Hamle 16 — July 23

John of the Gospel of Gold

Long ago in the great city of Rome there lived a boy named John. His family was very rich, but John loved one thing most of all: reading the Holy Bible, the book that tells the good news about Jesus. He asked his father for a special copy written in shining gold letters, and his father happily had one made for him. John read his golden book every single day, and his father smiled to see him so happy.

One day a kind monk came to stay with John's family on his way to the holy city of Jerusalem. This monk had given up money and noise to spend his days quietly with God. He told John how peaceful and beautiful it is to pray all day long. John listened, and his heart began to long for that quiet, holy life more than for all his family's gold.

So John went with the monk to the monastery, a peaceful home where many monks pray together. There he prayed and prayed, and learned to love God even more. After seven years, God sent him a dream telling him to go home and let his parents bless him before he died.

John went home dressed in old, ragged clothes, and at first nobody knew it was him! He lived quietly in a little hut in his own father's yard. When the time came, he gently told his mother and father, "I am your son John." They hugged him and cried happy, gentle tears. After he went home to God, sick people who came near him were made well, and the people built a church in his honor.

John teaches us that loving God is the most precious treasure of all, more precious even than a book made of pure gold.

Read this book always, and remember me.— Saint John, giving his golden Gospel to his mother

I am your son John.

A Greeting to Sharda Hawaryat

Today the Church also sends a loving greeting to a holy person named Sharda Hawaryat. This good servant of God was as gentle and harmless as a little dove, and at the same time as wise and clever as a serpent.

Jesus once told His friends to be exactly like this: kind and gentle on the inside, but also smart and careful in the world around them. Sharda Hawaryat lived it out, both kind and wise, and so we ask God to help us be gentle and wise too.

Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.— Matthew 10:16