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

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Thursday, December 13th, 2018. It is also the feast day of an early Christian martyr in our Catholic faith, St. Lucy. A little bit about St. Lucy. St. Lucie lived about 250 years after Jesus. She was martyred because she had taken a vow of virginity,

which meant she wanted to preserve all that she was, her spirit, her mind, and her body for Jesus Christ alone.

She was the daughter of a rich man, and when another man tried to come and marry her

and she refused, and then she also refused to burn a sacrifice in honor of the emperor,

she was sentenced to death. Men tried to come and pull her away, but miraculously, they couldn't

get her body to budge, even when they tied her up to oxen and tried to pull her away, but miraculously, they couldn't get her body to budge, even when they tied her up to

oxen and tried to pull her that way. Then they piled wood around her and tried to burn her, but again,

miraculously God protected her and her body would not be burned. Ultimately, she was martyred by the

sword and is commemorated as a beautiful example of giving all that we have to God and trusting that he will protect us.

This week on the Catholic Spouts podcast, we have been talking about the Jesse Tree and particularly about the character of Moses. We talked about how he was an

Egyptian prince, and yet he was an Israelite, and how God used him to go to Egypt and free the

Israelite nation. Yesterday we talked about how when he returned to Egypt, he and his brother Aaron brought down many plagues upon the country of Egypt through God's work, and yet Pharaoh's heartened.

Because Pharaoh thought that he too was a God, he refused to believe in the power of this

Israelite God, and he would not free the Israelite nation.

Well, that all changed after the final plague.

Now, after all these horrible things, the Nile being turned to blood, frogs, flies, locus, lice,

boils. The last plague is what we call the Passover. God sent his angel into Egypt to kill the first

born in every family. Meaning in your family, think of the first child that was born.

The angel of God would kill that firstborn, from Pharaoh's house, from all the regular people in Egypt,

from even the slaves in Israel, and even the animals, even the first born in animal families, would be killed in this plague.

God warned Moses that this was coming and to protect the people from this angel of death.

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