fell victim to corporate mergers, but the phone always rang just in time. I never lost an hour of work to layoffs.”

He sees the difficult times as God’s test of our trust. “It’s especially hard in the beginning. On your first paycheck, it hurts. On the second, the pain’s a little less. At about the third or fourth, there’s no pain at all. You get used to it. It’s a habit. But you have to make that firm resolution: I’m gonna do it and not give in.”

Kenna, like many others, interprets tithing to mean taking ten percent off the “first fruits” — gross income, rather than net. He divides this up as “5 percent to the parish and 5 percent to other Catholic institutions.” He also gives of his time and has, for many decades, been a volunteer for the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Indeed, many Catholics extend the concept of almsgiving beyond money to include time and talent as well, donating a portion of these to worthy causes.

In the late fourth century, St. John Chrysostom looked at the good life people were living in the imperial court, and he was filled with righteous anger. In the name of God, he raged against those who owned toilet seats made of gold, while other people starved in cold hovels.

While our commodes may be made of less precious materials, many Americans today enjoy a better standard of life than any Byzantine emperor ever knew. Central heat, central air conditioning, electric lights, consistently safe food and water, antibiotics, and even aspirin — these are luxuries beyond the dreams of our ancient ancestors.

We are living high, but are we giving high?

It’s a good question to ask ourselves during Lent. It is a scandal, after all, for Christians to have closets overstuffed with clothing when there are families who are shivering because they can’t pay their heating bill. It is a scandal for Christians to be epidemically overweight when they have near neighbors who go to bed hungry.

We need to give to God — whom we meet in our neighbor — until these problems go away. Whatever we give, whether it’s a tenth or a twentieth or half, is symbolic of the greater giving that defines the Christian life. As God gave himself entirely to us, so we give ourselves entirely to Him. In the Eucharist, He holds nothing back. He gives us His body, blood, soul and divinity — everything He has. That’s the giving we need to imitate.

Charity begins at home, where we daily make the choice to give our time, our attention, our affirming smile, and give generously. But charity must not stop there, because for Catholics “home” is universal, and our family is as big as the world. We need to dig deep and give much where much is needed. But, whenever possible, our charity should also involve personal acts, not just automatic withdrawals from our bank account. Pope John Paul asked us to see, and be seen by, “the human face of poverty.”

We give what we have till we have nothing left to give. My friend and sometime co-author Regis Flaherty remembers his sister Pat as a woman who practiced giving all her life, to her sibilings, her husband, her children and her friends. To the end, she gave what she could. “When she was dying she was in and out of consciousness, but whenever she looked up at us, she would invariable smile — absolutely amazing considering how much she was suffering.”

Sometimes all we can give is a smile, but sometimes that is the greatest sacrifice, the greatest prayer, and indeed the most generous and most sacrificial alms.