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

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Thursday, June 25th, 2020.

This week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast, we are talking about the third commandment to keep the Sabbath holy.

We've already looked at instances in the Old Testament where God really communicates the

importance of this. We've talked about the fact that God doesn't sleep, but he does rest,

meaning that he takes time to enjoy and glory in the creation. And yesterday we talked about

why this is Sunday, how every Sunday is a mini

Easter, and what that means and why we're obligated to go to Mass, at least under normal

circumstances. Today we're going to talk about the ways that we can restore the holiness of the

Sabbath. We're going to talk about this today and tomorrow.

Today we're going to talk about the ways that we can work to do this in the whole world.

Now first, here's a little story.

So in the early church, in those first couple hundred years after Jesus ascended back into heaven, Christians were

terribly persecuted. They were forced to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods or various false

gods in different parts of the world. When they refused to do this, they were killed. Also, Christians oftentimes were

identified because they refused to work on Sundays. When they refused to work on Sundays,

they would lose their jobs. They would not be allowed to eat. Even St. Kittiri, who is a much more

modern saint, but lived with the Mohawk tribe of

Indians in the northern part of New York. When she converted to Christianity, she also refused to work.

And when she refused to work on Sundays, she was not fed that whole day. So from the beginning

of the church, Christians have taken very seriously the need to rest on Sunday,

that this is a commandment by God and that working, even if it endangers your life, is a terrible sin.

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