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Gospel: Luke 21: 1-4
When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people
putting their offerings into the treasury
and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.
He said, “I tell you truly,
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Time flies.
No matter who we are, where we live, or what age we are…time flies. Strangely, the speed of it seems to accelerate the older we get.
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In that sense, we’re all poor like the widow in today’s Gospel, because there is one thing no one has enough of: time.
Just as this widow has two meager coins to offer God, we only have one short life to live. And the Lord wants to be involved in all of it, every hour of every day.
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Today we celebrate the life of someone who gave all of her time to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Tradition states that as a girl, she was brought to the Temple by her parents, Anne and Joachim, where they promised to offer Mary wholeheartedly to God.
As her story unfolds, we see what happens: Mary becomes the Virgin Mother of God, offering him first her body, then her heart, then her full devotion… In a word, she offers God her “time.”
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What about us? How much time do we give to the Lord?
Think about this in terms of prayer, study, and service.
Can we offer him a little more?
As we prepare to enter the season of Advent, consider ways we can offer God more of what he wants from us: our time.
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Image credits: (1) Cornerstone Counseling (2) Greg Candy Fuzion Blog (3) Catholic Strength, WordPress