Monday last week in ordinary time "Lk 21:1-4" 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." Today's Gospel brings to our consideration the virtue of generosity. Jesus was moved when He saw that poor lady giving out of her poverty all that she had. It's easy to give away toys and clothes that we no longer use. And we can have that attitude with Our Lord sometimes: giving Him the remains of our time: to pray 'if I have time', to go to Mass 'if I have nothing else to do', to say the Rosary 'if I can fit it in on the train or on the bus'... Consistency in your life of prayer, in your Holy Mass, in your time for God is the best proof of your generosity towards Him. Because if we are not constant and we only pray when we 'have time' or when we 'feel like praying', we can't become intimate friends with Him. It is difficult to be consistent. It is especially difficult if we don't see the changes that our dialogue with Jesus produce in us. But even if we don't see the effects, God is acting in our souls when we spend time with Him. It is like sunbathing. If you are exposed to the sun's rays, you get tanned. You may not notice it much, but when you meet your friends again after a while they notice and ask you: 'Where have you been?' A man published a letter in a newspaper announcing that he had decided to stop going to Sunday Mass. He argued his position saying, "During my life I have gone to Sunday Mass more than 1,800 times but can't recall any homily or see any effect in my life." The following day another man published a letter in the same newspaper stating that he had decided to stop eating. He wrote, "My wife has been feeding me three times a day for 35 years (38,325 meals) and I can't recall any particular meal or see where all those tons of food are now." Just because we can't see the effects of our prayer doesn't mean there aren't any. Mary, my Mother, help me to be consistent in giving my time to God, unworried about the results, convinced that God is changing my life anyway.