Welcome to The Examine, your daily prayer hosted by Father James Martin and brought to you by America Media, a Jesuit ministry.

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notes. I'm Father Jim Martin. I'm about to lead you through a traditional Jesuit prayer

that will help you notice where God has been in your day.

But first, let's begin with our weekly reflection, which is released every Sunday.

In the last two weeks, we've spoken about two of the three traditional pillars of the Lenten spiritual journey, prayer and fasting. This week, let's look at

almsgiving. In other words, giving money to the poor or to charitable organizations. For some reason,

many Christians object to this. They say first that you shouldn't give money to a homeless person

because they'll just use it to buy a drink or drugs.

But that's unfair as I see it. You have no idea what they'll do with it.

And if you're that worried, you can buy them food.

People also object to giving money to charitable organizations because they supposedly coddle the poor.

But that's even less objectionable since you know that they'll use it wisely.

But even if you had those objections, it wouldn't matter in the end, because Jesus asks us to be generous to the poor. It's one of the foundations of his public ministry, caring for the poor himself

and asking his disciples to do so as well. During Lent, you are called to give even more generously,

to stretch yourself. As Jesus said, as often as you give to these little ones, that is the poor

among us, you're giving to him.

Now, let's enter into the examin and review the past day.

If you're listening to this in the daytime, we'll look back at yesterday. If it's in the evening, when most people

pray the examiner, we'll look back at today. I'll lead you through the meditation, and after

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