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, May 20th, and the Gospel reading is John 17, 11-19, and the scripture to reflect on is John 17, 11.
Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me.
Have you ever skipped rocks on a lake or pond?
You need a very specific rock.
One that is smooth and very flat.
And the way you throw it is pretty specific too.
You can’t just chuck it into the water and it will just go kerplunk.
You have to almost throw it like a frisbee, at an angle, and very gently.
If you do all these things precisely, you will create ripples in the water.
It’s quite fascinating.
In today’s reading, Jesus is praying for his disciples, and in that prayer, we hear a type of ripple.
When Jesus is praying, the first step, God gives words to Jesus.
Second step, Jesus gives those words to the disciples.
And the third step, the disciples then give those same words to other people.
Today’s Saint of the Day is Saint Bernardine of Siena.
He was born in 1388 and died 1444.
He is the patron saint of advertising.
Bernardine didn’t want to think about anything that didn’t glorify God.
He asked Jesus for a pure heart and Jesus answered him.
Because his heart was pure, Bernardine was able to serve people who had nothing, who often lived in terrible conditions.
He hated hearing anyone who said rude or crude.
Bernardine loved the example of Jesus' mother, Mary, and wanted to imitate her purity of heart.
He wanted a heart so pure that he was able to say yes to God just like Mary had.
What this means is that we are part of the ripple that Jesus is praying about in today’s scripture story.
How this happened is that the disciples told their disciples, who told their disciples, who told their disciples, and so on and so on and so on, until the ripple made it all the way to your parents and then told you about Jesus' word too.
Crazy to think, right?
We can still keep the ripple going today.
Have you ever heard the letters IHS?
This is a symbol for the first Greek letters of Jesus' name written in Greek.
St.
Bernardine of Siena, who we just read, created the symbol of IHS and sent the symbol with sunrays.
He loved Jesus and had a special devotion to the most holy name of Jesus.
Next time you’re in the church, play I Spy looking for IHS.
Hint, look at your priest or deacon.
It’s wearing an IHS sewn onto their vestments.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear Jesus, thank you for telling your disciples about your good news, and thank you for spreading the ripple.
And help me to always love and honor your most holy name.
St.
Bernardine of Siena, 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!