¹ I ask and urge you, dearest brothers, that during this sacred and lawful season, no one should presume to eat a midday meal on weekdays, except on Sundays, unless perhaps due to an illness that makes fasting impossible. For on ordinary days, fasting brings either healing or reward, but during Lent, failing to fast is a sin. At other times, those who fast receive mercy; during Lent, however, those who are able but do not fast will face punishment.

² Even so, if someone is truly unable to fast, let him prepare food for himself privately, or, if there is another person who is also sick, let them share the meal together in their home. But they should not invite those who are healthy and capable of fasting to eat with them. For if they do, both God and people will recognize that they are not refraining from fasting because of genuine weakness, but out of gluttony.

³ Let it be enough for the one who cannot fast that he is excused due to his weakness. Yet even as he eats, let him do so with sorrow, sighing, and grief of heart because, while others fast, he is unable. Whatever is necessary for the sick, let it be prepared quietly either for themselves or for another who is likewise unwell. But they should not invite any healthy person to join them for a meal, lest they add the sin of another’s gluttony to their own burden.

⁴ However, because he is unable to fast, he should be even more generous in giving to the poor. In this way, he may redeem the sins that he cannot heal through fasting by offering alms instead. Fasting is good, brothers, but giving alms is even better. If someone can do both, it is a double blessing. Yet, if he cannot, it is better to give alms. If a person is unable to fast, almsgiving alone is sufficient; but fasting without almsgiving is of no benefit at all.

⁵ Therefore, if someone cannot fast, almsgiving without fasting is still good. But if he is able to combine fasting with almsgiving, it is a double good. (Fasting, however, without almsgiving is worthless), unless, of course, someone is so poor that he has nothing at all to give. For those who have nothing to offer, a willing heart is sufficient, as it is written: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will”.

⁶ But who will be able to excuse himself, when the Lord has promised to reward even a cup of cold water given in His name? And why did He specify cold water? It is so that no one might excuse himself on account of lacking firewood or claim that he has no vessel to heat the water. Moreover, through the blessed prophet, dearest brothers, the Lord encourages and commands us to give alms in such a way that almost no one, no matter how poor, can justify not doing so. For He says: “This is the fast that I have chosen,” says the Lord: Share your bread with the hungry".

⁷ He did not say to give the whole loaf, knowing that the poor person himself may have nothing else. Instead, He says, “share”—meaning, even if your poverty is so great that you have only one loaf of bread, break it in half and give part of it to the poor. And He adds: “Bring the homeless and afflicted into your house.” If someone is so poor that he cannot offer food to the needy, let him at least prepare a small corner in his home with a bed for a wandering stranger.

⁸ What shall we say to these things, brothers? Or what excuse will we be able to offer, we who have large and spacious houses, and yet scarcely ever deign to welcome a stranger? Indeed, we fail to recognize—no, we do not believe—that in every stranger, Christ Himself is received. As He Himself said: “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me” and “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”.

⁹ It seems wearisome and burdensome to us to receive Christ in the poor in our own homeland. I fear that He may repay us in kind, and that He will not receive us into His blessedness. We despise Him in this world—I am afraid that He may likewise despise us in heaven, according to His own words: “I was hungry, and you gave me no food; I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me” and “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me”. And, brothers, may God avert from us what follows afterward, for He then added: “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”.

¹⁰ Therefore, dearest brothers, let us not hear these words fleetingly or with only the ears of the body, but let us listen with faith. And having heard, let us also teach others—both by word and example—to hold fast to them and put them into practice. What did the Lord say through the prophet after this? “If you see the naked, clothe them”.

¹¹ I do not judge anyone regarding this command—let each person examine their own conscience. Yet, I accuse and reproach myself, for it has perhaps happened at times, through negligence, that the small garments which should have been given to the poor were instead devoured by moths. And I fear that on the Day of Judgment, those very rags will be brought forth as evidence against me, according to that terrifying rebuke from the Apostle James: “Come now, you rich, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure on the earth. You have lived in luxury and self-indulgence in the day of slaughter”.

¹² All these things, dearest brothers, though they may greatly terrify us—as indeed they should—must not lead us to despair of God’s mercy. For even now, I and others like me who have been negligent can, with the help of God, amend our ways—if we so desire. Let us be more generous in almsgiving, which we have thus far practiced too sparingly. And for our past sins, let us, with sorrow and lamentation, and with hope for restoration, earnestly beg for God’s mercy.

¹³ Therefore, as we have already suggested, dearest brothers, let the richness of our almsgiving accompany and commend our fasting. For fasting without almsgiving is like a lamp without oil. Just as a lamp lit without oil may produce smoke but cannot give light, so too fasting without almsgiving may afflict the body, but it does not enlighten the soul with the light of charity.

¹⁴ In the meantime, while we still have the opportunity, brothers, let us fast in such a way that the meals we forgo are distributed to the poor. Let us place the food we would have eaten not in our own purses, but in the stomachs of the poor, for the hand of the poor is the treasury of Christ. Whatever they receive is not lost on earth but stored in heaven. For although the food given to the poor is consumed, the reward of the good deed is preserved in heaven. If, instead, we strive to spend our meals on extravagant flavours and abundant courses at supper, then not only are we not depriving our bodies of indulgence, but we are actually doubling it. And just as in this way the body loses nothing, so too the soul gains nothing.

¹⁵ Brothers, I offer this exhortation not because I suspect anything evil of you, but rather out of concern. I know, however, that many of you, by God’s grace, regularly show hospitality to strangers and frequently give alms to the poor. Therefore, my encouragement is meant to spur you on: may those who are already doing such works do even more. As for those who have not yet begun or who perhaps have been slow in doing so, may they adopt this most holy and God-pleasing practice as a regular habit.

¹⁶ And although I believe that, by God’s inspiration, your love already observes chastity for several days before the approaching feast days (even with your own spouses), still, even if this is already your custom, I remind you of it out of a desire for charity. I encourage you to maintain chastity, with God’s help, throughout the entire season of Lent until the conclusion of Easter. Thus, when you come to that most sacred Easter celebration, you will be clothed in the light of charity, adorned with the splendor of almsgiving, and decorated with heavenly and spiritual pearls of prayer, vigils, and fasting. In this way, not only with your friends but also with your enemies, you may be at peace, and with a free and clear conscience, approach the altar of the Lord. Then, receiving His Body and Blood not to your condemnation, but for your healing, you will partake of this holy sacrament.

¹⁷ But when I speak of almsgiving, let not those in poverty be troubled. For the one who does what they are able has fulfilled everything, since a perfect will to give is counted as the work itself. Yet only the person who is willing to see every poor person as themselves will be able to fulfil this. Let them give to the poor just as they would wish to receive if they were in the same need. Whoever does this will fulfil the precepts of both the New and the Old Testament, thereby keeping the Gospel command: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them; for this is the law and the prophets”.

¹⁸ May the Lord Himself, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever, lead us by His protection to this law of true and perfect charity. Amen.