Charity is that…
Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved.
— Saint Robert Bellermine (1542-1621)
The school of Christ…
The school of Christ is the school of charity. On the last day, when the general examination takes place, there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian. Charity will be the whole syllabus.
— Saint Robert Bellermine (1542-1621)
When someone steals…
When someone steals another’s clothes we call him a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the person who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the person who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.
–Saint Basil the Great (329-379)
Let your hands be open…
Do not let your hands be open to gather in; let them rather be open to give.
— Abba Chomai (A Desert Father)
What sort of people are we…
What sort of people are we if we want to receive, when God offers, but when God asks, we refuse to give? For when a poor man hungers, it is Christ who suffers want, as he himself has said: “I was hungry and you gave me no food.” Do not despise the misery of the poor if you want a sure hope of forgiveness for your sins. Christ is hungry now, brethren, in all the poor. He consents to suffer hunger and thirst – and whatever he receives on earth he will give back in heaven.
–Saint Caesarius of Arles (460-542)
No limit to charity…
If God is love, charity should know no limit, for God cannot be confined.
–Saint Leo the Great (c. 400-461)
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