40 Days for the Poor - Day 36 - Loose change

I was reading the other day about a woman who is always broke. She manages her pennies right down to the last one and still doesn't have quite enough to cover every minor thing. She tries to be frugal and needs more ideas to stretch her dollars more. Right now, there's nothing she can do. Her husband works but doesn't make quite enough. It's hard for her to find a job because of where they live and because she doesn't have a degree. My heart went out to her because no matter what she does, she can't get ahead or even quite keep even.

I have been blessed all my life. I've never been in that situation. I'm spoiled. I'm so spoiled that in my house there are cans or bowls or dresser tops where there's lots of loose change. Anytime I want I can go dig through one of these places and come up with quarters, nickels and dimes. I have often thought that if I could get my act together I would round up all that loose change and give it to someone or some organization in need.

I have attempted to do this. We've just come through the pre-Christmas season (in Catholic terms Adent, the Christmas season starts on Christmas Eve and lasts until Epiphany) when there are lots of opportunities to give to charity. I mean, these opportunities are much more visible because people are thinking of being kind and generous to the less fortunate in the spirit of Christmas. But we also go through that same focus in Lent as well. The three things we should be doing during Lent are penance, prayer and almsgiving. My parish always participates in the Lenten Rice Bowl program. You get this little cardboard 'bowl' along with a calendar that lists all the days of Lent. Each day focuses on a different penance or prayer. You put all your loose change into the 'bowl' and on a certain day you turn it into the church, which collects all of them and gets it all to Catholic Relief Services.

I have two rice bowls of coins sitting in my house (on the upstairs hall bookcase to be precise)! I never seem to notice when the bowls are due, so I forget to turn them in! This year I am determined that I am going to notice WHEN these bowls go back to the church.

I also think that it would be a good project for us, if at some point other than Lent, we went through and gathered all the loose change in the house and perhaps donated it to Food for the Poor.

I should really be more aware, more conscious of the many material blessings I have been showered with all my life. I should make more of an effort to get off my patootie and help others. Hopefully, this will be a hallmark of 2013, through the intercession of Dorothy Day.