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Catholic Sprouts

The Daily Podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Spouts.

Today is Wednesday, January 24th, 2024.

Today is the feast day of St. Francis DeSales, an incredible saint with so much to say about him.

We won't even cover half of it. But before we get there

and continue to talk about sacrifice, please join me in praying the prayer for students.

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

Lord our God, in your wisdom and love, you surround us with the mysteries of the universe.

Send your spirit upon us and fill us with your wisdom and blessings.

Grant that we may devote ourselves to our studies. Through them, draw us ever closer to you, the source of all knowledge.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. So we're talking about sacrifice this week. We have

already heard the stories of Blessed Laura Vassana and St. Marianne Cope, today to give us a whole new perspective on

sacrifice and how it can be something that we do all the time, every single moment of our day.

Let's talk about St. Francis DeSales. So St. Francis DeSales lived in a very complicated time. He lived at the end of the

1500s, beginning of the 1600s. And if you know anything about church history, you know that there

was one big thing happening in Europe at this time, the Protestant Reformation. In Germany, Luther was breaking away from the church. There was huge

religion wars. Tons of people died. There was great confusion. And then also in the area of the

world where St. Francis lived in Geneva, sort of the Switzerland-France area. There was a man named John Calvin,

who was also breaking away from the church, and there were all sorts of militant, violent military

groups. They were forcibly making Catholics, specifically Catholic priests, denounce their faith, say that they didn't believe in the

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