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

Today's podcast is brought to you by OSV Kids, a magazine designed to help children grow in their faith throughout the liturgical year.

To find out more, head to OSVKids.com. com.

Hey there, Sprowds.

Today is Monday, April 12th, 2021.

Today is also the feast day of Teresa of the Andes, a great saint from Chile. Now, all week long, you actually will have a guest host. My friend Meg Hunter Kilmer is here to share with you

saint stories from saints that you probably have never heard of before. She has a new book called Saints Around the World, and she'll be

sharing five different stories with you one each day. So sit back, enjoy, and meet a new friend

in heaven. St. John Colabas from Egypt lived from 339 to 405. His memorial is October 17th.

St. John Colabas wasn't always meek and obedient, but he wanted to be a saint, and he knew that he would have to let go of his own self-will if that was ever going to happen.

So John Colubis, whose name means John the Short, went to the desert to be a hermit,

where he found an old man to be his spiritual father.

Plant this walking stick in the ground and water it every day, the old hermit ordered him.

That is a crazy thing to do.

What good could possibly come of watering an old dead stick,

especially since the river was more than 10 miles away?

But John knew that holiness doesn't come from doing the pious things that we want to do,

but from obeying the Lord, even when he's speaking through other people, even when his will sounds

crazy. Every day, John watered that stick. He walked 10 miles to the river and 10 miles back just to pour some water on an old dead

stick in the ground.

Most days, it must have felt like a giant waste of time.

Just like praying the rosary can sometimes feel like a waste of time or being kind to people

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