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 22nd, and the Gospel reading is Luke 8, 16 through 18, and the scripture to reflect on is Luke 8, 18.
Take heed then how you hear, for to him who has will be more given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.
Do you love your grandma?
How special is it when you get to visit her?
You get to see her face to face and snuggle up next to her.
You can smell her chocolate chip cookies baking, and I bet there are times when you don’t even use words and you just enjoy being together.
You spend time with each other and know a lot about each other.
It’s kind of the same thing today when you go to adoration.
You get to see Jesus in the monstrance.
You get to kneel before him and adore him, and sometimes you get to smell the incense rising up to the heavens.
Just like when you pick up the phone and you can call your grandma whenever you want, you can do the same with Jesus.
It’s just like praying and spending time to get to know him.
Today’s Saint of the Day is Saint Matthew.
He was born in the first century.
He’s a patron saint of accountants and bankers.
Matthew the Apostle is also known as Saint Matthew or Levi, was an important person in early Christianity.
He was one of 12 main followers of Jesus.
He wrote one of the four Gospels in the Bible.
Because of this, he is also called Matthew the Evangelist.
The Bible tells us that Matthew followed Jesus and saw him go up to heaven.
Saint Matthew is one of Jesus’s first followers.
He was a tax collector in a town called Capernaum.
Tax collectors are often disliked because they worked for the Roman government which ruled the area.
One day, Jesus saw Matthew sitting at his tax booth.
Jesus simply said, follow me.
Matthew immediately left his work and followed Jesus.
He is also listed as one of the 12 apostles in the book of Mark, Luke, and Acts.
We can only get to know people well if we spend time with them.
Otherwise, the relationship doesn’t grow.
That’s true in our relationship with Jesus too.
Jesus waits to hear from us.
You can always tell him what happened during your day.
You can thank him for everything that went well and you can ask him for help for any problems that you couldn’t fix.
But we take time to be with Jesus.
We become more aware of his loving presence with us.
Our friendship grows.
That’s a great gift.
Matthew collected taxes for a living.
He was not very popular among his neighbors and they grumbled when they saw him circle the neighborhood again, requiring them to give even more than last time.
No one was happy to see him coming.
Matthew kept some of the money for himself and some that he gave to the emperor.
Matthew was used to being disliked, so when Jesus looked at him and said, follow me, he was shocked.
Just two words from Jesus changed everything for Matthew.
Matthew wasn’t used to be wanted, but Jesus wanted him.
Matthew would follow Jesus with everything he had.
What an amazing relationship.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear Jesus, thank you for being easy to talk to and for being my best friend.
Help me to make more time to spend in your presence.
And thank you for an example that Matthew gave us to leave everything and follow you just as he did.
Saint Matthew, 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!