Money can easily distort our attitudes and values. It is tempting to react more warmly to those who give more generously—we all do it. It is easy to overlook the motive behind giving and focus, not on the giver, but on the gift. We do have the expression that it’s the thought that counts. Usually, though, such proverbial wisdom is employed to help me/us be consoled when some expectation was not realised. Thus, this apparently consolatory thought acknowledges the tendency to the opposite, the attraction to the gift as such!! The Lord, however, reads our hearts.

Prayer

Lift us up, O Lord, that we may always value what really matters, the heart and not the appearances, the giver and not the gift. When we give, help us remember that you love the cheerful giver, giving from the heart.

Kieran J. O’Mahony OSA