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

Hey there, Spouts. Today is Monday, August 13th, 2018. This week on the Catholic Sprouts

podcast, we are going to be talking about Mary. The reason why we're spending this week

talking about Mary is because on Wednesday, August 15th, we have a big Marian feast, the assumption of Mary into heaven.

And while we are going to be talking about that later, today we are going to go way back to the

beginning. We're going to talk about Mary when she was born. Before we get into that, though,

I want to remind you about something.

Mary was a real person. Sometimes when we talk about things that happened a long time ago

or people that we've only ever met in books, sometimes we can start to think that they

weren't real. But Mary was. She was a real girl.

She had real parents. She lived in a house and she had real thoughts and emotions just like you two.

She was very, very real. The only difference between you and Mary is that Mary was born without sin.

As she told Bernadette and lords, she said, I am the immaculate conception.

Meaning, Mary was born without sin. Now, chances are you have been baptized. The reason why we

baptize babies is because of something called original sin. When we're born, we have inherited

that sin that Adam and Eve committed long ago in the Garden of Eden. They were disobedient to God,

and because of that, they were cast out of the garden. We don't live in the garden anymore either,

and we have inherited a tendency to sin. But this wasn't the case with Mary. God protected her from this original sin,

and even when she was first being formed in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, Mary was protected

from sin. She was immaculately conceived. God did this because he was preparing the perfect mother for his

son, Jesus. And that is, of course, what we know Mary became. And so, sprouts, I have a challenge for you today. Remembering that our blessed mother was

sinless. I want you to think back on your baptism. Chath and Zar, it happened a long time ago when

...