Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 07/27/25 Teach Us to Pray

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Homily from the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The battle of prayer. Every one of us knows that we ought to pray. But not all of us know how. In addition, not all of us know that prayer can often be a challenge...it is a battle. Mass Readings from July 27, 2025: Genesis 18:20-32 Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8Colossians 2:12-14 Luke 11:1-13

So way back in the beginning of May, I think it was the first or second week in May, we had our baccalaureate Mass, our students were graduating. And one of the things is just like, I wanted to communicate this sense of like what, what do I want for them? And obviously I want to be saints. I want them to be martyrs in the world, whether that's white martyrs, where they just, they pour out their lives slowly over time or even red martyrs, where they're willing to witness to Jesus Christ with their entire lives and shed blood for him. The goal is to be saints, though. But then I was like, well, how do you get there? And one thing was this, I just have this phrase.

It keeps going back in my mind again and again, is this, is I want them to be able to hunt and kill for themselves. And what that means is I want every one of our students when they leave here. We'll have to be here such a way that they know how to like, they know how to live their own spiritual life. And what I mean is they take responsibility for their own spiritual life in such a way that regardless of whatever circumstance, whatever season, whatever place in their life that end up in, they know how to be fed spiritually. So they know how to hunt and kill for themselves. That sense

of if they show up in a parish that is alive and is on fire and is like feeding them well, that's great. That's awesome. But if they show up at a normal parish that might not be alive, might not be feeding them, but they know how to hunt and kill for themselves. And I know how important that is because that's part of my goal for myself as well. And I think that's even what's at heart in the gospel today where you have one of, here's Jesus praying. One of his disciples comes up to him and sees him praying and says, I want to be able to do what you do. So Lord, teach us to pray because we don't know how to pray. And most likely many of us had never been taught how to pray. In fact, I have a friend named Mike Gormley and Mike will always say this. He says

as Catholics, we're typically not taught how to pray. We're taught how to repeat. So I know how to say my prayers, but I don't necessarily know how to pray. And this is my experience. When I was in high school, I had a conversion to the Lord. I had to encounter with God's mercy, with his love, and with my sin first, and then with his mercy and love. And I remember having a couple thoughts.

One thought was I need to go to confession. The other thought was I need to pray. I realized I didn't know how to. And I didn't even know how to, like, I knew my mom prayed the rosary, and I had a rosary hanging on my bedstand. But I didn't know how to pray it. So I remember one Wednesday night at Religious Ed, there's a little booklet called Youth Praise the Rosary.

And I asked Mrs. Hagelin. I said, Mrs. Hagelin, could I borrow this book? She's like, yeah, take it and read it. You can have it. It's yours. And I would take that book. And every night, I would have like the booklet in one hand, the rosary and the other.

And it's like, okay, here's how you pray a rosary, which was awesome, was really helpful. I learned how to repeat. But how do you pray? And so what I would do is I read books about, I don't want to ask anybody because that'd be too easy. And so I just, I read books about saints. And so I thought, okay, well, saints then spend time in front of Jesus in the Eucharist.

So I bike over to the local Catholic church and just park myself in front of the tabernacle saying, wait, this is Jesus. He's truly present here. Like, I kneel there and be like, okay, Jesus, like, go. Just whatever you do to saints, like, go ahead and do that now. And I had this perception of my mind that was maybe inaccurate. And maybe my expectation was off because reading these stories of saints, who would park themselves in front of Jesus in the Eucharist, they would, it would describe it like

this. They would say, yeah, you know, so-and-so would be in front of the tabernacle, would be in front of the Eucharist, and hours would feel like near minutes. And I got there, and I made a commitment. I'd bike over every Saturday morning, and I'd sit there in front of the, or kneel there, in front of the tabernacle, and I got to tell you, minutes would feel like ours. It was, I thought I was doing it. Am I doing it wrong?

Because my assumption, my desire was, I want to know how to pray. but how it was described to me always was you just kind of like settle into prayer just like sink into prayer just enter into prayer that I imagine it to be like a hot tub right where it's just kind of like you just you slip in and you just like oh there we are we're praying now and I don't know I got to tell you this it wasn't like that it was not like a hot tub one day everything changed when I was reading the catechism with the Catholic church and I was reading the section on prayer and yet totally nerd what high school would do that. But it was a section in the catechism on prayer called the Battle of Prayer, which was engaging

to me. And so I remember, read, I want to know what does the Catechism say under the Battle of Prayer? And the first words under the title, the Battle of Prayer in the Catechism says this. It says, prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. The next sentence says, it always presupposes effort. And reading that, it like set me free. Honestly, it was one of those, oh my gosh, okay. So it's not supposed to be a hot tub.

It's not supposed to be sometimes, yes, of course, we can settle into prayer. Sometimes we get to actually rest in prayer. That's 100% possible. But for the catechism to say, you know, prayer is both a gift of grace. Obviously, God is the one who initiates. God's the one who brings us into prayer. God is the one, he's the master of prayers. He's the one helps us.

And a determined response on our part. to know that it always, it always presupposes effort was just, it was liberating. Because that's our experience. Our experience is, yes, some days there are great moments of prayer where we get to enter into and just like sink in. But mostly prayer has to, it presupposes effort. It goes on to say, I love this. It says, the great figures of prayer in the old covenant before Christ,

as well as the mother of God, the saints, and Jesus himself, all teach us this. Prayer is a battle. And I love the next line. It says, not only is prayer battle, but ask the question, well, against two. And the answer, the first person, the catechism says, is, well, against ourselves.

That the first enemy, when it comes to my own prayer life, is me. The first enemy when it comes to my own prayer life is not someone else, it's not something else. It's the fact that I, when it's time to pray, I can think of a thousand other things to do when it's time to pray other than pray. So I realized that if I'm going to be someone myself

who can hunt and kill for myself, then I have to be ready to enter into the battle of prayer. No, we also have to battle against the wiles of the tempter who will do everything he can to turn us away from prayer because this is what Satan does not want. Satan does not want us to have you. with God, and so we recognize too. Not only am I battling with myself, I have to battle against the enemy who does not want me to know Jesus. He does not want me to spend time with the Father.

He does not want any of us to become the saints that God has made us to be. This is one of the reasons why we can get discouraged. In fact, the catechism talks about this. When it comes to the battle of prayer, it says, why are we so easily discouraged? In fact, one of the discouragements we experience is not just dryness and prayer distraction, although the catechism talks about that, but also sometimes it feels like we're not being heard. And this is one of those, moments in the catechism that just like, wow, are you reading my brain? Because the catacism even asked the question. It's asked the question, why do we complain about not being heard? And I imagine we all experience this. When it comes to this, I desire prayer. I know that I need to

be able to hunt and kill for myself. I know that I need to be here. But it feels like I'm not being heard. So the question, why do we complain about not being heard? And the response is amazing. It says this. It says, in the first place, we ought to be astonished by this fact. when we praise God or give him thanks for his benefits in general, we're not particularly concerned about whether or not our prayer is acceptable to him. I don't know if you've experienced this ever in your life. Like, okay, God, I'm going to give you thanks. And so it's like, hey, you know, peace out, God.

Like, just, hey, thanks a lot. And we move on with our day. But like, if I really, really need something, I'm like, okay, no, we're going to the church. Like, we're not just going to be in church. We're going to kneel down. And I'm going to, like, have my hands in the right position. I'm going to, because I really want this thing. But when it comes to thanks, like, oh, yeah, by the way, God, thanks.

And we're not particularly concerned about. whether or not our prayer of thanks is acceptable to him, but it goes on to say, but we demand to see the result of our prayers and petitions. And how many times is that our own heart? Okay, God, yeah, thanks, by the way. How many times have we ever said, in the name of Jesus, Father, please receive my thanks? How many times would we ever ever stop for a moment and said, I'm going to approach the father to give him thanks in the same way that I approach him when I have a prayer petition. With that same seriousness, with that same solemnity, with that same again, in the name of Jesus,

Father, please receive my words of praise, receive my thanks. But when I'm praying petitions, I demand to see the results of my prayer. And then they ask the question, what is the image of God that motivates our prayer? Is God simply an instrument to be used or is He the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? In the Gospel today, Jesus reveals that He is the Father. Not only does he reveal that he is the father, he reveals that he is a good dad. A good dad who hears our prayers, who wants us to approach him, he wants us to ask, he doesn't need us necessarily to beg. He just wants us to ask.

Of course, as a good dad, sometimes his answer is no. Sometimes his answer is wait. but we're called as God's children to keep coming back to him. I wonder with the question, like, why would God ask us to wait? I think there's at least three reasons. One is because when God makes us wait, when he invites us to wait, he's purifying our desires. You know, we can come up to come up for the Lord and say, well, God, I need this thing. And the answer is like, do I really?

No, God, I can't live without this thing. Okay, do I really need that? I remember years ago, my little brother was trying to get into medical school, and he didn't get in on the first try. And so in that year, as he didn't get in, he was working in the hospital, and he's working alongside nurses. And he realized that he really liked what nurses did. He really liked the work of nurses.

He really admired a lot of nurses. And he had to ask the question, okay, wait, do I just want the title of doctor, or do I want to actually serve as a doctor? Because this work alongside nurses is very, very meaningful, is very, very powerful, Well, it's very, very helpful for people who are sick or injured. And he had to ask the question, do I just want the title? Or do I specifically actually desire the work? And that not him having to wait purified his desire.

So that when he did decide, okay, I do want to go to medical school because I do want to help people as a physician, that desire had been purified. So number one, God says wait sometimes to purify our desire. Number two is, God humbles us. Sometimes wait makes me be humble. Because I realize, okay, God, you actually do no more than I do.

Okay, God, you actually are in control. And whereas for so many times, for so many people, waiting can cause us anxiety. To have to wait, well, means I have to become humble. Because we know this truth. We know the truth is that, as you heard Timothy Keller say, that anxiety comes from pride and it takes pride to be anxious and it takes humility to be patient god wants us to grow in humility maybe more than anything and lastly we get a spiritual strength when we

wait that when we persevere god doesn't make us ask again and again because he doesn't want to give us good things but he might make us invite us to ask again and again because he wants us to be able to persevere he wants us to be able to keep going he wants us to be able to learn how to hunt and kill for ourselves even when it's not easy. So last thing. How do we pray? Okay, knowing that it's a battle, knowing that there are challenges to prayer,

knowing that it always presupposes effort, how do we pray? I would say four steps, super simple. Number one, listen to God. Whether that's picking up your Bible and just like taking a little bite out of His Word or I don't know, there's a podcast with the Bible in it, it's really interesting.

I recommend it. But just listen to the Lord. Let him speak to you. Number two is reflect on what he said. Just pick up the Bible, or even the daily mass ratings. Listen to God. Number two, reflect on what he said.

What do you think? Number three is notice your heart. Like what's actually going on in your life? What's actually going on in your heart? Sometimes we enter into prayer and we think that, okay, God, whatever you want to talk about, it's just going to be holy things.

Well, yeah, but in your heart might not be some holy things. Maybe you need to actually notice your heart and bring that to prayer. So number one, listen to God. Number two, reflect on what he said. Number three, notice your heart and number four. Talk to him. That's it. Super simple.

It's not a step-by-step. It's not a formula. It's just these are important things to be able to do, to listen to God, to reflect on what he's said, to notice your heart and talk to him. If you and I can do that on a regular basis, there is no season, there is no circumstance, there's no situation that any of us ever have to be afraid of. Because if we can do that, if we can listen to God, if we can reflect on what he said, if we can notice our own hearts and we can talk to him, then we will be able to hunt

and kill for ourselves. If we can do that, we will be able to let him make us saints.