“Charity is a virtue of the heart and not the hand. Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving, lies the expression of my aliveness.”
Erich Fromm
Every good act is charity. Your smiling in your brother’s face, is charity; an exhortation of your fellow-man to virtuous deeds, is equal to alms-giving; your putting a wanderer in the right road, is charity; your giving water to the thirsty, is charity. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. The greatest gift we can give to others are not material things but gifts of ourselves. The great gifts are those of love, of inspiration, of kindness, of encouragement, of forgiveness, of ideas and ideals.
The rabbis taught: In three things are deeds of love greater than charity.
Charity is done at the mere sacrifices of money, deeds of love are performed with one’s money and one’s person.
Give a smile to everyone you meet
Give happiness and you will be made happy.
A little girl came home from a neighbour’s house where her friend had died.
“Why did you go to that house? questioned her father.
“To comfort her mother”, replied the child.
“What could you do to comfort her”?
“I climbed into her lap and cried with her”, answered the child.
How often have I taken steps to comfort someone in pain or in sorrow?
