Orphans

My brothers and sisters, love all orphans. If you only knew how sad it is to be abandoned, especially in infancy! God allows there to be orphans in order to engage us to serve as their parents. What divine charity it is to help a poor abandoned child, to keep it from suffering hunger and cold, and to guide its soul so that it does not lose itself to vice! Those who reach out to an abandoned child are agreeable to God, for they understand and practice his law. Moreover, consider that many times the child you help may have been dear to you in another incarnation, and if he or she could remember you, it would no longer be charity but an obligation. Thus, my friends, every sufferer is your brother or sister and has a right to your charity; but not the charity that wounds the heart or the alms that burn the hand in which they are deposited, for your alms are frequently quite bitter! How often these sufferers would refuse them if sickness and misery were not waiting for them at home! So, give delicately; add to your beneficent act the most precious of all acts: a good word, a pat, a friendly smile. Avoid the patronizing tone that twists the knife in a heart that is bleeding, and remember that in doing good you are working for yourself and your loved ones.

A Familiar Spirit (Paris, 1860)