Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Remembrance Day/Armistice Day (Poppy Day)
100th Anniversary of the End of World War I

In other years: St Martin of Tours (316-397)

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 34 Distribution of Goods According to Need
Mass: 1 K 17:10-16; Resp Ps 146; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44

They have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.

I think of the poor widow and how she gave from her poverty, not from her wealth. The following excerpt from the reading at Vigils stimulated my reflection:

To give from our poverty means, first of all, to know that we are poor, that we have discovered in ourselves the wound for which (for that matter) no one is responsible but which for ever makes us utterly poor indeed, poor to a degree we would not dare to admit to ourselves … Happy indeed are they who dare to give from their poverty; in the eyes of Jesus they have given everything they had.

(André Louf, Mercy in Weakness)

My thoughts also go to members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty, especially today, 'Poppy Day', and the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. I imagine all those who died serving their respective countries knew something about poverty. May they rest in peace and intercede for us, that we be given the grace to know we are poor; to discover the wound that makes us utterly poor. 

God is encountered in the nakedness of pure trust, in the surrender of our own poverty and incompleteness. 

(Thomas Merton)

The woman's act is so radiant that it carries within it its own reward. 

(Hans Urs von Balthasar)

God spoke in a dream to a rabbi who refused to receive a handful of meal as a gift from a widow, saying, 'Do no look down on her, it is as if she has offered herself.' 

(Eduard Schweizer)

What God wants from our fear of scarcity is the painful spiritual lesson that we cannot buy the security and identity we seek. Those will come to us only as we let go and live in the grace of God. 

(Parker Palmer)

ST MARTIN OF TOURS, PRAY FOR US.