Tag: thewidowofsarepta

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, LENT 2024, LENTEN THOUGHTS, QUOTES on ALMS, QUOTES on CHARITY, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on GRACE, QUOTES on TRUST and complete CONFIDENCE in GOD, The WILL of GOD

Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 4 March – The Precept of Hospitality

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 4 March – St Casimir (1458-1484) Confessor, Prince – 4 Kings 5:1-15; Luke 12:35-40 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“The just shall flourish like the palm tree,
he shall grow up, like the cedar of Lebanon.”
Psalm 91:13

“There were many widows in Israel”
Luke 4:25

The Precept of Hospitality

St Ambrose (340-397)
Father and Doctor of the Church

“At that time, when the whole human race was afflicted by famine, Elias was sent to a widow?
And see how, for each is reserved her own special grace. An Angel is sent to the Virgin, a Prophet to the widow. In the one case it is Gabriel, in the other Elisha. The most excellent chiefs of the number of Angels and Prophet,s are seen to be chosen!
But there is no praise, simply in widowhood, unless there be added the virtues of widowhood. For, indeed, there were many widows but one is preferred to all, by whose example of virtue, they are stimulated … The grace of hospitality is not lost sight of by God, Who, as He hHmself relates in the Gospel, rewards a cup of cold water with the exceeding recompense of eternity (Mt 10:42) and compensates the small measure of meal and oil, by an unfailing abundance of plenty …

Why consider the fruits of the earth are private, when the earth itself is common property? … But we turn aside the warnings of a general utterance to our private advantage.
God says: “Every tree which has in it the fruit of a tree yielding seed, shall be to you for food and, to every beast and to every bird and to everything that creeps on the earth.” (Gn 1:29-30).
By heaping up, we come to want and need. For we cannot hope for the promise if we do not keep God’s will.
It is also good for us to attend to the precept of hospitality, to be ready to give to strangers, for we, too, are strangers in the world.

How holy was that widow, who, when pinched by extreme hunger, observed the reverence due to God! She was not using the food for herself alone but was dividing it with her son. A beautiful example of tenderness but, even more of faith! She should not have set anyone before her son, yet, she set the Prophet of God before her own preservation.
You may well believe she not only gave him a little food but all she had to live on. She kept nothing back for herself.
So hospitable was she that she gave all she had, so full of faith that her trust was total.” – (On Widows).

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, LENT 2022, LENTEN PRAYERS & NOVENAS, QUOTES on ALMS, Quotes on SALVATION, The WORD

Monday of the Third Week of Lent – 21 March – Our Lenten Journey with the Great Fathers – ‘ Are we going to neglect our own salvation? … ‘

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Monday of the Third Week of Lent – 21 March – Our Lenten Journey with the Great Fathers – 4 Kings, 5:1-15, Luke 4:23-30

“O God, my wanderings You have counted; my tears are recorded in Your sight.” – Psalm 55:9

“There were many widows in Israel”

Luke 4:25

THE WIDOW OF SAREPTA welcomes the prophet Elijah with every generosity and expends all her poverty in his honour, even though she is a Sidonian foreigner. She had never heard what the prophets have to say about the merits of almsgiving, let alone the words of Christ: “You saw me hungry and gave me food” (Mt 25:35).

WHAT EXCUSE DO WE HAVE if, after such exhortations, after the promise of such great rewards, after the promise of the Kingdom of Heaven and its happiness, we fail to reach the same level of goodness as this widow? A Sidonian woman, a widow, burdened with the care of a family, threatened by famine and seeing the advent of death, opens her door to welcome an unknown man and gives him the scrap of meal she has left …

YET WE, WHO HAVE been taught by the prophets, have heard the teachings of Christ, have the opportunity of meditating on what is to come, who are not threatened by famine and who own a great deal more that this woman, are we to be excused if we dare not lay a finger on our goods to give of them? Are we going to neglect our own salvation? …

SO THEN, LET US SHOW GREAT compassion towards the poor so as to be made worthy of possessing good things to come for all eternity, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – St John Chrysostom (347-407) Bishop of Constantinople, Great Father and Doctor of the Church (Sermon on Elijah and the widow and almsgiving; PG 51, 348).