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Gospel of the Widows





Widowhood is not the end, but the beginning of a stage.

St. Ignatius of Antioch salutes "the order of virgins and widows" (Philippians § 15).
What is the mission of widows?



1 Timothy 5

5 But the truth is that the widow, and left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

6 which, however, is given to the pleasures though alive, is dead.

7 All this incúlcalo also, to be blameless.

8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, mostly family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

9 Let a widow be enrolled in the catalog of the widows have no less than sixty years, has been married once,

10 and have the testimony of his good works have well educated children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, relieved the afflicted, and have been trained in all kinds of good works.

Discard 11, however, young widows, for when they assail the pleasures contrary to Christ, they will marry

12 and thus incur condemnation for having broken his previous commitment.

13 And again, being idle, they learn to go from house to house, and not only idle, but also gossips and become busybodies, talking about what they should not.

14 I will therefore that the younger widows marry, bear children and to govern the home and give the enemy no occasion to speak evil;

15 For some have already strayed after Satan going.

16 If that believeth have widows, atiéndalas herself and not charge the Church, so that it can cater to those who are truly widows.



Mark 12

38 He also said in his statement: "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk in long robes, to be greeted in the marketplaces,

Occupy 39 seats in the synagogues and the places at feasts;

40 and who devour the houses of widows under the guise of long prayers. They have a more rigorous judgment.

41 Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury: many rich cast in much.

42 A poor widow came and put in two small coins, that is, a quarter of the ace.

43 Then he called his disciples and said: "I can assure you that this poor widow has put in more than all they that cast into the treasury.

44 For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she in her poverty, put it all she had, all she had to live.



Luke 2

25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and he was in the Holy Spirit.

26 It had been revealed by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

27 Moved by the Spirit, came into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to fulfill what the Law required him

28 took in his arms and blessed God, saying:

29 "Lord, now you can, as you say, let your servant go in peace;

30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,

31 which you have prepared in the sight of all people,

32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. "

33 His father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

34 Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: "This child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign of contradiction -

35 and you yourself a sword will pierce your soul! - So that will be exposed the thoughts of many hearts. "

36 There was also a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, the elderly, after marrying had lived seven years with her husband,

37 and a widow until she was eighty-four years old and never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.

38 As at that very hour she gave thanks to God and spoke of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.



Luke 4

24 And he said: "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his own country."

25 "I can assure you there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and a great famine throughout the country;

26 and none of them was Elias sent, but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.



Luke 7

11 And it came to pass, then went to a town called Nain, and his disciples went with him, and a great crowd.

12 As he approached the town gate, dug to bury the dead, the only son of his mother, a widow, to which large crowd from the city.

13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said: "Do not cry."

14 And he came and touched the bier. The bearers halted, and he said: "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise."

15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and he gave it to her mother.



Luke 18

1 Les told a parable that needed to pray ceaselessly.

2 "There was in a city a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men.

3 There was a widow in that city who kept on coming to him and said: "Give me justice against my adversary!"

4 For a long time he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor regard man,

5 yet because this widow gives me trouble, I will not do justice to continually come to importune me. '"

6 He said therefore, the Lord: "Hear what the unjust judge says;

7 and not God avenge His own elect who cry to him day and night, and made to wait?

8 I tell you that he will avenge them soon. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? "



Luke 21

1 Looking up, they saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury;

2 He also saw a poor widow putting in two small coins,

3 and said: "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all.

4 For all these have cast as donation of their wealth, however it has taken what he needed, all he had to live. "



Acts 6

1 In those days, when the disciples multiplied, there were complaints from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily.



Acts 9

36 Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas. Was full of good works and charitable deeds.

37 In those days sick and died. The washed and placed in the upper room.

38 Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men with this plea: "Do not delay to come to us."

39 Peter went with them. So did you came up to the upper room and showed him all the widows weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them.

40 Peter put them all out, he knelt and prayed, and returned to the body and said, "Tabitha, arise." She opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up.

41 Peter shook his hand and lifted it. He called the saints and widows and presented her alive.



1 Corinthians 7

6 What I tell you is a concession, not a command.

7 I wish that all men were like me, but everyone has his own special gift from God, one of one way, some another.

8 However, I say to the unmarried and widows: Well they are staying as I am.

9 But if they can not contain, let them marry is better to marry than to burn.



Romans 16

1 I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, servant of the Church of Cenchreae.

2 receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and asistidla in anything you need from you, for she has been a helper of many and of myself.

6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.

12 Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who worked hard in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, who worked hard in the Lord.

Note: Origen compares the Phoebe of Romans with the widows of the Letter to Titus. (Commentary on Romans, 10, 17)



Philippians 4

1 Therefore, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord, dear.

2 I urge Euodia, as well as to Syntyche, have the same mind in the Lord.

3 Also I beg you, Sícigo, true "companion", which help them, as they fought for the Gospel to me, like Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice always in the Lord, I will say, Rejoice.

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is near.

6 Have no anxiety about anything, but rather, in everything, let your requests be made known to God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of honorable, whatever virtue is anything worthy of praise, think about these things in mind.

9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, put it to work and the God of peace will be with you.



Titus 2

1 But you taught what befits sound doctrine;

2 that the older men be temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in charity, in patience, in suffering;

3 that aged women likewise be in behavior as becometh saints which: not slanderers or slaves to much wine, teachers of good,

4 That they may teach the young women to love their husbands and children,

5 to be sensible, chaste, industrious, kind, submissive to their husbands, reviled than the Word of God.



James 1

25 But he who considers carefully the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, not a hearer who forgets but a doer of it, that, practicing it, be happy.

26 If anyone considers himself religious, but not tight rein on his tongue but deceives his own heart, his religion is vain.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself unstained from the world.



Revelation 18

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest ye share in her sins and her plagues you.

5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6 Give her as she has given dobladle far after their works: in the cup which she hath preparadle twice.

7 In proportion to his boasting and his estate, give her torment and tears. For he says in his heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and I do not know the tears ...

8 Therefore in one day her plagues will come: pestilence and mourning and famine, and will be consumed by fire. For strong is the Lord God who has condemned. "



The widow more than 60 years, could consecrate and was just under an order of virgins.



St. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3, 6, § 53

"The apostles, breathless dedicated to the task of evangelization, as befits his ministry, have brought women, not as wives but as sisters, to share their ministry to women living at home: through them, the teachings of the Lord come to the rooms of women without suspicion "...



Pliny, in a letter to the emperor (111 AD), mentions he has done to arrest two Christian women. "What I think is most needed is to find out the truth about these two women slaves, which are called" ancillae "(servants), even subjecting them to torture."



Santa Tecla became Tryphena and a group of women through his statement to the judge of Antioch: "She went home to Tryphena and was there for eight days, instructing in the Word of God, so that most of servants believed "(Acts of Paul and Thecla, § 38-39).



In the early Church there were deaconesses, widows and virgins, but these did not belong to the hierarchy itself, nor the Pope Cornelius included them in the list of the Roman clergy. Its main functions were prayer, the practice of charity and hospitality, never took part, except for abuse without authorization, the minister of the altar strictly speaking (Duchesne, "Christian Worship", London, 1904). http://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/Jerarqu% C3%



In the time of Constantine, the sick were cared for by the deaconesses, widows and assistants under them (see also HOSPITALS.)



Widows are questioning if God calls (calling) to a higher state of life: the consecration, religious orders (not only as tertiary or helper, but as nuns in orders that support it, for example, founded Congregation of the Visitation by St. Jane Frances de Chantal), etc.



Catechism of the Catholic Church The consecrated virgins and widows



922 From apostolic times, virgins (1 Cor 7, 34-36) and Christian widows (cf. Vita consecrata, 7) called by the Lord to devote ourselves fully to him (cf. 1 Cor 7, 34-36) with greater freedom of heart, body and spirit, have made the decision, approved by the Church, to live in a state of virginity or perpetual chastity "because the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19, 12).





Contact your pastor or bishop about your vocation.


For further information:




Santa Paula, model and patroness of widows



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOuTSDFM_CY

Born in Rome in 347 and died in Bethlehem in 404. He belonged to one of the first families of Rome. Widow in 379 at age 32, became, through the influence of St. Marcella and her group, the model of Christian widows. In 382 befell the decisive meeting with St. Jerome, who had come to Rome with St. Epiphanius and Paulinus of Antioch. These two bishops inspired him invincible desire to follow the monastic life in the East. After his departure from Rome and Marcela request, Jerome gave some readings of Scripture to a group of patrician women, including Santa Paula occupied a position of honor. Paula was a passionate student. She and her daughter, Eustoquio, studied and mastered perfectly Hebrew. In their studies, were aimed not so much to acquire secular knowledge, but a fuller understanding of Christian perfection. He neglected, however, their domestic duties. As a devoted mother, married his daughter, Paulina (d. 395), with Senator Pammachius; Blesilla soon widowed and died in 384. Of his other two daughters, Rufina died in 386, and accompanied his mother Eustoquio the East, where he died in 419. His son, Toxocio, originally a pagan, but after baptism (385), married in 389 with Laeta, daughter of Albino pagan priest. From this marriage was born Paula the Younger, who in 404 Eustoquio rejoined in the East and in the 420, closed the eyes of St. Jerome. These are the names that recur frequently in the letters of St. Jerome, and are inseparable to Paula.
The death of Pope Damasus Blesilla and in 384 completely changed the way of life of Paula and Jerome. In September 385, Paula and Eustoquio left Rome to follow the monastic life in the East. Jerome, who preceded them there for a month, joined them in Antioch. First, Paula held in great detail the pilgrimage to all the famous places of the Holy Land, then went to Egypt to be built by the virtues of anchorites and cenobites, and eventually settled in Bethlehem, as St. Jerome. Then began for Paula and Jerome Eustoquio the definitive lifestyle. The intellectual and spiritual treatment between these holy people, which started in Rome, continued and developed. He founded two monasteries, one for men and one for women. Paula and Eustoquio obtained most of the exegetical labors of Jerome, and conformed more and more to your address. An example of his way of thinking and writing can be seen in the letter they wrote to Marcella from Bethlehem, about 386, to persuade them to leave Rome and join them, is the card number XLVI Jerome's correspondence. But God spared not his servants penalties. Her peace was disturbed by constant discomfort: first the controversy concerning the Origenism, which affected his relationship with John, Bishop of Jerusalem, and then Paula would lack money (she herself was ruined with his own generosity). He died in the midst of these troubles and good gifts. The main, if not only, source of life of Paula is the correspondence of St. Jerome (PL XXII). Santa Paula's life is in the letter CVIII, which, though somewhat rhetorical, is a wonderful production. The other letters that relate especially to St. Paula and her family are in the numbers XXII, XXX, XXXI, XXXIII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, LXVI, CVII.

http://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/Santa_Paula





Ave Maria Puríssima!



Thank you for your support. Let us pray for one another.



States in the Heart of the Holy Family