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, August 3rd, and we only have a couple weeks left before school starts.
To wrap up the summer, Miles and I are going to give you a fun rundown of our Italy pilgrimage we took in April.
The first stop we made was Florence.
Personally, this was one of my favorite places we visited.
It was so pretty there with all the fashion and architecture and beautiful art.
Oh, and I definitely can’t forget the gelato.
We had a guided tour of a huge Dominican cathedral and spent some of the time in the city square with lots of fountains and statues.
We got to have Mass in the Basilica of Santa Croce.
That means cross.
This is a Franciscan church, which, fun fact, Michelangelo, Galileo, and other important Italians are buried there.
My family and I also took a side quest to find the author’s home of the famous story of Pinocchio.
We, of course, had to get a tiny wooden Pinocchio of our own to bring home.
Heyo! My favorite place we visited in Florence was definitely the gelato.
I tried a bunch of different flavors in the two days we were there.
I also loved looking for the famous Raphael paintings of Madonna and the Goldfinch that we did in art study in homeschool.
You should have seen my mom, so excited to see it in real life.
Today’s saint of the day is the patron saint of Florence, John the Baptist.
He is also the patron saint of baptism and converts.
John was the son of a priest, Zachariah.
His birth was foretold by the angel Gabriel during a visit to Zachariah in the temple.
John lived in the desert for years.
He only ate locusts and wild honey, and never touched a strong drink.
He wore a rough garment of camel skin; his hair reached his shoulders.
At the River Jordan, John cried out, Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord.
Large crowds were baptized by him as a sign of penance.
John pointed to Jesus with these words, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
And when John poured water over his head of Jesus as a sign of penance, the Holy Spirit appeared in from the form of a dove, and his heavenly Father said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am pleased.
When John warned King Herod that it was not lawful for him to have his brother’s wife, he was thrown into prison.
Later the king had him beheaded.
Our Lord said of John, Amongst those who are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, thank you for beauty everywhere I go.
And thank you for the blessing to be able to travel to different places like Florence.
Saint John the Baptist, 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.