Here is today’s Gospel, from St Luke: ‘He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. And he said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.”’

St John Chrysostom commented: ‘For God regarded not the scantiness of the offering, but the overflowing of the affection. Almsgiving is not the bestowing a few at things out of many, but it is that of the widow emptying herself of her whole substance’.

May we, too, offer our ‘whole substance’ to God, not just what we can spare …  may God bless your offering, and be close to you today.