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Catholic Sprouts,

the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Wednesday, September 20th, 20th,

2003. Today is also the feast day of 103 Korean martyrs. One of them was named St. Andrew Kim Tegon. Now, these saints were martyred or lost their

lives for the faith. Between the year 1839 and 1867, there was various waves of persecution

that went through Korea during that time. St. Andrew Kim Tegon was born to a noble family that had

been converted to the Christian faith. He studied and became the first Korean-born priest.

Now, the interesting thing about the faith coming to Korea is that people brought the faith to Korea through the scriptures,

that there were not missionaries, that people simply studied the scriptures, the writings and

tradition of the church, and they converted, and they practiced the faith for a long time without

a priest. They wanted a priest, they tried to get one, but they struggled to get a priest into Korea.

And when the first missionaries arrived there, they were astounded to find the true and

devout faith there without missionaries.

And so these brave martyrs defended the faith, taught the faith, even without missionaries.

So the story of the faith in Korea is just really remarkable.

And today we remember the men and women that died for the faith there.

Now this week we are talking about the Third Commandment, but before we get back to that, please join me in praying the fragrance prayer.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.

Flood our souls with your spirit and life,

penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.

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