The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 133: Devotion to Mary (2025)

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

When we show devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, we fulfill her prophecy that “all generations will call me blessed.” The Catechism clearly shows us how such devotion does not compete with devotion to God, but in fact fosters adoration of God. Fr. Mike declares that the better we know Mary, the better we know Jesus, and the more we love Mary, the more we love Jesus. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 971-975. 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.

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And now let's get started. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer 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 133. You guys were reading paragraphs 971 to 975.

It is a little mix of two paragraphs and then a couple nuggets. 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 Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com Ciy and you can also click follow or subscribe your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today is day 133 paragraphs 971 to 975 as I said, there's only two essentially two paragraphs 971 and 972 and then we have three bullets three nuggets of in brief from 973 to 975. So

You know, we started yesterday talking about what is Mary's motherhood with regard to the church And so we recognize that Mary is wholly united with her son that from the very beginning when Mary consented at the Annunciation to the Incarnation and all the way through his ministry all the way to the foot of the cross even through Pentecost where here's Mary interceding with and on behalf of the church, that Mary has, not only is she the mother of Christ and the mother of God, she's also the mother of the church. We talked about this yesterday, how from the cross,

Jesus Christ gave her to the beloved disciple. And in particular in history, that is John, the beloved disciple, but spiritually speaking, in that moment, he also gave his mother to be our mother as well. So today we're looking at this devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary just one paragraph in 971. So what is that devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary? It completely makes sense because even in scripture, scripture declares all generations will call me blessed or all generations will call me blessed however you say that word and I love this line it says the church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is

intrinsic to Christian worship say that again the church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship that we recognize that scripture says all generations will call our lady will call Mary blessed and so if we're going to be part of the generation that has been renewed transformed redeemed by the Lord then we also will call Mary blessed this is intrinsic to what it is to be Christian is intrinsic to the worship that we offer to the Lord also in paragraph 972 it says this Mary the eschatological icon of the church and like what does that mean well eschatological icon of the church and like what does that mean? Well, it's got a logical like eschatology, right?

It refers to the end times the the consummation the fulfillment of all that God is doing the end And so here's Mary who's the eschatological that end time icon that image of the church that What she is we will be kind of an idea that what she is the church fully will be now Here's Mary in the order of grace who is a human being right but she's been given the Holy Spirit in a unique way and in that unique way she's been transformed and her cooperation with that she is that icon that image of who we are called to be as church. So hopefully that makes sense and then we have our in briefs our last little notes so as we launch in today today, let's say a prayer. Father in heaven,

we give you praise. We thank you so much. We thank you for giving us your Spirit. Thank you for for giving us your Son, because you so love the world, that you gave your only begotten Son, that all who believe in him would not perish but would have eternal life. We thank you so much. We thank you for bringing us into your church. And we ask that you please help us to live in your church as faithful disciples, as beloved disciples. Help us to constantly say yes to your will, Father. Help us to constantly conform our hearts to yours, Jesus Christ. Help us to always live in the power of the Holy Spirit. And help us always do what Mary did, which is not only point to Jesus her Son,

but say yes to the Father's plan. Father, we ask you, ask you please help us this day and every day to be your beloved children. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As I said, it's day 133.

We're reading paragraphs 971 to the nuggets, 973 to 975. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin All generations will call me blessed. The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship. The Church rightly honors the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times, the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title Mother of God, to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. This very special devotion differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate

Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit and greatly fosters this adoration. The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Mary in prayer, such as the Rosary and Epitome of the whole Gospel, express this devotion to the Virgin Mary. Mary, eschatological icon of the Church. After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own pilgrimage of faith and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey.

There, in the glory of the most holy and undivided Trinity, in the communion of all the saints, the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own Mother. As Lumen Gentium states, In the meantime, the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise, she shines forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim people of God. In brief, by pronouncing her fiat at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation, Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her son was to accomplish.

She is Mother wherever he is Savior and Head of the Mystical Body. The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her son's resurrection Anticipating the resurrection of all members of his body Pope Paul the sixth stated we believe that the holy mother of God the new eve mother of the church Continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ Okay, then we have it as I said said, super short, just two paragraphs and then three nuggets at the end of this day. Paragraph 971 to 975. Okay, what did we get? We, ah man,

we got so much. Again, let's highlight this, these very first lines of paragraph 971 because they're so worth highlighting. All generations will call me blessed. This is what our Lady said in Luke's gospel. Therefore, the Church declares the church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship. From the most ancient of times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title Mother of God to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. Now this devotion which is very unique, the church makes it very very clear, differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate word and equally to the Father

and the Holy Spirit. Like so we can venerate, we can honor Our Lady, but the worship that belongs to God alone is worship that belongs to God alone. In fact, I don't know if we mentioned this, but back in the day, like, you know, St. Augustine time, St. Augustine actually, in the fourth century, he made it clear.

He talked about the honor that we give to Our Lady versus the worship that we give to God alone. So he says Latria, L-A-T-R-I-A is the Latin word worship, right? That kind of worship, that kind of adoration that belongs to God alone. He's the only one, Father's Holy Spirit who receives our Latria. There's another word, dulia, D-U-L-I-A in English, your Anglicized form. Dulia is the honor that we give to the saints. And so there's that recognition of, okay, Latria worship belongs to God alone,

but honor belongs to all the saints. Now there's another term, hyperdulia. And you can imagine what hyperdulia, if dulia means honor, hyperdulia would mean like hyper honor, right? So super honor, that will belong to Mary. And so we so we have Julia honor for all the Saints what God has done in their lives is remarkable and hyper Julia to our lady because what God has done in

her life the life of an ordinary completely human human is hyper right what God has done there is incredible she is full of grace car caratome a in that that Greek that here is Mary we give her hyperdulia But we give God alone worship. We give God alone Latria So hopefully that makes sense But the church claims it says that the dualia or the hyperdulia the honor we give to Mary fosters the Adoration or the worship the Latria that we give to God you say well

How does that work that if we give Mary this you know honor how in the world? Does that help us give God more worship and I always like this example and well Here's the thing take someone who take Jack. Here's Jack Jack is dating Jill at one point Jill says, you know Jack I want you to meet my family and Jack says I don't want to meet your family. Well and Jill says, well why don't you want to meet my family? He says, because I just want to know you. I just want to love you. I don't want to have a relationship with your family. I just want to have a relationship with you. Now that on one hand you'd say, hey Jack,

that's not super smart because if you've ever been in this situation where you were Jack and you got to meet the person you loves mom and dad. You recognize this sometimes this happens, maybe not every time, but a lot of times this happens. The more and more you get to know Jill's mom and dad, the more and more you actually get to love Jill, the better and stronger relationship you have with Jill's mom and dad, the stronger and better relationship you can have with Jill. Now again, I'm making a broad strokes and that doesn't always happen, but it can happen. And it's normal for that to happen.

I know that had happened in my life, years ago before I was a priest and I was dating someone that meeting her mom and dad was one of those things like, oh now I have a relationship with her mom that makes me actually love her more. On the human level, that's real. On the spiritual level's it's just as real the more that we get to know Mary and love her the mother of our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ the more we actually can grow our love for Jesus Christ yep I'm gonna take that one to the bank that one I'm gonna I'm gonna go down with the ship on that one I believe that's completely true going on to say Mary is the eschatological icon of the church I just think this is so remarkable that after speaking of the Church, this whole section on the Church we've been talking about, right? Her origin that comes from the Father's heart and Jesus Christ establishes this, the Holy Spirit makes it real, the mission of the Church, the destiny of the Church, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. Because in her, we contemplate what the church already is in her mystery on her own pilgrimages of faith,

what she will be in the homeland at the end of the journey. Because here is Mary. She has said yes fully to God. Here is the church we're meant to be fully conformed and converted, fully transformed by the love of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary allowed that to happen in her life. And so we looked at her and recognized that, okay, there's the, there's the potential, there's the image of what we're meant to become as church. Hope that makes sense. And now I love this in the in brief, in our nugget, nugget nine 73, it says

Mary is mother wherever Jesus is savior. So she is mother wherever he is savior and head of the mystical body. And so we just get to take that in and get to like just embrace that. Mary is mother wherever Jesus is savior. Amen to that. Tomorrow we're going to talk about Article 10. We're moving on and I believe in the forgiveness of sins. Remember we're walking through this whole Apostles Creed and we're getting closer and closer to the end. Tomorrow is I believe in the forgiveness of sins. Remember, we're walking through this whole apostle's creed and we're getting closer and closer to the end tomorrow is I believe in the forgiveness of sins.

We talk about one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, talking about the power of the keys and we go on even to talk about the resurrection of the body coming up soon and the last judgment, Christ's resurrection, our resurrection, the final.