Almsgiving for EC's during Great Lent

[DadDave]

What is meant by almsgiving for Great Lent for EC’s? What is typically done?

 

[ConstantineTG]

Works of charity.

 

[CDB1718]

I don’t remember where I read or heard it, but what has stuck with me for years is a simple saying. Almsgiving is not philanthropy.

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20071030_lent-2008_en.html

antiochian.org/lenten-transformation3

Both links say the same thing. It’s the same in east and west.

The Fathers of the Church frequently and unequivocally inculcated the necessity of almsgiving.

• To this matter St. Cyprian devoted a complete treatise (De Opere et Eleemosynâ, P.L., IV, 601 sqq.).
• St. Basil recounts how St. Lawrence distributed the treasures of the Church to the poor. Questioned by a pagan governor regarding the treasures which he had promised to transmit, Lawrence pointed to the poor, saying: They are treasures in whom is Christ, in whom is faith.
• Contrary to the envy of the Arians, St. Ambrose lauds the breaking and selling of sacred vessels for the redemption or captives (De Officiis Ministrorum, xxviii, xxx, P.L., XVI, 141 sqq.).
• The more effectively to urge the precept of almsgiving, the Fathers teach that the wealthy are God’s stewards and dispensers, so much so that where they refuse to aid the needy they are guilty of theft (St. Basil, Homil. in illud Lucæ, No. 7, P.G., XXXI, 278; St. Gregory of Nyssa, De Pauperibus Amandis, P.G., XLVI, 466; St. Chrysostom, in Ep. I ad Cor., Homil. 10, c. 3, P.G., LXI, 86; St. Ambrose, De Nab. lib. unus, P.L., XIV, 747; St. Augustine, in Ps. cxvii, P.L., XXXVII, 1922).
• Discretion in almsgiving is counseled in the Apostolic Constitutions: “Alms must not be given to the malicious, the intemperate, or the lazy; lest a premium should be set on vice” (Const. Apost., ii, 1-63; iii, 4-6).
• St. Cyprian asserts that adherents of other religions must not be excluded from a share in Catholic charity (De Opere et Eleemosynâ, c. xxv, P.L., IV, 620).

After the Patristic epoch the teaching of the Church regarding almsgiving did not vary throughout the ages.

newadvent.org/cathen/01328f.htm