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Rozann Carter

It occurred to me last night that almsgiving is never finally an effort aimed at fulfillment, at a satisfied feeling of having changed the world and made it a better place. It is not merely a philanthropic gift or a duty. It is an attempt to imitate the Incarnation in rejecting the desire to escape. It is a shaking away of indifference, a denunciation of the measuring of need in favor of simply elevating another’s need above one’s own. Not just another, actually—any other—and we can choose between the tools of time, talent, and treasure to do it. Almsgiving is an earthly introduction to one’s fellow sheep and a refusal to live the life of a sad, secure, lonely —and ultimately bewildered—goat.
-Rozann Carter (http://wordonfire.org/WoF-Blog/WoF-Blog/March-2012/Lent-Almsgiving-and-How-to-Avoid-Being-a-Goat.aspx)
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