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 Tuesday, July 28th, and for the summer weeks we have been doing the ABCs of our Catholic faith.
But since we finished that up, now we’re going to do the Catholic 1-2-3s.
Today is number 11 for the 11 faithful apostles, and the scripture to reflect on is Mark 3:13.
And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.
The 11 faithful apostles remaining after the betrayal and death of Judas Iscariot were Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, and the rest of the original group.
They formed the core leadership of the early Christian Church before Matthias was chosen to restore the number to 12.
The 11 remaining apostles were Peter, or Simon Peter, the fisherman and prominent leader among the group; Andrew, Peter’s brother and a former disciple of John the Baptist; James, son of Zebedee, James the Greater, brother of John and son of Thunder; John, brother of James and author of the fourth Gospel and the Beloved; Philip, called from Bethsaida, who brought Nathanael to Jesus; Bartholomew, often identified as Nathanael; Thomas, known as Didymus or the Twin; Matthew, the former tax collector and the gospel writer; James, son of Alphaeus, James the Less, another prominent early church figure; Thaddeus, also called Jude, son of James; Simon the Zealot, or the Cananaean, part of the nationalist political movement.
For three years, the apostles lived with Jesus, listened to him, watched him perform miracles.
They were being trained for a great mission.
Jesus passed on his divine gifts, including forgiveness of sins, healing, and turning of bread and wine into his body and blood to the apostles.
Here’s a crazy thought.
Take away the apostles and there probably wouldn’t be Christians.
Without them faithful, we would not know the good news.
The original eleven apostles, minus Judas, who betrayed Jesus, and with the addition of Paul and Matthias, spread the message of Jesus, sharing the story of his resurrection following Pentecost.
They committed their lives to Christ, even willing to suffer and give up their lives for him.
In fact, most died martyrs.
Today’s saint of the day is Saint Simon the Zealot.
He’s the patron saint of tanners and leather workers.
Simon is different from Simon Peter.
He is given a surname in all three of the Gospels.
Where he is mentioned, Simon is called Zelotes.
In Luke and Acts, because it is assumed that Simon was a former member of the political party in Zealius.
Simon was from a town of Cana in Galilee.
Simon is often associated with Jude the Apostle.
As an evangelizing team in Western Christianity, they share their feast day on the 28th of October, the most widespread tradition of the evangelizing in Egypt.
Simon joined Jude in Persia and Lebanon, where they were both martyred in 65.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, thank you for the apostles that give us Christianity because they follow Christ.
And thank you for the gift of evangelization.
Saint Simon the Zealot, 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!