Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization, using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, our readings for this weekend feature two widows.

Widows were in biblical times especially vulnerable figures. This is because there

was no social service network. There was no welfare system to care for those

who had lost their means of economic support. So in a society where women were

not breadwinners in our sense, widows, unless they had support from a wider

family network, were extremely vulnerable. It's why, by the way, the prophets talk

so much about widows and orphans. You know, God's great love for the widows and

orphans are need to care for them. It's just their way of saying the least and

the most threatened, the most vulnerable. Well, in the first reading we hear of the

widow of Zerapheth and her confrontation with the prophet Elijah. It's a great

story, by the way, you find it in the first book of Kings. We're talking about

the ninth century BC, a time when the wicked A-hab was the king of Israel and

his idolatrous wife, Jezebel was the queen. During this period a severe famine

broke out. The result Elijah claimed were the king's apostasy that God was

punishing Israel for the idolatry of the king. Well, as a consequence of the

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