Hello everyone! Hey yo! 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, September 14th, and the scripture to reflect on is John 3:13.
No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
What is your favorite place?
The place that you like best or would like best in the whole world.
What is it?
Would you like to live there and be there all the time?
Jesus’s favorite place was in heaven.
That is where he lived with God and everything was perfect.
Jesus came down from heaven.
Before Jesus was born, his spirit lived in heaven with God.
But then Jesus left heaven so that he could be born as a little baby.
God sent Jesus from heaven because he loved us so much.
Jesus has come to earth so that he could die on the cross and that we would be forgiven of our sins.
The whole world, the good, bad, rich, poor, young, old, sick, healthy, angry, and joyful.
He loves those who love him, and he loves those who hate him.
There is absolutely nothing you can do that would ever change his love.
We all sin sometimes, but it is nice to know that God will still love us even when we do mess up.
So God sent Jesus.
He loves us all.
Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and today’s Saint of the Day is Saint Helena.
She was born c.
246 and died 329.
She is the patron saint of archaeologists.
Helena was said to be the humble daughter of an innkeeper.
She also became a waffle wife, whose husband became a general in the Roman army.
Together they had a son, Constantine.
However, when Constantine rose to power, he left Helena and remarried for political reasons.
Abandoned, Helena forecasted her life on her son.
When Constantine became emperor, he became fascinated with Christianity and ended the persecution against Christians.
He also sent for his mother to join him in Rome.
Helena embraced Christianity enthusiastically and was baptized.
As the beloved mother of an emperor, Helena graciously and personally gave alms wherever she went.
She also had some of the first churches in Rome built.
Late in life, despite her age, Helena went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a long and difficult journey.
According to tradition, Helena discovered Jesus’s true cross in Jerusalem.
She determined it was the true cross when a leper was healed after he touched it.
Helena’s great devotion also led her to restore several holy sites and build at least two churches, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
She died shortly after her pilgrimage.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, thank you for coming down from heaven to save us from our sins.
We love you.
And help me to focus my gaze on you, discovering your power of the cross.
Saint Helena, 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.