You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Friday, October 26th. This week on the Catholic Sprouts

podcast, we have been learning at the feet of Pope St. John Paul II. We have been learning

particularly how to be brave. We've heard about his childhood and how he became the first

pope that wasn't from Italy in over 500 years. We heard about how he instilled bravery in the

people in Poland that led them to the peaceful overthrow of communism. We've heard about how he

seeked unity, even with those groups who had been disconnected from the Catholic Church

for a long time. And yesterday we heard that Pope John Paul II called us all to holiness.

He saw that every life mattered and that each person was called to a special and holy

relationship with God.

Today, we are going to talk about the reason behind all of this bravery.

And the reason why Pope St. John Paul the Great was able to be so

brave in his lifetime. And that reason is Jesus Christ. Pope St. John Paul II made it clear that

his strength came through Jesus Christ, his confidence, and even his bravery while facing suffering.

And in case you don't know, St. John Paul II faced a lot of suffering in his life.

And as we talked about a few weeks ago, when we suffer, we always have a choice.

We can turn into ourselves. We can feel sorry for

ourselves or even get angry. Or we can accept that suffering as a gift from God in a way that we might not

understand and use it to move forward and to do his good despite the suffering. If you remember Pope John

Paul II, he went to seminary and said it to be a priest while the Nazis occupied Poland,

and he was forced to do it in secret, putting his life in danger every day. He also had many Jewish friends that he grew up with,

and he saw them taken away to the concentration camp, along with other Polish citizens that died

...