By Andrew Junker | March 19, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Mary Katherine Kem, a sixth-grader at St. Francis Xavier Catholic School, works hard for her money as a babysitter.

But every day since the beginning of Lent, the 12-year-old has dipped into her modest paycheck and observed the penitential season’s practice of almsgiving.

“It’s fun to do it every day, just to know it’s making a difference in someone’s life,” Kem said.

Each day she looks at a calendar, provided to her by the school and parish, and calculates the alms amount.

For instance, on March 3 Kem deposited 75 cents for each car her family owns, per the calendar’s instructions. The next day, she had to count all the windows in her house and deposit 15 cents for each one.

At the end of Lent, Kem will pool her money — which is being collected in a little red cardboard house — with the other students at her school and all the St. Francis Xavier parishioners who participate. The money will go to fund two homebuilding ministries.

“We just tried to be more creative and have people think about what they were doing,” said Tami Bohannon, who heads the almsgiving drive at St. Francis Xavier. “We wanted to have people get away from giving out of a sense of need, but out of gratitude.”

That’s the lesson for Kem.

“It just makes you realize how much we have,” she said, “things you don’t even pay attention to.”

The parish and school also connect almsgiving with the spiritual life. A prayer for those who don’t have homes is printed on the back of the calendar.

“Prayer is an important part,” Bohannon said. “It puts the focus on what we are doing and why we are giving. It reminds people how it all began.”

Prayer, fasting, almsgiving and penance — the four traditional practices of Lent — are tightly connected, and when Catholics really enter into them, they often learn something about themselves and their faith.

St. Francis of Assisi lived such a penitential life that he apologized to his body at the end of his life for treating it so harshly.

“Penance was his daily stuff,” said Franciscan Father Alonso de Blas. “I think a lot of it is looking at things as not to be clung to, but to be shared. That’s a great mindset towards material possessions.”

Fr. de Blas also said that penance can come in unexpected forms. Certainly, physical mortification — even on a small scale like denying yourself that chocolate candy bar — traditionally plays a large part in Lenten observances. But penance can also be outward looking.

“How about you take on visiting someone who drives you crazy, like your crazy aunt who’s getting weirder as she gets older?” asked Fr. de Blas. “It’s within the reach of everybody and it’ll do good for your character.”

Fr. Billy Kosco, pastor of St. Henry Parish in Buckeye, has been encouraging his parishioners to make penitential acts for their family members and friends both living and dead. It’s a way of praying specifically for those you know are in need and looks towards the well-being of the whole Church.

“It’s really about that, in what we’re doing collectively, we can accomplish something,” Fr. Kosco said.

“I think things get accomplished more than people realize. Part of the strength of the Church is we do the same things all the time because they work,” he said. “I tell people, ‘Don’t discount the little things that you’re doing. They are having an effect.’”

In his parish, the effect can be seen in something as simple as a newly scheduled time for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament each night.

“The first night I didn’t think anyone was going to be here,” Fr. Kosco said. He was pleasantly surprised. “Collectively as a parish, it just feels different when you’re in the back of the church and you see 12 heads kneeling and praying.”

Bohannon has noticed something similar with fellow parishioners at St. Francis Xavier. Initially, she had no idea how people would respond to the almsgiving program, but the school children and parishioners have been enthusiastic.

“A staff member and I were passing out the calendars and boxes after Mass and people kept coming back to grab some for their family members,” she said.

And come Easter, the parish should have enough alms to build a number of houses both in Mexico and locally for needy families, and in the process learned to do with a little less themselves.

“It’s nothing new,” Fr. Kosco said. “It’s just, ‘Let’s do it.’ When they say, ‘were you there when they nailed Him to the cross,’ maybe by the end of Lent we can say, ‘Yes, we were.’”