Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of (Luke 21:1-4) in which Jesus sees a poor widow put two very small copper coins into the temple treasury as her offering.

Fr Paul says, sandwiched between the criticism of lawyers who swallow up the property of widows and Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the Temple, comes the little story of the poor widow’s offering.

The story is put here because of the link with widows’ property being swallowed up, both showing how the lawyers got the money to swallow up and contrasting their wastefulness with the widow’s generosity.

The word used for the two coins really means ‘light, thin’, so two little flakes of metal, worth hardly anything at all, especially by contrast to the magnificent and elaborate Temple which stood behind them.

The value of a gift depends on its cost to the giver. So, a carefully chosen gift of little monetary value is worth more to the recipient because of the love and care it represents. So, our gifts to the Lord are valuable for what they cost us personally in terms of devotion