You're listening to Catholic Sprouts.

Today is January 17th, 2020.

It is also the feast day of St. Anthony.

This week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast, we have been talking about the sacrament of reconciliation.

We talked about the specifics of what happened during this healing sacrament.

We also talked about what sin is and how sin is knowing what God wants, but deciding to do what I want instead.

We also talked about why we go to a priest for confession.

And yesterday we talked about how the sacrament of confession is a sacrament of victory,

of Jesus Christ's victory over sin.

Now today we're going to talk about what happens after confession and how us receiving the mercy of God through reconciliation can spill out

into the whole world.

So let's remember for a second here.

The sacraments, as we talked about last week, are God's way of showing us the invisible realities of our faith.

We can't necessarily see the way the spirit is working. We can't see the angels or God on his

throne in heaven. We can't see or touch these things. So God has given us signs through the sacraments so that we might understand what is happening.

For example, in baptism, the water, the candle, the gown, they all symbolize the way that we have been changed and brought into the church.

Well, to understand what happens during the sacrament of

reconciliation, I want you to bring to mind a great image that Jesus himself had St. Faustina

create and give to the world. And that image, of course, is the divine mercy. If you've seen it, it's Jesus. He's looking at us.

And he's gesturing toward his heart. From his heart, streams of brilliant light are shining forth.

Half of the streams of light are red and the other half are blue.

And Jesus told St. Faustina that these streams of light symbolize the water and blood

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