The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 129: Many Vocations (2026)

Episode Date: May 9, 2026

This "In Brief" section reviews all that we have learned in recent episodes. In the Church, “the faithful" refers to clerics and the laity with various callings in each. Fr. Mike explains how God calls every human being to unity with him. No matter our vocations, we must surrender our lives to the Lord and participate in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly offices of Christ. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 934-945. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sure goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we will read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 129. We are reading paragraphs. It's Nugget Day 934 to 945. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catholic Church.

You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting Ascensionpress.com slash CIY. And you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications today. As I said, yesterday. And as I just said a second ago, it is Nugget Day. But not only is it Nugget Day. Sometimes days you get like, you know, the Happy Meal Nuggets.

And it's, you know, four piece chicken nuggets. And you're like, okay, that's a couple. This is like paragraphs 934 to 945. There's quite a few nuggets. I don't know if you realize this. The last section we just covered was a lot. I mean, we went all the way back to the institution of here's the papacy. Here are the bishops as the successors of the apostles, the priests, also the laity,

and the fact that the lady participate in Christ's priestly, prophetic, and kingly office. We also talked about religious life, right? All those people are consecrated to the Lord. we talked about the evangelical councils. So yeah, it's a lot of nuggets. So it's always going to be a lot. 934 to paragraph 945. That is family. That's family sized nuggets. That's what I'm talking about right now today. So as we launch into this, let's just say a prayer and call upon the Lord and ask the Lord to allow God to speak to us what it is in this summary, in this in brief that he wants to just remind us of. the goodness of informing a visible church, the goodness of giving us a holy father in the Pope, the goodness of giving us bishops as a shepherd and priests and deacons as their coworkers,

the dignity that God has bestowed on each one of us in sharing with us, participation in his priestly, in his prophetic, and in his royal office. All of those aspects, we just get to ask the Lord to speak to us in the way that he wants to speak to us on this day. So we pray. Father in heaven, we thank you. We give you praise and glory. Thank you for bringing us here today, 129. We thank you for walking with us every step along the way. We thank you for every person who has been praying for us on this journey. And we ask you to please help us to take one step at a time. Help us to hear what it is you want to simply remind us of this day. And help us to not only hear these words, but to put them into action, not only to be reminded of

who it is you've called us to be and how it is you've called us to live, but truly let our heart, our attitudes, our actions be transformed by this truth, by you, by your grace. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. As I said, it's day one to 129. It's Nuggets 934 to Nugget 945. Let's get started. In brief, among the Christian faithful by divine institution, there exist in the church sacred ministers who are also called clerics in law, another Christian faithful who are also called laity. In both groups, there are those Christian faithful who, professing the evangelical councils, are consecrated to God and so serve the church's saving mission.

To proclaim the faith and to plant his reign, Christ sends his apostles and their successors. He gives them a share in his own mission. From him, they receive the power to act in his person. The Lord made St. Peter the visible foundation of his church. He entrusted the keys of the church to him. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is the head of the College of Bishops, the vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal church on earth. The Pope enjoys by a divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls. The bishops, established by the Holy Spirit succeed the apostles. They are the visible source and foundation of unity in their own particular churches. Helped by the priests, their co-workers, and by the deacons, the bishops have the

duty of authentically teaching the faith, celebrating divine worship above all the Eucharist, and guiding their churches as true pastors. Their responsibility also includes concern for all the churches with and under the Pope. The characteristic of the lay state being a life led in the midst of the world and of secular affairs, lay people are called by God to make of their apostolate to the vigor of their Christian spirit, 11 in the world. Lay people share in Christ's priesthood, ever more united with him, they exhibit the grace of baptism and confirmation in all dimensions of their personal, family, social, and ecclesial lives, and so fulfilled the call to holiness addressed to all the baptized. By virtue of their prophetic mission, lay people are called to be witnesses to Christ in all circumstances,

at the very heart of the community of mankind. By virtue of their kingly mission, lay people have the power to uproot the rule of sin within themselves and in the world by their self-denial and holiness of life. The life consecrated to God is characterized by the public profession of the evangelical councils of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in a stable state of life recognized by the church. Already destined for him through baptism, the person who surrenders himself to the God he loves above all else, thereby consecrates himself more intimately to God's service and to the good of the whole church.

Okay, there we have. Nuggets 934 to 945, a summary, the in-brief of everything from the very beginning. Here, paragraph 934, which highlights kind of almost the entire section here we just read, which is the Christian faithful by divine institution. That God established this himself. There exist in the church sacred ministers. We're called

clerics by law, right? So that would be bishops, priests, deacons, and other Christian faithful who are also called laity, all those who are not in holy orders, and all those who have not made public profession of vows. It goes on to say in both groups, there are the Christian faithful who professing the evangelical councils, member, poverty, chastity, obedience, are consecrated to God and so serve the church's saving mission. And this is so important, even though this is simply a review day, right? It's the in-brief day. there's something about being reminded of this. Like, for example, even in paragraph 935, it's so important, not just to be reminded

that, okay, this is the structure of the church, this is the gift that we have right now. But why? In paragraph 935 says this. Like, why does the church exist? Well, to proclaim the faith and to plant his reign, Christ sends his apostles and their successors. He gives them a share in his own mission. From him, they receive the power to act in his person.

Now, this is so important for us because, again, we can, I don't know about you, but Sometimes we can be, when we're reading about these things like we have for the last, you know, number of days in this section of the catechism, it can be, I don't know, whether it can become dry or it can become a thing where it's just like, oh, we're just talking structures. And I'm not really interested in structures. You're talking systems. I'm really interested in the why. I'm interested in the heart behind the whole thing.

Paragraph 935 reminds us, this is the heart that Jesus Christ, he sent his apostles and their successors into the world. Why? To proclaim the faith and to plant his reign. He gives them a share in his own mission. And that mission, of course, is to teach, of course, that mission is to lead, like to serve, to govern, to guide, right? To shepherd. And that mission is to sanctify. That the Lord Jesus wants this whole world to become holy. He wants this whole world to know the truth. He wants this whole world to be led to the father. And that's why he sent, that's why he sent the church out into the world. Now, tomorrow we're going to talk more and more about the fact that the church, of course, exists in time on earth, but there's also the communion of saints. There's also all those people who have been brought into the family

of God who have gone before us, those people who are living right now, but they're living in God's very presence. The communion of saints are all the faithful from all time who exist and are alive. Remember what Jesus said. He said, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is the God of the living, not of the dead, and all those who die in Christ are alive in Christ. So we recognize that the church, when we talk about the church, sometimes we just mean the visible structure of the church. Sometimes we mean the people of God. And when we say people of God, we just mean those who are alive right now. And yet, we're going to hit tomorrow the communion of saints, which reminds us that, yes, the church is the people of God who are alive right now. But also, the church is all of

those people who are alive in Christ right now, whether in purpose, whether in person, or in the beatific vision in heaven. And we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. We're surrounded by this communion of saints. And we just give God praise for that. Because why? Because Jesus Christ has sent his church out into the world to proclaim the faith and to establish his reign even more fully.

And he's the one who did it all. And now we get to do it through his power. And that's just this incredible, incredible gift. No, last little note. The last nugget is kind of a highlight of yesterday's last point. Yesterday's last point was paragraph 931 about those who surrender themselves to the God he loves, God they love. Paragraphraph 35 is almost a word for word paraphrase. And it says, already destined for him through baptism.

And again, destined for who? Already destined for God through baptism. If you've been baptized, you're destined for God. And in fact, if you're created, I mean, the destiny of all human beings, God wills that everyone be saved. That means that's the destination that he created us for. but it goes on at 945, already destined for him through baptism. The person who surrenders himself to the God he loves above all else, thereby consecrates himself more intimately to God's service and to the good of the whole church.

And yesterday I made the point that, yes, this means specifically those who are in consecrated life, or those who have consecrated themselves to the evangelical councils. But it's all of us through baptism. When we surrender ourselves to the God we love above all else, we are consecrating ourselves more intimately to God's service and to the good of the whole church. And so I think that it's worth it. It's worth it before we take this next step tomorrow to the communion of saints to today, pause and reconsegrade ourselves.

You know, we've been consecrated. If you've been baptized, you've been set apart, right? You've been set apart to be holy means to be set apart for a purpose, right? You have been consecrated. You've been set apart for a purpose. But we have the opportunity right now to re-consecrate ourselves. We have the opportunity right now to say, okay, Lord, I once again give you permission.

I give you permission to set me apart. I give your permission to be my Lord. I surrender myself to you. You are the God that I love. And I'm yours for your service and for the good of the whole church. First of all, help me, help me to follow you in poverty, chastity, and obedience. Help me to let you love me. help me to love you back and to serve you and to serve the whole church.

I hope that makes sense. I know it's a short day today, but I think today could be a pivot day. I think today could be one of those days where we pause and we say, I need to be reconsecrated. And that doesn't mean I go through an official right of reconsecration. It might just mean today's a day where I just want to pause in the few minutes that I normally would be still listening and say, okay, Lord, I give you permission. I gave your permission to love me.

I gave you permission to call me forward. I gave your permission to give me your grace. And I surrender myself to you, the God I love. Let's pray for each other that we do this today. Right now, I invite you, pray for every person listening to this, that we all of us, all of us, re consecrate ourselves to the God we love. I am praying for you.

Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.