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Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Monday, April 25th, 2020. We are still most definitely in the Easter season. And today is also the feast day of St. Mark, the Evangelist. So that's Mark who wrote the gospel. Now this week on the Catholic Sprout's podcast, we are going to be celebrating the Easter season by looking back at the

early church, the very, very early church, the church that started with Jesus Christ, and that was established by a lot of the

people that we hear about in the gospel account. Now, the reason why I think this is so important

for us to do during the Easter season is because we just experienced the passion, death,

and resurrection of Jesus Christ, And we know that shortly after

he rose from the dead, he ascended back up into heaven. But before he left, he established his

church. So Jesus Christ established the church, the church that we belong to today. And it is that church that was

established without any cathedrals, without even some of the books of the Bible written yet.

And yet the church was established and it is that church that endures to this day. So let's talk about how the church was established. Just a few of the very

early important people that established the church and how it has continued on to this very day.

So whenever we talk about church history, it is super important that we start with one person.

And that person is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ founded our church. And he did this both before he died and rose from the dead and after.

Now we know that our church, when we go to our church

building and celebrate with our parish family, our community each Sunday, that our church is

defined by certain key sacraments. These sacraments are like superhighways of grace, where we are

able to experience God directly. And there are also

ways that God really shares himself with us through our church. So two, let's talk about three,

actually, three sacraments that Jesus established, which we still get to celebrate. The first of these is baptism. At the very

beginning of Jesus' public ministry, he went down to the Jordan River, met his cousin John

the Baptist there, and he was baptized. We know that Jesus did not have any need for sins to be forgiven, but just as we are blessed by the water of baptism, when Jesus was baptized, he blessed all of the water.

So the water that baptizes us at our baptism is made holy because Jesus went before us in baptism.

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