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, April 13th, and the Gospel reading is John 3, 1-8, and the scripture to reflect on is John 3, 3.
Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Today’s New Testament reading is one of my mom’s favorite stories.
She loves it so much that my dad got her a super famous painting of it, and it’s hanging in our house.
It’s the story about the disciples and Mary in the upper room being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Think about how you would feel if you were at Mass one day, and when you prayed, the church building began to shake.
This happened to the first Christians because they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
You are also filled with the Holy Spirit, and even if you don’t feel the earth quake, the Spirit’s power is in you, and you can bring the good news of Jesus into the world.
Today’s Saint of the Day is St.
Martin I.
He was born 600 and died 655.
He’s the patron saint of the poor.
Martin became Pope in 649, and he was the last of the Popes to be venerated as a martyr.
In his short reign as Pope, Martin dwelt with the heresy, which denied that Jesus Christ had a human will.
He called a council in Rome that condemned the error.
The Eastern Empire, Constance II, supported the false teaching and had it written in support of it.
The document was also condemned, but Constance retaliated.
He tried to gather support for the idea from the bishops.
When this failed, the Empire sent the soldiers to kidnap and imprison the Pope.
Martin was condemned to death.
Martin endured many sufferings.
At one point, he was paraded through the streets in chains while the crowds of the people ridiculed and tormented him.
Through it all, he never compressed the truth and steadfastly upheld the Gospel.
He died in prison as a result of his treatment.
My mom likes this story because she says even today we can be filled and led by the Holy Spirit.
It just takes faith and trust and praying for those things to become strong in your spirit.
When they do, then you can easily trust for the Holy Spirit to lead you anywhere and everywhere in your life.
In one of Martin’s letters that still exists today, he laments that his former friends and family members had forgotten him.
His martyrism did not happen all at once, but dragged on two painful years of suffering.
He suffered not only from physical pain, but from the loneliness and abandonment.
Martin’s suffering helps us reflect on people in our own lives who might be suffering in some way too.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear Jesus, fill my heart with the Holy Spirit so I can preach the good news everywhere I go.
And help me to stand up for what I believe in.
St.
Martin I, 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!