The kindnesses of charity are giving to the poor and helping the needy, but with prudence.

A distinction must be drawn between the duties of charity and its kindnesses. By the duties of charity is meant the exercise of charity arising directly from charity itself; as was shown just above, these chiefly have to do with one's work. But by kindnesses we mean the secondary actions which go beyond the first group. They are called kindnesses, because a person is free to do them as he chooses; and when they are done, they are regarded by the recipient as nothing but kindnesses. They are distributed in accordance with the reasons and intentions the person who does them has in mind. It is generally believed that charity consists only in giving to the poor, helping the needy, taking care of widows and orphans, making donations to the building of hospices and hospitals, hostels, orphanages, and above all churches, and to their decoration and their income. But the majority of these are not the proper work of charity, but are additional to it.

[2] Those who suppose these kindnesses to be real charity cannot help believing their deeds are meritorious; and despite their verbal protestations that they do not want them to be meritorious, they still have lurking in them the belief that they are. This is plain to see after their death. Then they count up their deeds and demand salvation as their reward. But then enquiry is made into the origin and thus the nature of their deeds; and if it is found that they arose either from pride, or seeking a reputation, or from mere generosity, or from friendship, or from purely natural inclination, or from hyprocrisy, then that origin judges them, since the nature of its origin is present in every deed. True charity, however, is the product of those who have employed fairness and careful judgment in their deeds, which they perform without any intention of being rewarded, in accordance with the Lord's words (Luke 14:12-14). These people also call the sort of actions mentioned above kindnesses, as well as duties, though they are a part of charity.