“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” – Jesus
Children, most especially, have a hard time believing those words. Isn’t opening a gift on your birthday, or at Christmas, the best thing in the whole wide world? For a kid it certainly seems more fun than wrapping a present for someone else.
This is a truth that most of us find we need to mature into, as we leave childhood behind and reach adolescence and adulthood. We “grow into” understanding this teaching and one way to do it is by living it.
Try it on this week, as if it were a new shirt or pair of shoes. Practice it and see if it starts to “fit” you.
Here are some suggestions:
- Call someone who might be lonely—call, don’t text!
- Pick up some extra fruit at the market, or from your trees and deliver them to someone, just so they know you were thinking of them
- Give an extra few minutes of your time to Jesus, by stopping by the Adoration Chapel for a visit
- Collect a few extra cans of food from your pantry shelves, or at the market and drop them off at a local charity (Empty Vessel, Salvation Army, Karidat)
- Write a note or a postcard and put it in the mail for someone far away who you haven’t heard from in awhile
- If you are at a loss as to what to give, close your eyes (not while driving!) during your workday and ask the Blessed Mother herself to give a special gift of grace to someone
- Give an extra dollar or two (or ten!) into the collection basket at Mass
- Write an email/social media message to say ‘thank you’ to someone who has been kind to you; acknowledge their kindness and what it means to you .
Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. St Paul, to the Corinthians (chapter 9)