The Widow and Elisha

A certain woman is written about, a widow, being greatly weighed down by the misfortune of loneliness. A money-loving and misanthropic creditor was besieging her, taking away her sons, whom the mother had as her only ones instead of all. And when the matter stood for her in helplessness and no one having gold showed mercy, she came to the one possessing philanthropy and faith.

And this Elisha was the prophet, a man of the earthly substances being generous and abounding in the incorporeal possession; a philosopher from plowmen, unhoused, without support, living alone; having inherited recently, and having received the inheritance a widow's jar and an invisible blessing descending from the fiery chariot. He did not by any means send the entreaty unworked, nor did he reject the help because the sought-after thing was not present, nor did he say any base or faithless words, like one of the many: 'And from where to me is silver, so as to dissolve the debt?'

Just as an excellent physician and pharmacist, when not present, found the cure for the disease from extraordinary thoughts, so he says, 'What to you, O woman, upon the house? Remember if there is even a little inside.' For no one is so poor as to be suddenly the master of nothing. And as he said, that it is a jar and a little remnant of oil in it, 'Prepare for me,' he said, 'a multitude of vessels.' And she hurried, and he through it filled them, and to the creditor the debt was dissolved; and the woman departed from helplessness finding a way.

For the very little oil, which was to be with her, she said to the prophet, filled from the extraordinary and all the prepared amphorae; and then the flow stood, when there was no longer a vessel to receive; and to the need the grace was measured. Truly that was oil, which the plant did not bear, but the mercies of God flourished.

Acquire this knowledge, if you are able, kings, rulers, the wealthy, from the sun setting until it rises twice. You, the wise of the worldly wisdom, acquire the gift of the prophet from the plowmen, which was inexhaustible to the one receiving it. For the possessions of your zeal are surrounded by countless dangersrs: robbers breaking through walls, tyrants snatching, and informers attacking, the sea sinking, and the earth being cracked by chasms.

Let there therefore be hope and a storehouse for men, the right hand of God, which led the people of Egypt out and in a desert land provided the abundance of good things; which led the Ambakum to Daniel, and saved Ishmael having been cast off from the mother's embrace, and sufficed to each generation, and lastly multiplied five barley loaves as if infinite agriculture, so that one loaf might fill the stomach of a thousand starving men and be enough for the basket of the remnants. To our God be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.