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

Hey there, Spouts. Today is Wednesday, March 20th, 2019. This week on the Catholic Sprouts

podcast, we are talking about Jesus Christ, particularly about the beginning of his public

ministry. On Monday, we talked about his baptism, and Tuesday we talked about the temptation

he faced during the 40 days he was in

the desert. During both of these things, the baptism and his temptation in the desert, Jesus

affirmed his obedience to the plan of God, the Father. He accepted all that would come his way, including all of his suffering and death

that he would undergo to save our souls. Today, as we continue to talk about the beginning of his

public ministry, we are going to talk about the company that he kept. So as you might know, Jesus selected a handful of people to be close to him as he preached and taught. Many people gathered around him to learn from Jesus. Many, many people, huge crowds, thousands of people we are told. However, he had a small group of people

that he kept close to him, that he trained specially, and that he sent out to preach on his behalf.

We call this group the apostles. And there was even a little bit larger group that included some women, some family members, that also were very close to Jesus Christ.

In the beginning of all of the gospel narratives, we hear of Jesus calling these people to follow him, to put down their nets, to be fissures of men, to follow him.

We also know that the people he selected were imperfect.

Not only did they all abandon Jesus Christ at the end when he faced crucifixion, but one of them even betrayed him and handed

him over to the Jews to be crucified. Remember, Judas was one of his closest apostles,

someone that he called to follow him. So today, before we dig into all of these men and women that follow Jesus Christ very closely,

we are going to talk about something that is important to remember.

Even though Jesus was part of a family, even though he had friends and apostles,

Jesus Christ was very much alone during his life.

Now, why do I say this? Of course, he spent time alone in prayer. Yesterday, we talked about the 40 days that he spent in the desert alone. But we also hear that he's oftentimes surrounded by huge groups of

people, so he's not actually alone. Jesus Christ was alone in the fact that no one really

understood him, and no one really believed in him, except maybe his mother. No one believed in him the way that they should have

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