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, March 16th, and the Gospel reading is John 4, 43-54, and the scripture to reflect on is John 4, 50.
Jesus said to him, You may go, your son will live.
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
How many of you ever pray?
What kinds of things do you pray for?
Does God answer your prayers?
God answers our prayers in a lot of different ways.
Sometimes he says yes and gives us what we want.
Sometimes he tells us not yet, and that means we have to wait.
Sometimes God tells us no.
That doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us.
It simply means that he’s not going to give us that thing that we ask for or do what we wanted him to do.
Today’s Gospel is about a man who asked Jesus for help, and Jesus said yes.
The man who asked Jesus to heal his son had to walk anywhere from 18 miles to 25 from Capernaum to Cana.
This gave him plenty of time to change his mind and to turn around.
After all, he was an important person, an official, searching for a carpenter from Nazareth to heal his son.
Today’s Saint of the Day is Saint Louise de Marillac.
She was born 1591 and died 1660.
She’s the patron saint of widows and social workers.
Raised by her father in an aristocratic French family, Louise never knew her mother because her parents were not married.
As a teenager, she was drawn to a spiritual life and tried to enter a convent, but she was not accepted.
A few years later, she married Antonio Legras.
They had one son, Michael.
Louise still longed to be a nun, but on Pentecost 1623, she had a mythical experience in which the Lord told her that in due time she would make vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.
About three years later, her husband died.
Louise was fortunate to have Saint Francis de Sales for her spiritual director, and later Saint Vincent de Paul.
They guided her in a new vocation.
She collaborated with Vincent to become a co-founder of the Daughters of Charity.
Working zealously for the poor, the new order quickly spread throughout France and the whole world.
She urged the sisters to always have a great heart for the poor and to live together in love and unity.
Upon her death, her congregation had 40 houses in France.
Do you think the nobleman ever wondered this was a crazy idea?
Jesus didn’t even see or touch his son, yet the man believed Jesus when he said that his son would live.
He didn’t ask for proof.
He just believed.
That’s not crazy.
That’s faith.
Sometimes Jesus doesn’t always give us what we want when we pray, but even if God and Jesus don’t give us what we want or do what we pray for them to do, we still have to keep believing.
We have to trust that God still loves us even if he doesn’t say yes to our prayer.
Louise’s life shows us how a fervent interior life spills over into works of mission.
She had a deeply rooted spirituality based on the French school popular in the 17th century.
This approach emphasized union with Christ through living his mysteries.
Each person can reflect a particular aspect of Jesus.
Louise’s life focused on Jesus' deep love and concern for the poor.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, help me to keep believing, even if it’s not always the answer that I want.
And help me discover the particular way that you want me to follow you.
Saint Louise de Marillac, 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.
Scatter more flowers.
See ya!