Concerning Widows — Source paragraphs and footnotes

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

4. What is said at first makes the ears attentive, although the simplicity itself of the understanding has weight to attract widows to the pattern of virtue; since each seems to excel, not according to her profession, but her merit, and the grace of hospitality is not lost sight of by God, Who, as He Himself related in the Gospel, rewards a cup of cold water with the exceeding recompense of eternity, and compensates the small measure of meal and oil by an unfailing abundance of plenty ever coming in. For if one of the heathen has said that all the possessions of friends should be common, how much more ought those of relatives to be common! For we are relatives who are bound into one body.

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Widows, Chapter I., source paragraph 7 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

6. But how holy was that widow, who, when pinched by extreme hunger, observed the reverence due to God, and was not using the food for herself alone, but was dividing it with her son, that she might not outlive her dear offspring. Great is the duty of affection, but that of religion brings more return. For as no one ought to be set before her son, so the prophet of God ought to be set before her son and her preservation. For she is to be believed to have given to him not a little food, but the whole support of her life, who left nothing for herself. So hospitable was she that she gave the whole, so full of faith that she believed at once.

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Widows, Chapter I., source paragraph 10 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

5. But we are not bound by any prescribed limit of hospitality. For why do you think

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Widows, Chapter I., source paragraph 8 · Original source