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 Friday, October 3rd, and the Gospel reading is Luke 10, 13-16, and the Scripture to reflect on is Luke 10, 16.
He who hears you, hears me, and he who rejects you, rejects me, and he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me.
I really like Tootsie Rolls, not the lollipop.
Well, I like those too.
But I like the Tootsie Rolls that are fresh and soft and chewy.
I don’t like them when they’re hard, old, and hurt your teeth and jaw to chew.
In today’s reading, Jesus is saying the towns he was doing ministry in were like the old, hard Tootsie Rolls.
They had hardened hearts and refused to change how they lived.
They wanted to do things their own way to serve God, how they thought was convenient.
They refused to change how they were living in order to serve God.
Today’s Saint of the Day is Saint Francis of Assisi.
He was born in 1182 and died in 1226.
He is the patron saint of animals and Italy.
Saint Francis was born as a rich man and grew up as a soldier.
One day as he was walking to school, he saw a poor man and he decided to dedicate his life and give up his wealth to serve the poor.
His father was very angry with him and even disowned him.
One day, Saint Francis was listening to somebody preach and heard that Jesus told everybody to stop everything to follow him and that’s what God was telling Francis to do.
He gave up everything and devoted his life serving Jesus.
Saint Francis took off his shoes right in that spot and left the church barefoot.
He spent the rest of his days following in Jesus' footsteps and became a monk.
Saint Francis of Assisi loved all animals.
Stories even say that he gave a sermon to birds.
Another story is that a wolf came into town and had killed many people because it was hungry.
The townspeople were going to hunt it down.
Instead, Saint Francis went out and talked to the wolf telling him not to kill anyone.
The wolf obeyed and even became the town pet.
One day, Saint Francis had a vision that God was asking him to rebuild his church.
He started rebuilding an old church down the road but God was meaning something else.
Saint Francis found an order of friars called the Franciscan Friars.
Praying daily helps us to stay close to God and to be able to hear his voice.
The more we spend time with him, the more our hearts will be filled with his love and we can feel with his love.
The feast of Saint Francis on October 4th.
He is one of my very favorite saints because I really love animals and caring for them to make sure they are happy and safe.
We are taking our puppy to an animal blessing at our church and going to make sure our bird feeder is full of worms in honor of the saint who preached even to birds.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, help me to keep my heart and mind focused on you so my heart won’t become hardened.
And help me to take care for your creation even down to the animals and small things that can be overlooked.
Saint Francis of Assisi, 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 next week scattering more flowers.
See ya!