The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 207: Celebrating the Anointing of the Sick (2026)

Episode Date: July 26, 2026

The Anointing of the Sick is not just for those on the verge of death but for any faithful suffering from a grave illness. Fr. Mike explains that because of this, we don’t have to put this sacrament off to the very end; instead, we can enjoy the graces it confers as often as is fitting throughout a lifetime. This section also discusses how we can celebrate the Anointing of the Sick. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1514-1519. 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 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 the year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 207. We're reading paragraphs 1514 to 1519. 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 a year reading plan by visiting ascentrumpress.com slash cIY and you can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. It is day 207. As I said, we're reading paragraphs 15, 14, 14 to 15, 19 continuing to talk about the anointing of the sick. Yesterday we talked about what's the at the heart of the anointing of the sick as well as just the reality that God has, he doesn't remove. We talked about this last couple of days, actually. He hasn't removed our suffering or illness. But he has redacted. deemed it. He's transformed it. And he invites us, not only, yes, to pray for sick, for the sick, to pray for healing, but also to be willing to take up our cross and follow after Jesus. And it's,

this, there's something powerful about both of those things. There's something so powerful about a willingness to say, yeah, I'm going to pray for healing. So I'm going to trust you, Lord. And if I don't get healed, I'm going to trust you, Lord. That is our invitation today. That's our invitation always and so let's pray because that is a that is a that's a high call that's a high call for every one of us and so we pray in the name of the father son and holy spirit father in heaven we give you praise and glory thank you so much thank you so much for bringing us to this day you call us to trust in you with our whole heart mind soul and strength you call us to love you with our whole heart mind soul and strength and so we do we surrender our heart entire lives to you because you are good

you are our father and you love us we know that you do And so we declare our trust in your love for us in healing and outside of healing, in abundance of life and in danger of imminent death. Lord God, we trust in you. Help us to trust you always. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. It is day 207. We are reading paragraphs 1514 to 1519. Who receives and who administers this sacrament in case of grave illness? The anointing of the sick is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as anyone of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived. If a sick person who has received this anointing recovers his health,

he can, in the case of another grave illness, receive this sacrament again. If during the same illness the person's condition becomes more serious, the sacrament may be repeated. It is fitting to receive the anointing of the sick just prior to a serious operation. The same holds for the elderly whose frailty becomes more pronounced. Let him call for the presbyters of the church. Only priests, bishops and presbyters, are ministers of the anointing of the sick. It is the duty of pastors to instruct the faithful on the benefits of this sacrament.

The faithful should encourage the sick to call for a priest to receive this sacrament. The sick should prepare themselves to receive it with good dispositions, assisted by by their pastor and the whole ecclesial community, which is invited to surround the sick in a special way through their prayers and fraternal attention. How is this sacrament celebrated? Like all the sacraments, the anointing of the sick is a liturgical and communal celebration, whether it takes place in the family home, a hospital or church, for a single sick person or a whole group of sick persons. It is very fitting to celebrate it within the Eucharist, the memorial of the Lord's Passover. If circumstances suggest it, the celebration of the

sacrament can be preceded by the sacrament of penance and followed by the sacrament of the Eucharist. As the sacrament of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist should always be the last sacrament of the earthly journey, the Vieticum, for passing over to eternal life. Word and sacrament form an indivisible whole. The liturgy of the word preceded by an act of repentance opens the celebration. The words of Christ, the witness of the apostles, awaken the faith of the sick person and of the community to ask the Lord for the strength of his spirit. The celebration of the sacrament includes the following principal elements. The priests of the church, in silence, lay hands on the sick. They pray over them in the faith of the

church. This is the epictalysis proper to this sacrament. They then anoint them with oil blessed, if possible, by the bishop. These liturgical actions indicate what grace this sacrament confers upon the sick. Write just a couple of short paragraphs today, paragraph 15, 14 to 15, 19. but it highlights a couple of things that might get missed. Remember, back in the day we talked about this yesterday, the anointing of the sick was reserved more and more for people who are at the point of death. And so it was called extreme unction or last rights, right? And yet, theointing of the sick is not only for those who are at the point of death.

It goes on to say in 1514, as soon as any of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time to receive the sacrament has already arrived. In fact, any person with serious illness, grave illness, any person with the serious. So I'm talking to like, not a cold. You wouldn't receive the anointing of the sick for a cold. You wouldn't receive the anointing of the sick necessarily for like a sprained ankle. But if you're going into surgery, yes, you'd receive the anointing of the sick.

If you had a grave illness that you needed to have some kind of procedure of any court, whether it was surgery or not, yes, you could receive the anointing of the sick. It's important to realize that, yes, this sacrament is for grave illness. but not to wait. This sacrament can be repeated. It says here, it says that if the sick person who's been anointed recovers their health and they get sick again, yeah, you can receive the anointing of the sick again.

If a person is at, you know, level seven of grave illness, you get anointed, and they go to level nine of grave illness that another anointing could be called for. And that recognition that when there's a change or more gravity to the illness, there can be another anointing of the sick. One important note, though, is, gosh, not to wait, not to wait for, to ask for the priest. There are so many times I'll talk to my brother priest.

I mentioned yesterday how humbled I am by my brothers, my brother priests who like show up, rain or shine, snow, sleet or hail, night or day, doesn't matter. they'll show up at any time and they do it because they love the Lord and they love their people. But one of the things that they lamented is they, I talked to so many priests who have said things like, I wish that families would have called me sooner. I wish that they would have would have not waited to the last minute. Because sometimes the last minute comes and goes, right? And then the moment is past, the person has died. whenever there's serious illness, go ahead and call for the priests.

One of the things that I've heard people say, though, is like, yeah, the family said they didn't want to scare the person. You see the priest come and they don't want to scare the person. And I understand. Sometimes people have certain associations with priests in general and they have certain associations with priests in particular coming to their bedside in illness. But isn't it better for that person to know that, no, this is the serious moment? Like, no, this might end in death. I think what a, I don't want to say cruel, but it potentially could be cruel, right, to not let the person you love know how serious their illness is so they can't, so they could maybe, maybe prepare

their heart to see the Lord. Maybe they, maybe if they knew how serious it was, oh, they still had time, they could, they could get ready. And one of the things that the anointing of the sick does is it helps the person get ready. So this is just me sliding this across the table for everyone who's listening. Don't wait to call for the priest, but to act while there's still time. Now, it goes on to say that sometimes we have this kind of triple sacrament happening in the in the last rites, right? You have your last confession. You have the anointing of the sick and then receiving Holy Communion are called Vieticum. Vieticum, the bread for the journey, that food for the journey, that food that strengthens us,

the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, that helps us on this last journey from this life to eternal life, from this world, God willing, to heaven. In fact, I remember there was a priest in our diocese. His name's Father Tom, and Father Tom's always known for being late to stuff. And I think we're having an ordination or something like this, a big celebration where all the priests were there, the bishop was there and father tom came rolling in he's also the hospital chaplain and father tom came rolling in right at the last minute and someone gave him a hard time like hey tom you know you're late kind of thing and he's and he just simply he just had this very calm demeanor and he just kind of

looked at the guy and said nope i just uh yeah yeah i'm late i just uh i just uh i just he said i just help the soul get to heaven she says at a bedside give the anointing of the sick the apostolic pardon and just help the soul get to heaven. And just that sense of, oh my gosh, that's what you do. And that's what you just did. It is incredible. And it's what an incredible gift. All the sacraments are gifts of the Lord's mercy that comes and meets us today.

All the sacraments are gifts of the Lord's grace that come and meets us, meet us. They bring us into his family. They restore us to health. They give us strength for the journey. They give us the ability to follow him in what we'll talk about soon. the holy matrimony and holy orders. What a grace it is. What a good God we have that he says,

don't stay far away. Because I'm not going to. He comes close so we can also come close. Man, it's worth it to take time to just praise God tonight for this. Praise God today for this. Guys, the last couple days have been kind of longer episodes. Today's a bit shorter. So I guess we take the wins when we can.

I just want to let you know. I'm praying for you. Please pay for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.