Ex substantia tua fac eleemosynam, et noli avertere faciem tuam ab ullo paupere: ita enim fiet ut nec a te avertatur facies Domini. Quomodo potueris, ita esto misericors. Si multum tibi fuerit, abundanter tribue: si exiguum tibi fuerit, etiam exiguum libenter impertiri stude. Præmium enim bonum tibi thesaurizas in die necessitatis: quoniam eleemosyna ab omni peccato et a morte liberat, et non patietur animam ire in tenebras. Fiducia magna erit coram summo Deo, eleemosyna omnibus facientibus eam.
Use thy wealth in giving of alms; never turn thy back on any man who is in need, and the Lord, in thy own need, will have eyes for thee. Shew to others what kindness thy means allow, giving much, if much is thine, if thou hast little, cheerfully sharing that little. To do this is but to lay up a store against the day of distress; alms-deeds were ever a sovereign way of escape from guilt and death, a bar against the soul’s passage into darkness; none has less to fear when he stands before the most high God than he who does them.Tobias iv. 7-12.