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, January 12th, and the Gospel reading is Mark 1, 14-20, and the scripture to reflect on is Mark 1, 17-18.
And Jesus said to them, Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.
And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Have you ever been fishing?
My dad really likes to fly fish, and my mom has lots of memories of fishing with her grandpa when she was a little kid.
Me?
No way.
Yuck to fish guts.
And Miles doesn’t like the idea of fishing because he cares for animals and living things too much.
Miles and I were just talking about this scripture and what it means to fish for men.
Today is about when Jesus first started doing all the things he’s so famous for.
He had just been baptized by John in the Jordan River, and then he came back and got right to work.
Today’s Saint of the Day is Saint Marguerite Bourgeois.
She was born April 17, 1620 and died January 12, 1700.
She is the patron saint of loss of parents.
Marguerite was born in Troyes, France, where she later taught poor children as an extern sister of the congregation of Troyes for some years.
In 1653, the governor of the Ville-Marie settlement in Canada, now known as the Montreal, invited her to come and teach.
Marguerite accepted and in 1658 opened her first school in a stable.
Convinced that her family had built a new country, she dedicated herself to the education of women, the cornerstone of the family.
And she and the young women who joined her, including two Iroquois women and the first New England woman to become a sister, opened numerous day schools and boarding schools.
This group of women became known as the Congregation of Notre Dame, which received providential approval.
In 1698, when Marguerite was 78 years old, there were 40 members at the time of her death.
There are more than 2,000 today.
Jesus is setting the example of what true discipleship should be.
He is going to the people and telling them the good news.
What do you think being a disciple means for you and me today?
I think it means going and telling others about Jesus, or even living life with happiness so people will think there is something different about that kid.
I want to know what makes them so kind.
We should all tell others about Jesus, whatever way we can, whether in action or in word.
As she traveled around the new colony to help people in any need, Marguerite often thought of the way Jesus' mother Mary went quickly to see Elizabeth, her cousin.
Marguerite wanted to be just as quick to believe and serve God as Mary was.
Saint Marguerite Bourgeois helped many young people find husbands and wives in the new Canadian colony, so they nicknamed her the mother of the colony.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, help us to tell others about you, whether in action or in word.
And help us to be quick to serve you, just like Saint Marguerite Bourgeois did.
Saint Marguerite Bourgeois, 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!