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 Wednesday, March 18th, and the Gospel reading is John 5, 17-30, and the scripture to reflect on is Psalm 145, 8. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. What are some adjectives you think of when you think about God?
Words that come to my mind are kind, loving, powerful, great, and gentle.
Psalm 145 is a psalm full of worship.
David blessed the Lord for his great power and his kind nature.
His praise was overwhelming.
This psalm, Psalm 145, shows how God is all of the adjectives I listed above.
He is a great God and full of gentleness and kindness.
Try to read Psalm 145 today. Today’s Saint of the Day is Saint Cyril of Jerusalem.
He was born 315 and died 386.
He is the patron saint of catechists. Cyril was born in Jerusalem to Christian parents.
He was well educated in his youth and was ordained a priest by Saint Maximus, and a few years later succeeded him as the Bishop of Jerusalem. Cyril was known for his chill temperament, but immediately becoming a bishop, he found himself caught in arguments left over from the past bishop. In the 30 years of Cyril’s surface as a bishop, he was arrested many times, found guilty for selling church property to give alms to the poor, suspected to doctrine error, and exiled from his diocese.
He spent 16 years in exile.
Cyril was named a doctor of the church in 1883 by Pope Leo XIII. In the Psalms, David reminds us to find ways to worship God in all things because he is worthy of more than we can ever give.
He deserves our time and service to him because he is kinder to us than we will ever deserve. Saint Cyril reminds us to take a step back and seek to understand God’s wisdom.
What does the Garden of Gethsemane look like?
Where is the hill of Jesus was crucified on?
Christians often wonder about the places where Jesus lived and died.
When they see those places, they grow in their faith.
Even today, people from all over the world travel to Jerusalem, Israel, to see the places that Jesus and his disciples actually walked, talked, and changed lives.
Cyril knew that seeing these places and praying, they would be so helpful for Christians.
So he encouraged people saying, go, see where Jesus lived and rose again.
Pray by the places where he lived so you might know that he fully is God and fully man. Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, help us to use our time and service for you because you are kinder to us than we ever deserve.
And to help us to remember that you are both God and man, that you lived and walked on the earth, just as I do.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, 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!