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, January 5th, 2020. Today is also the feast day of another American saint, St. John Nauman. Now before we talk about him, let's pray the words that Moses gave us in the book of Deuteronomy

in response to St. Andre Beset's challenge this month in the Be a Saint-Cit's Club. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord is one.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart, and you shall repeat them

diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk

on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. Amen. So this week, we are setting our

New Year's resolution to do hard things, to become saints. So let's look to the example of another

incredible American saint,

St. John Nauman, so we can really understand that we too can do hard things. We too can love God

with all of our souls, all of our hearts, and all of our minds. St. John Nauman was actually

not born in the United States. He was born in the year 1811 in what is now the

Czech Republic. As a young man, he studied to become a priest, but his bishop refused to ordain him.

Because, you see, where he lived, there was a small problem. There were too many priests.

They didn't need him. And so, John decided to head out into the world to a place where there was

a short of as a priest, where he could become a missionary, and this took him to Manhattan.

So, St. John Nauman arrived in Manhattan. He was ordained a priest the very next day, and he was sent out on mission to serve those who lived in the wilderness. Now this was a long time ago. There were farms all over New York State. They lived sort of spread out. And so St. John Nauman headed out there. He built

himself a log cabin. He embarked upon a life of service and penance. He slept on the floor. He only

drank water and ate bread. And he walked many, many miles to serve,

to bring the sacraments to the people in his large area that he served. He also did the work

of learning 12 different languages so that he could speak directly to the people that he served that were from

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