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, January 23rd, and the gospel reading is Mark 3, 13-19, and the scripture to reflect on is Psalm 57, 2. I cry to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purposes for me. Today I decided to do our scripture reflection on the reading from Psalms.
Have you ever felt scared?
Maybe you were alone in your room and you heard a strange noise that made your heart race, or a bad dream that felt so real you woke up feeling scared and confused.
We all feel afraid sometimes.
It’s a real feeling that everyone experiences, no matter how old or young you are. David in the Bible felt afraid too.
He faced many dangers and challenges in his life.
There was a very powerful and bad king who wanted to hurt David, so David had to find places to hide and stay safe.
David hid in a cave.
It was probably a dark and a cold place, but it was the only safe spot he could find.
Even though he was all alone, David knew God was with him, even in the darkest times, protecting him. Today’s saint of the day is St.
Marianne Cope.
She was born 1838 and died 1918.
She is a patron saint of Hansen’s disease.
Barbara Koob was born to a poor farming family in Germany.
One year later, the family immigrated to Utica, New York, where her father changed their surname to Cope.
When her father could no longer work due to illness, Barbara got a factory job to help support the family.
In her heart, however, she nourished a strong desire to serve God as a religious sister. In 1862, Barbara finally was able to enter the Sisters of St.
Francis in Syracuse, New York.
She received the habit and was called Sister Marianne.
She began teaching and soon became a principal of several elementary schools in New York.
Sister Marianne also helped to establish two of the first hospitals in central New York, where she lovingly cared for the patients.
After Sister Marianne has been elected the provincial of her community, a priest wrote to her in 1883 on behalf of Hawaii’s king and queen.
He had asked various religious congregations for help to care for people with leprosy, now called Hansen’s disease. Mother Marianne accepted the invitation and went to Hawaii with six other sisters.
In 1888, Mother Marianne went to an island to care for women and girls who had leprosy.
She knew that she would most likely never return there.
She met St.
Damien, who had spent his life caring for the lepers.
The priest was very ill and died a few months later.
For the next 30 years, Mother Marianne totally dedicated herself for caring for the people of Molokai. David wrote a song, or a Psalms, asking for God’s mercy and protection.
David knew that the scary times would pass and he would be safe.
Sometimes it can be easy to caught up in the scary moment.
When it’s dark or you’re feeling scared, when we can forget that God is a safe place.
We can always, always find comfort under God’s care.
When we’re afraid, we can snuggle close to God.
We can talk to him in prayer, sharing our deepest fears and worries.
God always listens.
He hears every word we say, even the ones we don’t speak out loud.
He’s bigger and stronger than anything that scares us.
We can sing to God just like David did through songs of praise.
Singing is another way to pray, and it brings us closer to God. God called Marianne to a place that no one else wanted to go, a place where the people suffered from a terrible disease that made their bodies weak and gave her skin sores.
Marianne’s story sounded like she lived a thousand years ago, but Marianne died just over a hundred years ago. Mother Marianne always saw Jesus in everyone she met.
She once said, I do not think of reward.
I’m working for God and do so cheerfully.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, help us that when we’re scared to always rely on you, and to not be scared because you are always with us.
And help us that I might see the face of you in everyone I meet and treat them with love.
Saint Marianne Cope, 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!