I believe that we find support for Pontius's attribution of a religious motive to Cyprian's
almsgiving in Cyprian himself.
The other half is that the very traits explicable as
almsgiving also show that Americans by and large are willing to negate the absoluteness of contractual, commutative justice in relations between rich and poor.
It makes room for adding "to our service a bit more prayer and reading and
almsgiving," as the Rule of Benedict says.
Almsgiving and prayer are more important practices than fasting:
5 billion Muslims worldwide, including some 8 million people in North America, began Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic lunar year, by observing a month-long period of prayer,
almsgiving and fasting from all food and drink during daylight hours.
But that process is something of a mockery unless these folks are being initiated into a vital entity, into a church that is right now mightily engaged in the Lenten practices that, not surprisingly, we share with many other religious people in the world: prayer, fasting, and
almsgiving.
Of the three pillars of religion in ancient Judaism -- prayer, fasting and
almsgiving -- the voice of Jesus down the ages warns us about being seduced into believing that any of them, by virtue of their own worthiness, is really religious.
An indulgence removes some punishment for sin in response to certain prayers,
almsgiving, or good works.
Indeed, the period of preparation for baptism and Easter has always included fasting and penance, as well as
almsgiving.
The third pillar of Islam is
almsgiving, and the fourth pillar is fasting.
For the young Triton, cooking is not servile work, but an act of transforming the Buddhist obligation of
almsgiving into something edible.
He stated what Christians and Muslims have in common: a sense of a transcendent God who is compassionate and the source of meaning and morality and a belief in the importance of prayer,
almsgiving and pilgrimages.
