Sermons & Letters 5

We proclaim to you, most beloved, a known and familiar command with pastoral exhortation, that you be devoted in the work of mercy. And even though this is never neglected by your holiness, yet now it is to be carried out more promptly and more earnestly:

because the first day of the collections, most healthfully instituted by the holy Fathers, requires this: that each one, according as is willing and possible, should contribute from your resources for the uses and nourishment of the poor, knowing that, besides that laver of regeneration in which the stains of all sins are washed away, this remedy has been divinely granted to human weakness—that whatever guilt is contracted in this earthly dwelling may be blotted out by almsgiving. For alms are works of charity, and we know that charity covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8; Prov. 10:12).

Therefore, most beloved, carefully prepare your voluntary collections for the second weekday (Monday), so that whatever you set aside for yourselves from your temporal substance, you may receive it multiplied in the eternal recompense.