Almsgivin'

My friend Chris gave me this "I'm savin' up for Jesus!" money tin as a gift a few months ago. Chris is the sort of dear friend that gifts people with random items for no occasion. He has also been known to gift my room mate and I with his leftover Us Weekly magazines, and on one of his visits I let him take all the sugar-free Rock Star energy drinks that sat unwanted on the pantry shelf nearly two years after I bought them in bulk at Costco. I hadn't realized they went so poorly with vodka. Despite trading each other's trash for treasure, the gifted money tin has come to be quite useful this Lenten season. Rather than taking up the traditional rice bowl, with its images of Third World mothers and children, its prayers for peace and world hunger, and its flimsy cardboard walls, I have opted to use this more modern and durable money tin as my Lenten "rice bowl."

Almsgiving is a Lenten practice, along with prayer and, yes of course, fasting. Charity is a way of offering self-sacrifice, much like fasting, so as to give up part of one's self, habits or money to God. My rice bowl is not actually "savin' up for Jesus," as the change and dollar bills in it will join with the change of other abiding Catholics at mass on Holy Thursday and contribute to the Catholic Relief Services "Operation Rice Bowl" fund. Intentionally forfeiting my pennies and dimes at the end of each day towards a collective donation that extends beyond the reach of my meager purse moves me into union with not only Catholics that are "savin' up for Jesus," but also brings me to stand in some small solidarity with those that benefit from my dollar bills. The money I shove into the mouth of this fly priest's tin still brings assistance to the hungry and impoverished Third World mothers and children. It is also quite stylish.