Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 27, 2023
Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”
He said,
“To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
As a cradle catholic born and raised in Sydney, Australia, the mustard seed of faith has always been with me.
As a young girl, I often attended daily Mass and, at times, even considered a religious vocation as a missionary! However, God had other plans for me. I met my future husband, and we married in 1967.
He was an American serving as an aviator in the US Navy, and together we raised six sons and a daughter. My family became my mission, and by the grace of God, the mustard seed continued to grow, accompanying me through the joys and sorrows of life.
Before my husband retired from active duty, he decided to apply to several law schools. Notre Dame was willing to accept a non-traditional student and recommended he enroll in the MBA/JD four-year program.
This was our introduction to the Notre Dame family. It was a blessed time for our fast-growing family. Five of our children have since graduated from Notre Dame, and now I have a granddaughter attending.
After my husband graduated, we moved our family to northern Wisconsin, where I still live in our family home. Over the years, I have been blessed with many faith-filled friends and faith-enriching opportunities and experiences. I have also realized how God is constantly working in us and through us.
My husband passed away on Holy Saturday five years ago. He was blessed with a happy and holy death surrounded by our entire family, including 21 grandchildren. I am now in a new chapter in my life, and my faith and God’s presence continue to sustain me.
We have all been given a tiny seed of faith, and like the tiny mustard seed, may it grow and spread to bring about the kingdom of God in our lives and those around us.
Prayer
O God, help us grow in holiness and peace. Without your heavenly nourishment, we are bound to wilt and wither. With the aid your Son’s example, we shall grow a hundred fold in all that enriches your kingdom, now and forever. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Angela Merici was a laywoman in fifteenth-century Italy who revolutionized the education of women as well as religious life.
She was born in 1474, the younger of two girls. By the time Angela was 15, the sisters were orphaned and sent to live with an uncle. Angela was distraught when her older sister died suddenly without receiving a final anointing. This event sent Angela to prayer—she joined a group of laypeople who lived in the spirituality of St. Francis, and she prayed fervently for the soul of her sister. She eventually received a vision in which she saw her sister celebrating in heaven.
Angela was admired for her beauty, and people found her hair especially pretty. To divert attention from herself, Angela covered her hair in ashes.
When she was 20, her uncle died, and she returned to her family home. She saw a great need for Christian education for girls—at the time women were educated only if they were rich or if they became religious sisters. Angela, herself, had only received an education by her own hard work.
At the time, girls fell through cracks in the educational system because women were not allowed to be teachers. Unmarried women could not do their own work outside of the house, and nuns lived in cloisters and could not leave the convent.
In response, Angela turned her house into a school to teach girls in her city of Brescia. Other young women joined her there; she formed these teachers into a community dedicated to the education of young women, and their work began to spread. “You have a greater need to serve the poor than they have of your service,” she told her companions.
In 1524, she took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On the way, she stopped in Crete and was suddenly struck blind. She continued on the pilgrimage, visiting all the sites as though she could see. When she was returning home, she stopped in Crete again, and her sight was restored while she was praying in front of a crucifix. For this reason, she is a patron saint of sick people and those who are disabled.
When the pope heard of the good work she was doing, he invited her to move to Rome. Angela saw this opportunity as a temptation to pride and decided to remain in Brescia with the community she had formed.
In 1534, she chose 12 of the women who shared her work and established a formal religious community, known as the Company of St. Ursula (now known as the Ursulines, or the Angelines). These sisters dedicated their lives to serving God and others but were not to remove themselves from the world, as cloistered orders do. The sisters would live celibate lives in their own homes.
When she died in 1540, there were 24 different communities of Ursuline sisters, and today these sisters lead educational institutions throughout the world. They were the first religious sisters to land in the New World when they arrived in Canada in 1639. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus, and her image appears in these stained glass windows in the Basilica.
St. Angela Merici, teacher of young women and patron saint of those who are disabled—pray for us!