Hello everyone! Heyo! Welcome back to Scattering Flowers with Elise and Miles, a podcast where you read the Daily Gospels and the Saint of the Day.
Let’s get started! Today is Monday, September 1st, and the Gospel reading is Luke 4, 16-30, and the scripture to reflect on is Luke 4, 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has appointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering the sight of the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Do you know anyone that is blind?
Our parish priest is almost blind.
He has a seeing-eye dog named Arlo.
I bet you don’t know what it really feels like to be blind, but you might have played pretend before.
I have.
I’m going to describe a couple things to you.
You can try and guess what they are.
Ready?
Here’s the first one.
I come in many colors.
I’m bigger when I’m full.
I’m loud when I break.
I can float or sink. It’s a balloon! Did you guess that?
Here’s one more.
You always look down on me.
I run but can’t walk.
You follow me wherever I go.
I know when things don’t smell right. It’s a nose! Get it?
The people in Jesus' hometown are excited to have him back in town, but then they get upset at what he has to say.
So upset that they try to kill him.
Jesus' coming to the earth fulfilled the scriptures of the Old Testament.
When teaching in Galilee and in Nazareth, his message is that he is God’s son and has come to save God’s people.
Jesus healed the eyes of people and also helped them to see the truth.
He also helps us to see God and helps us to see what are right things to do.
He takes away our sins and sets people free.
Jesus gets rid of our sin so we can be with God. Today’s Saint of the Day is Blessed Francisco de Paula Victor.
He was born April 12, 1827 and died September 23, 1905.
He is a patron saint of those discriminated against because of their race or social status.
Francisco was born in Brazil to a slave mother and an unknown father.
Their slave owner, Marina Santa Barbara Fiera, had Francisco baptized and was his godmother. As a young man, Francisco trained to be a tailor but always dreamed about becoming a priest.
However, both his race and status as a slave made him not be able to get into the proper schooling, but he never lost hope. When his godmother heard about Francisco’s desire, she approached the local parish priest who then approached the bishop, Bishop Antonio Vicaso.
He fought to have Francisco admitted to the seminary.
In this seminary, Francisco suffered severe discrimination due to his race.
Little by little, however, his humanity and love for God, he completed and was ordained on June 14, 1851. Francisco remained faithful to his vocation, loving Jesus above everything, and eventually won the love for his parishioners.
When he died, the people of his territory were already calling him the saint of the impossible.
He was the first black male Brazilian to be beatified. Because Jesus didn’t quit, we have all these stories of his life and his teachings that help us know why and how we can live God’s better way, just like Jesus did.
Can you imagine being a slave?
It must have been awful.
We can learn by St.
Francisco to walk away from bad situations without letting it stop us from living and sharing God’s better way, just like Jesus did. Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Thank you, God, for giving us your Son, Jesus, who shows us how to keep choosing your way.
Help us to keep serving and sharing your love, even when we’re in a bad situation.
St.
Francisco de Paula, 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 scattering more flowers.
See ya!