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, November 24th, and the Gospel reading is Luke 21, 1-4, and the scripture to reflect on is Luke 21, 3.
And he said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
Can you guess what this sound is?
It’s coins! Rich people back in the day liked to put a lot of coins in the offering because it would make a loud noise and everyone would know that they were putting a lot in.
So the rich people were putting in a lot of money, but Jesus said that the poor woman, who only put in two pennies, gave even more than the rich people because she gave everything that she had.
She only had two pennies left and she gave them to God.
That means that she must have loved God so much that she was willing to give Him everything that she had.
And she must have trusted God a lot because she didn’t have any money to buy food or anything.
She had to trust God to take care of her.
Those two pennies definitely didn’t make as much of a sound as those rich people dropping in all of their coins.
She didn’t tell anyone that she was putting in all that she had, but God and Jesus knew what she was doing.
Today’s Saint of the Day, Saint Andrew Dunlac.
He was born 1795 and died 1839.
He is the patron saint of Vietnam.
Andrew Dunlac was baptized as a teenager.
He studied priesthood and was ordained in 1823.
He preached with zeal and brought many people into the church.
Andrew had nothing to boast about except for Jesus.
He had grown up in poverty in Vietnam and learned about Christianity in secret.
The emperor of Vietnam had hated Christians, so he tried to get rid of Christianity in Vietnam.
Even though he knew that it was dangerous, Andrew became a priest.
The emperor ordered his soldiers to drag anyone suspected to be Christians out of their homes and tell them to stomp on a crucifix.
If anybody refused to dishonor the cross, that person was guilty of being a Christian.
The emperor was cruel to Andrew, but Andrew never gave up faith in Jesus and his cross.
Andrew honored with 116 others who became martyrs in Vietnam in 1820 and 1862.
God loves it when we love and trust him.
If we love him and trust him and only have a little bit to give, God is happy with us just the same if we had a lot to give.
He doesn’t care for rich or poor, and he doesn’t care how much we give to him.
He cares about whether or not we love and trust him enough to give him what we have.
An estimated 300,000 Christians were martyred in Vietnam in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Their incredible courage and faith gave abundant witness to the power of the gospel to transform people’s lives.
Although the religious situation in Vietnam has improved, religion is still restricted.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, help us to love and trust you enough to give you everything that we have.
And to hope that the gospel may be proclaimed to everyone, and that we boast only in your cross.
Saint Andrew Dunlac, 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!