16 “I will bless her widow with blessings, and will satisfy her poor with bread”. Every soul that is aware that it is bereft of all help, save of God alone, is widowed. For how does the Apostle describe a widow? “She that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusts in God.” He was speaking of those whom we all call Widows in the Church. He says, “She that lives in pleasure, is dead while she lives;” and he numbers her not among the widows. But in describing true widows, what says he?
“She that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.” Here he adds, “but she that lives in pleasure, is dead while she lives.” What then makes a widow? That she has no aid from any other source, save from God alone. They that have husbands, take pride in the protection of their husbands: widows seem desolate, and their aid is a stronger one. The whole Church therefore is one widow, whether in men or in women, in married men or married women, in young men or in old, or in virgins: the whole Church is one widow, desolate in this world, if she feel this, if she is aware of her widowhood: for then is help at hand for her.
Do ye not recognise this widow in the Gospel, my brethren, when the Lord declared “that men ought always to pray and not to faint”? “There was in a city a judge,” He said, “which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him day by day, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.” The widow, by daily importunity, prevailed with him: for the judge said within himself, “Though I fear not God; neither regard man, yet because this woman troubles me, I will avenge her.” If the wicked judge heard the widow, that he might not be molested; hears not God His Church, whom He exhorts to pray?
Source: The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms (New Advent)