I think charity has been abstracted into a kind of grandiose and removed act, even a matter of institution. But charity, from the Latin caritas, is an act of pe

I think charity has been abstracted into a kind of grandiose and removed act, even a matter of institution. But charity, from the Latin caritas, is an act of perfect love for the other in which we act for the good of the other, not as a means for our own enrichment (though we are enriched spiritually by it), not for the sake of domination and control, but for the good of the other. This can mean helping an elderly person at a store carry groceries to her car, or spending extra time to tutor a child, or buying a homeless person a meal and talking to them (if possible; they might not want to). It is also manifested in our relationships with loved ones: our spouses, out children, our parents, our friends, etc, such as when we show patience with an aging parent who is losing their hearing or memory, or a spouse with a temper, or a child struggling at school. Charity is kind of habit, a virtue, a gift of self that increasingly becomes part of who you are the more you engage in it. In a way, charity allows you to more fully become who you are. I would claim that if people practiced more genuine charity, they would become less miserable.