Saint Augustine puts it matter-of-factly: “Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder which you do not require is needed by others”

What prevents us from giving of our surplus to others? Whatever the reason, the truth of the Gospel does not diminish. The world might complicate our perception of the widow’s mite but it does not change the reality of her gift: ‘her whole livelihood. We need to think about her today and understand how we can imitate her in our own life.

On this Veterans’ Day as we mark in a special way one hundred years since the end of the First Great War, we remember the men and women who have sacrificed their lives to protect the freedoms God gave us. They too knew what the cost would be – their whole livelihood. It makes you wonder for whom or for what would we be willing to offer our lives.