A Form of Prayer

“Charity is a form of prayer, a preliminary to prayer. With its combination of charity and justice, its understanding of the psychological as well as material dimensions of poverty, and its aim of restoring dignity and independence, not just meeting needs, tzedakah is a unique institution. Deeply humanitarian, it could not exist without the essentially religious concepts of divine ownership and social covenant. To know God is to act with justice and compassion, to recognise his image in other people, and to hear the silent cry of those in need.”

To Heal a Fractured World, p. 41