More on Giving to the Poor

"The traditional teaching of Catholic theologians was that a man's income could be divided into three parts. The first, what was known as "necessary," constituted what we need to obtain the food and shelter and other goods necessary to maintain life. The second was what we need to live up to the reasonable standards of our state in life. From this second class we must give some as alms. But the third, anything over and above what we reasonably need to maintain our state in life, was the truly superfluous. And of this third, we are actually more stewards and administrators of goods that belong to the poor than we are possessors of our own wealth."
-Thomas Storck (found on the ChesterBelloc Mandate)

And two by John Chrysostom (found at Scribblative Agincourting):

"When you see on earth the man who has encountered the shipwreck of poverty, do not judge him, do not seek an account of his life, but free him from his misfortune."

"I beg you, remember this without fail, that not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life."