Note: Sorry for the absence. Things were crazy last week – 6 straight 10 plus hour work days. No time left for blogging, I fear. I'll just pick up where I left off.

The traditional practices of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For many people, it is traditional to give up a favorite treat and use the money that would have been spent to some charitable cause.

That got me thinking about charity and love. Both words have been devalued in contemporary speech. We think of charity as something we give to those who are in need and, frankly, a bit pathetic. We use love to express pleasurable feelings about anything — from a spouse to a new flavor of ice cream. If we love everything, it makes you wonder what love really means.

Love is a feeling, a passion. It can warm the heart and fill your life with joy. Charity is an act of the will that allows you to make the love you feel concrete. Charity not motivated by love is hollow. A love that does not lead to action is impotent.

Where charity and love prevail, there is God.