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Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Wednesday, August 18th, 2021. Today is also the feast day of St. Helena, who was the Queen Mother of Rome way back in the 300th. Now, week we have been talking about the seventh beatitude, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. We've already

talked about how the opposite of peace is not just war, but also frustration, emptiness, dissatisfaction, and worry.

We talked about how the only way that we can be peacemakers in the world is if we are

filled with God's peace, that we have to start in our own hearts before we try to bring

peace to our relationships and to our worlds. And so today, through the

example of St. Helena, we're going to see what this looks like. So St. Helena had a very interesting

life. She lived in the Roman Empire, but her father was a poor innkeeper. And one afternoon, she was out in the yard,

helping her father take care of their inn. And there were a couple of Roman officers who rode by.

One of the Roman officers was so taken by Helena's beauty that he married her on the spot and carried her away with

him. So they were married and they lived in Roman high society. At the time Rome was pagan and it lived a

very sinful life. Roman officers and Roman wealthy people, oftentimes sinned boldly, feasted, cared very little for the poor,

and Helen was part of this life. She was married to her husband and they had a son named Constantine.

But through the years, her husband became more and more important in the Roman government.

And eventually, he was named the next emperor of Rome.

But as he rose to this rank, he suddenly looked at his wife and realized that she was not nearly as important as to be an empress, that he should have married

someone better. And so he quickly divorced Helena and exiled her and married someone better

who became the empress of Rome. So Helen was forced to go and live in poverty and to seek

any help that she could find just to survive.

Now, these were very hard years for Helen. But at the time that she was exiled, she met a group of

people that were very kind to her and that ministered to her. And this group of people were

Christians. Now, at the time in Rome, it was

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