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Catholic sprouts

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

Hey there, sprouts. Today is Tuesday, December 19th, 2020. This week, we are talking about joy, the virtue that we reflect on the third week of Advent. But before we get there, please join me in praying the family prayer for Advent,

which we are learning this month in the Be a Saint Kids Club. In the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. God of love, your son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us. He is a sign of your love. Help us walk in that love

during the weeks of Advent as we wait and prepare for his coming. We pray in the name of Jesus,

our Savior, amen. So yesterday we started talking about joy and how it's so interesting that we're

also lighting the shepherd candle this week. Now today we are going to look at the example of

St. Paul. St. Paul was a very joyful guy despite the many hardships and struggles that he faced. So a little

bit about St. Paul. St. Paul was a Jew. He, in fact, was a Pharisee. And if you remember from

the gospel stories, oftentimes Pharisees were more concerned with the rules than they were concerned

with a relationship with God. And they most certainly, on the most part, many of them did not

become followers of Jesus. In fact, St. Paul never even probably met Jesus before he died, but as a young man,

he became involved in ending the Christian faith. In fact, he was probably present when

St. Stephen, the first martyr for the faith, was stoned death. And we know that he set out

for the city of Damascus, given orders from

the temple leaders to go there, find the Christians, and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.

However, on the road to Damascus, a bright light suddenly shone, he was knocked from his horse, and out of this light a voice spoke.

The voice asked, Saul, which was Paul's name before, Saul, why are you persecuting my people?

And of course, he recognized that this was Jesus Christ. He was cast blind. He was led

into the city of Damascus, where he lay in bed sick for days until a Christian follower came,

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