The Fellowship of St. Columbanus

I Kings 17:10-16 St. Mark 12:38-44 By: Evan Underbrink Elijah, walking on the baked earth, hungry. He asks an old woman for water, and she goes at once. She knows this man is a prophet of the living God. He calls out and asks her for a bit of bread as well. How hungry they both must have been. What spasms held in both their stomachs, and what extra spasm held the woman’s heart as she told the prophet of her plan.  I like to imagine that the woman left her house, nursing the aching death which was coming. She must have held a hundred thousand temptations at bay in order to act: she could not think about her son never marrying, nor her living to see grandchildren. She could, must not, let her mind wander down paths of hope, that perhaps today the rains will, finally come. Most of all, she could not let her heart betray her, that some help, any help, would come. If ever there was a best kind of despair, it was hers; for she was both meticulous, and interruptible. Meti