Hello everyone! Heyo! Welcome back to Scattering Flowers with Elise and Miles, a podcast where we read the daily gospels and the saint of the day.
Let’s get started!Today is Thursday, April 23rd, and the gospel reading is John 6, 44-51, and the scripture to reflect on is John 6, 51.
I am the living bread, which came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.
Do you know all the food groups that we should eat to help us grow strong and healthy?
There are grains, vegetables, fruits, milk and dairy, meat, and fats and sweets.
What are some of your favorite foods?
I like muffins and sourdough bread.
Ooh, I can almost smell them both baking right now.
Even in Bible times, bread was super important to live.
Today’s saint of the day is Saint George.
His birth is unknown, but he died in 303.
He is the patron saint of soldiers, farmers, shepherds, butlers, Boy Scouts, horses, saddle makers, the Bogdan Army, European, Romy peoples, England, Georgia, Greece, Siberia, Spain, and Portugal.
Many legends surround the life of Saint George, but very little is known for certain.
We do know that he came from Palestine.
George fought in the ranks of the Roman soldiers, and he became a tribune, which meant that the other soldiers recognized his bravery.
But George’s most important identity wasn’t that of a soldier tribune or a Roman.
It was being a Christian.
George lived about 250 years after Jesus lived, and a cruel empire named Diocesan ruled over Rome.
Diocesan hated Christians and often condemned them to terrible deaths.
Jesus even taught his disciples to pray by saying, give us this day our daily bread.
But bread won’t last forever.
It gets old and stale or even moldy.
Yuck.
But today’s reading shows us that if we want to live, we need bread.
If we want to live forever, we need Jesus, the bread of life.
Once when George’s army started making sacrifices to Roman gods before battle, the other soldiers noticed that George wasn’t worshipping.
They asked him why.
George told them about Jesus.
Because of his testimony, George was tortured and killed.
George wasn’t just a brave soldier.
He was brave enough to choose his faith in Jesus over his own life.
A fun legend tells of St.
George killing a dragon with a lance.
So pictures of St.
George often show him fighting a dragon.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, thank you for giving us food for us to live forever.
You are our bread of life.
And help me to always defend the faith and to always battle for you.
St.
George, 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!