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 back to this 33-day preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary. We are on day 15. We are talking about what it means to be a human being.

And we've already talked about that it means that we are created in God's image,

that we are part of God's family.

And today we're going to talk about a very specific part of being a human,

something that only we have the ability to do, not animals,

and that is that we have the ability to seek knowledge, understanding, and relationship with God.

We were designed to do this, and we, unlike the animals, can do this.

So to understand what this means and the ways that we can get tripped up in this seeking of God,

let's look to a very important character from the gospel, who is Nicodemus. Now, Nicodemus only appears in the gospel of John. He is a Pharisee,

and he evidently has seen Jesus working miracles. So he comes to Jesus at night because he's frightened,

and he has a really incredible conversation with Jesus. So we're going to read, this comes from

the Gospel of John. Now, there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him,

Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs

that you do apart from the presence of God. Jesus answered him, very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born

from above. Nicodemus said to him, how can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second

time into the mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered him,

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