I was recently on a trip to Philadelphia.  While there, I encountered many more street people than I usually experience in metro Detroit.

I am never sure what to do in these situations.  The advice is so varied.  Some say to walk on past-- these people can go to the missions or soup kitchens if they're hungry and there are plenty of social programs out there that you can support.  Some say don't give them change, just go find them some food and bring it back.  Others say don't even do that, because of course all the want is drug money and they'll throw your food back in your face (I have my suspicions about the type of people who say that, but...).  And Hester Lynch Piozzi said of the writer Samuel Johnson:

He loved the poor as I never yet saw anyone else do, with an earnest desire to make them happy. 'What signifies,' says someone, 'giving halfpence to common beggars? they only lay it out in gin or tobacco.' "And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence" (says Johnson)? "It is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance.  Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to show even visible displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths."


And it troubled me, me who professes to follow a man who said, "if you love me, feed my sheep" and "when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink ... what you do to the least of these, you do to me."  Every day I passed many people who asked for my help, and I felt paralyzed because I didn't know what to do.  Should I give them money (though I had little cash on me)?  Ask them if I could go get them something to eat, or just do so?  Ask them what they might need?  I didn't have cash on hand, but I could go to a food place nearby and use my card.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any cash," as I said over and over, rang hollow in my ears.  This was not the charge he gave me.  This did not follow one of my favorite prayers: Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace ... where there is despair, [let me sow] hope; where there is darkness, light ... grant that I may not so much seek ... to be loved, as to love.  For it is in giving that we receive...

One of my weaknesses is that if I am not sure what to do about something, or am not sure if what I have the instinct to do is the right thing, I end up doing nothing.  Later I often regret that I did not do it (although I admit that sometimes when I do  act, I sometimes end up looking foolish and regret it as well).

I thought about it a lot when I got home.  I prayed about it.  And finally, it came into my head suddenly and easily: act first in love.  Of course.  Do not worry about if it is the right thing... simply do it.  If it is possible, do it.  Whatever I want to do that comes from my heart, that comes from him, that seems the kind and loving thing to do... do it.

I hope I can remember next time.


Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
(Attr. St. Francis of Assisi)


Love thyself last. Look near, behold thy duty
To those who walk beside thee down life’s road;
Make glad their days by little acts of beauty,
And help them bear the burden of earth’s load.

Love thyself last. Look far and find the stranger,
Who staggers ‘neath his sin and his despair;
Go lend a hand, and lead him out of danger,
To heights where he may see the world is fair.

Love thyself last. The vastnesses above thee
Are filled with Spirit Forces, strong and pure.
And fervently, these faithful friends shall love thee:
Keep thou thy watch o’er others, and endure.

Love thyself last; and oh, such joy shall thrill thee,
As never yet to selfish souls was given.
Whate’er thy lot, a perfect peace will fill thee,
And earth shall seem the ante-room of Heaven.

Love thyself last, and thou shall grow in spirit
To see, to hear, to know, and understand.
The message of the stars, lo, thou shall hear it,
And all God’s joys shall be at thy command
(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)


If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain. 
 (Emily Dickinson)