Welcome to the 33-day preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary, right here on the Catholic Sprouts podcast.

Before we begin, let's pray.

In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen.

Mary, Mother of Jesus, be a mother to us now, and bring us to your son.

Amen.

Hello and welcome to day 13 of this 33-day preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary. On last episode, we wrapped up the first section of this preparation,

which was where we examined our sin

and looked to the example of virtue modeled by Mary so that we could detach ourselves from

this world and be more free to give ourselves to Jesus.

And when this second part laid out by St. Louis de Montfort, we are going to spend time understanding

who we are, who we were created to be, and who we are if we choose to follow Jesus and give ourselves

to him. So we're going to be talking about all sorts of different things about what it means to be a human

and a follower of Jesus. And we're going to start at the very beginning today by talking about

what it means to be created in God's image. Now, we believe that each and every human being is created in the image of God, that we are different

than animals, that we have been created special, and that we can do certain things that

other creatures can't.

We can do things that God does. Specifically, the catechism teaches that like God,

human beings are able to love, to create, and to choose what is good. So let's talk about each of

these things, to love. Now, first of all, in the English

language, the word love, it means probably too many things and we use it in too many ways.

For example, we use the same word love when we're talking about ice cream as we do when we're talking about our parents or

God or other people and these are very different things so when we understand the way that

...