Hello everyone! Heyo! Welcome back to Scattering Flowers with Elise and Miles, a podcast where we read the daily gospels and the saint of the day.
Let’s get started! Today is Wednesday, June 18th, and the gospel reading is Matthew 6, 1-6, and 16-18.
And the scripture to reflect on is Matthew 6, 4.
So that your alms may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Have you ever seen the Disney movie Robin Hood and the cute little fox who is Robin Hood?
In the beginning, dresses up as a poor woman with a cup for change to be dropped in.
And he takes that money that he made to give to another family that is in need.
When he took the money to the family, he did it in secret, mostly because he didn’t want to be caught by the sheriff.
But also because he didn’t feel important to announce that he was doing it.
Jesus was trying to tell us that we don’t need to toot our horns or make big announcements for people to notice things that we are doing.
When we do things quietly because we love God, our reward will be in heaven.
Today’s saint of the day is Saint Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala.
She was born April 27, 1878 and died June 24, 1963.
Her feast day is June 24 and she is the patron saint of nurses.
She was born in the town of Mexico at the age of 23.
She was engaged to be married but felt the call of God to become a religious sister.
She founded the Handmaids of Saint Margaret Mary and the Poor in 1901.
The women who joined would be nurses in hospitals and care for people.
Soon after she founded the community, Catholics were persecuted in Mexico.
Saint Maria helped protect priests and hide them so they would not be killed.
After a long illness, she died at the age of 85 but her work still continues to her religious sisters who have convents in five different countries.
Jesus said God sees all the secret things you do but you are kind or generous or plain or whatever.
God wants us to do good things but do them to please God, not the crowds.
Saint Maria Guadalupe Garza was courageous and bold and worked hard in the hospitals caring for those even if they hated Catholics.
She truly lived in the commandment to love your enemies.
How are ways that we can be loving to those who are hard and to love easily?
Let’s pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, help me to remember that my reward in serving you and others is in heaven.
And help me to always look for good in people so that I may love them like you do.
Saint Maria Guadalupe Garza, pray for us.
Amen.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Thank you so much for listening.
We’ll be back tomorrow to scatter more flowers.
See ya!