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

Well, hey there, sproutsouts. Today is Friday, December 23, 2020.

This week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast,

we have been talking about St. John the Baptist,

Jesus's cousin, who prepared the way for Jesus' public ministry. We've already talked

about John the Baptist's birth story and the song his father sang when he was born. We've talked

about the Sadducees and the Pharisees who were two different groups of elite Jews, both of whom Jesus condemned.

And now today we are going to talk about the message that St. John the Baptist preached while he was out in the desert.

And remember, he was out there preaching and baptizing for probably quite a while before Jesus appeared and was also baptized.

So what was the message that John the Baptist was bringing that would really prepare the

hearts of people to receive Jesus? Well, I'm going to teach you a big word today.

That big word is this.

Metanoia.

Metanoia.

That is what John the Baptist was preaching.

So metanoia means an interior change.

It almost means that that inside part of you, that part of you that is that is really you,

that it changes direction. It almost turns around and heads into a different direction.

It's a complete interior conversion. Now, maybe you think, well, yeah, we're always called to conversion,

but at the time

when John the Baptist was preaching, this was a radical idea. The Jews, the religion that they

practice, if they wanted to be forgiven from their sins, they had to partake in a specific

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