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Hello, Catholic Sprund's listeners. My name is Christina Valenzuela, and I am the owner of a business called Pearl

and Thistle.

I'm really excited to be here because over the course of the next few episodes,

I'm going to be sharing a series with you called The Language of Our Bodies. It's going to be an

exploration of what Catholics believe about our bodies and how we can draw closer to one

another and to God through understanding a little more about how our bodies are part of us being made in the image and likeness of God.

So let's dive in right away by asking, well, what do you mean when we say the language of the body?

You may have heard the term body language, which is the way we use gestures with our body to communicate what we're

thinking or feeling to other people. For example, if my face is smiling, you know that I'm feeling

happy. But if I cross my arms and frown and stamp my foot, you know that I'm feeling angry.

This is body language. And to a certain extent, other animals also

use this form of communication. Think about the way your dog wags its tail and it's excited to see you

or how your cat paws at you to get your attention. But what we're going to talk about is something

a little bit deeper than just how our gestures

can communicate what we're feeling at any given time.

And to do that, we're going to get some help from Pope St. John Paul II.

He was Pope from 1978 until 2005 when he died.

During his lifetime, he delivered a series of teachings, which we later

put together into a collection called the Theology of the Body. He wrote about the body, and he said,

...