The Greatest Almsgiver

God reached out to me when I was at my neediest.

By: Mary Ann Johnston

Mother Teresa often saw God in the “poorest of the poor.” Twice in my life, I was one of these most needy ones. Once it was as a beggar, sitting with an empty coffee cup on the steps of churches, looking for coins from Sunday morning Mass-goers.

But before that had come a time of spiritual poverty, when I was among the poorest of the poor without realizing it. It was during this dark season that I received my first alms—not from kindly passersby, but from God himself.

First Encounter. It happened during a vacation in Europe, which I had wanted to visit for a long time. Paris was my first stop, and the morning after I arrived, I headed right for the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

I went there as a tourist, not a pilgrim, for I had lost my faith during my senior year at a Catholic high school. I questioned the truths I had once believed and saw the church as an authority figure to rebel against. Hand in hand with my rebellion had come feelings of loneliness, hurt, and despair. So as I…

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