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Hey there, sprouts. Today Today is Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021. Today is also the feast day of St. Agnes of Bohemia.

Now, all week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast, we will be reminding ourselves of what we should be doing during Lent and most importantly, why we should be doing it. Remember, our decisions to fast, to give what we have

to the poor, and to pray, we make these decisions for one reason, and that reason is that so we can become more like Christ.

Yesterday, we had a powerful example of fasting from St. David of Wales, and today's Saint, St. Agnes of Bohemia, reminds us that we are called to not only pray during Lent, but to live lives of prayer.

Christ himself while he was on earth, we hear repeatedly in the gospel that he may have been

with a big crowd or many people might have sought him out for healing. But then the next morning

he woke up early. He went to a deserted place to be by himself and he prayed.

So even though he was God, part of the Holy Trinity, he spent time with God, his father, in prayer.

Therefore, if we are going to be like Christ, we need to, even if it means getting up early or maybe staying up a little bit later, find time for private, quiet prayer.

You know, St. Agnes of Bohemia, who lived in the 1200s, is a great example of that.

St. Agnes of Bohemia was the daughter of the Bohemian king, and actually she, her whole

life was planned for her when she was just three years old. At the time, many of the royal

families in Europe married their children so that there would be these tight bonds between

the nations, between the various

royal families in different countries. So when she was just three years old, she was engaged to a

duke. However, three years later, long before they would have ever been able to be married,

that duke died. Now, as is continued, her parents looked for a new spouse for her, even though

she was still just a little girl, and she received marriage proposals from many other various

royalty across Europe, including the man that would become the Holy Roman Emperor of what was then

Italy. She refused all of these things. In fact, she desired,

she felt deeply within her from a very young age that she was called to give her whole life to prayer.

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