There’s a saying that “it is not so much what you do as how you do it” — or the spirit in which something is done. This has some meaning for Lent, which began this week, and for the season’s traditional practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

Pope Benedict XVI underscored the spirit in which things should be done in a discussion of almsgiving in his Lenten message.

“The Gospel highlights a typical feature of Christian almsgiving: it must be hidden,” Pope Benedict wrote. One should not boast of good works done, he said; rather everything “must be done for God’s glory and not our own.”

Pope Benedict quoted the words of Jesus in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your alms may be done in secret.”

Why is this attitude important?

The pope explained: “If, in accomplishing a good deed, we do not have as our goal God’s glory and the real well being of our brothers and sisters, looking rather for a return of personal interest or simply of applause, we place ourselves outside the Gospel vision. In today’s world of images, attentive vigilance is required since this temptation is great.”

And he added: “Almsgiving, according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy; rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbor, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave his entire self to us.”

Interior conversion or renewal is an essential element of Lent. As Pope Benedict noted in his Lenten message, Lent offers us an opportunity “to deepen the meaning and value of our Christian lives, and it stimulates us to rediscover the mercy of God so that we ... become more merciful toward our brothers and sisters.”

This is where almsgiving comes in as one of the paths to renewal.

Almsgiving is “a specific way to assist those in need,” while also being “an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods,” said Pope Benedict. “Almsgiving helps us to overcome this constant temptation” of attraction to material possessions, “teaching us to respond to our neighbor’s needs and to share with others whatever we posses through divine goodness.”

Pope John Paul II emphasized the same point in his Lenten message five years ago. He noted that our age is “particularly susceptible to the temptation toward selfishness,” and indifference to the sufferings of others is one of the “fruits of the thirst” for material gain. What’s needed, the late pope said, is building a “culture of solidarity.”

Applying this to the Lenten season, Pope John Paul wrote: “Lent offers us the practical and effective weapons of fasting and almsgiving as a means of combating the excessive attachment to money. Giving not only from our abundance, but sacrificing something more in order to give to the needy, fosters that self-denial which is essential to authentic Christian living. Strengthened by prayer, the baptized reveal the priority which they have given to God in their lives.”

Pope Benedict’s Lenten message stressed that responding to our neighbor’s needs is a matter of Christian stewardship.

He wrote: “According to the teaching of the Gospel, we are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possessions, but goods through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as stewards of his providence for our neighbor.”

And he added that in countries where Christians make up a majority of the population, the “call to share is even more urgent, since their responsibility toward the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater. To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity.”

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, “Giving alms to the poor is a witness to fraternal charity; it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.”