The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 210: The Sacrament of Holy Orders (2026)

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

The Catechism enters Chapter Three on the “Sacraments at the Service of Communion” which include both Holy Orders and Matrimony. As it introduces the sacrament of Holy Orders, Fr. Mike reminds us that every vocation is a gift, and that—no matter what state of life we are in or have been called to—we should read this chapter with an open heart and a grateful spirit. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1533-1538. 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 a 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 210. We're reading paragraphs 1533 to 1538. We're just starting a new section on the sacraments of mission, sacraments of at the service of the community, holy orders, and matrimony.

So good. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a 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 Accenturemberpress.com slash CIY. You can also click follow or subscribe

in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Also, speaking of notifications, I want to make a little note myself, a note to thank all of you who have supported the, the production of this podcast with your prayers on financial gifts could not do this without you. We could not get to day 210 without you. Also, I know I mentioned this yesterday, but it kind of is a big deal. It seems like a really big deal for me. It is a big deal to me, but it seems like a

big deal that anyone, I mean, that here we are on day 210 and you keep pressing play. So good. Incredible. We have 155 days left, right? That's good math. I think that's good math. And yet we're way, way, way past the halfway mark. This is, this is good. We're cooking with gasoline right now, as some people say. I don't know. I've heard it said. We're just hitting chapter three, the last section on the sacraments.

And then after this is how we live. Like, what is that moral life look like? How do I live like Jesus Christ in this world? But today, we're going to launch into the sacraments at the service of communion. And so a couple things in keep in mind. We're going to be talking about, obviously, let's look at the, the first three sacraments, baptism, confirmation Eucharist. We talked about that. The other two sacraments we just covered on sacraments of healing are those anointing of the sick and sacrament

of reconciliation. These last two sacraments, holy orders and matrimony, are directed not necessarily toward our own salvation. They're directed toward the salvation of others. I love this in paragraph 1534. If they do contribute to personal salvation, it's through service to others that do so, right? So it's almost like the gifts of the Holy Spirit that God gives out his gifts of this Holy Spirit for the buildup of the church. It's actually meant to be for others. And yet, when a person exercises them faithfully, just like when a person exercises any gift faithfully, we grow in holiness, right? Because if we're saying yes to the Lord in the exercise of any gift, whether that gift be writing, reading, teaching, serving, doctoring, lawyering, garbage picking up, or

mighty works prophecy words of knowledge all those things whenever we're using god's gifts for god it sanctifies us in this same way in a similar way we'll say it like that holy orders and matrimony those are not sacraments for the person who receives the sacrament right they're not the sacrament for the married couple or for the priest or bishop or deacon they're the sacrament for the building up of people. It's that sense of, I like to say it like this, that the two sacraments are sacraments of discipleship. There are two ways, not the only two ways, but they are two ways in which the Christian goes out into the world. We're going to start here today with the sacrament of holy orders after the first three paragraphs. It's going to launch two paragraphs in. I do want to make a note

that at the end of paragraph 1536 on holy orders, it will remind us that way, way back in paragraphs 874, we talked about the institution and mission of that apostolic ministry, where we talked about how the church is apostolic, all of that. We talked about that then. So this is like a big connection between that moment, starting in paragraph 874, and this moment, starting in these paragraphs, paragraphs 1533 and following. That's where we're at. So that's where we're going to talk about now.

Gosh, that's a lot of words. Let's say a prayer and let's launch in. Father in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much for this gift. Thank you for this. this day. Thank you for this chapter three, this last section on the sacraments. And thank you for the gift of matrimony. Thank you for the gift of marriage and family. Thank you for the gift of the holy orders. Thank you for our own moms and dads. Thank you for those people among us who are married

and live out their vows as best they can in the power of your grace. We thank you for our bishop. Thank you for the priests around us. Thank you for the deacons that serve in your church. We ask you to please give them the grace that they need to be faithful to their vows. us to live out their vows each day, Lord God, and give us wherever state of life we're in. Whatever we are right now, we ask you to please give us the grace to live out our promises, to live out the consecration we've received from you. No matter what vocation we are at in now, Lord God, we know that when we were baptized, you made us your sons and daughters, and that is at the heart of everything.

Our primary, our primary call is to be your saints, to live like your sons and daughters. daughters because you have made us your adopted sons and daughters. Help us this day and every day to give you glory by living as you would live, by loving as you would love. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is day 210. We're reading paragraphs 1533 to 1538. Chapter 3. The Sacraments at the Service of Communion Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are sacraments of Christian initiation. They ground the common vocation of all Christ's disciples, a vocation to holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world. They confer the graces needed for the life according to the spirit

during this life as pilgrims on the march towards the homeland. To other sacraments, holy orders and matrimony, are directed toward the salvation of others. If they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so. They confer a particular mission in the church and serve to build up the people of God. Through these sacraments, those already consecrated by baptism and confirmation for the common priesthood of all the faithful can receive particular consecrations. Those who receive the sacrament of holy orders are consecrated in Christ's name to feed the church by the word and grace of God. On their part, Christian spouses are fortified and, as it were consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament.

Article 6. The Sacrament of Holy Orders Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the church entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the church until the end of time. Thus, it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees, episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate. On the institution and mission of the apostolic ministry by Christ, see above. Paragraphs 874 and following. Here only the sacramental means by which this ministry is handed on will be treated. Why is this sacrament called orders?

The word order in Roman antiquity designated an established civil body, especially a governing body. Ordinatio means incorporation into an ordo. In the church, there are established bodies which tradition, nowadays, without a basis in sacred scripture, has since ancient times called taxis, Greek, or ordinez. And so the liturgy speaks of the Ordo Episcoporum, the Ordo Presbyterorum, the Ordo Diacanorum. Other groups also received this name of Ordo, catechumans, virgins, spouses, widows. Integration into one of these bodies in the church was accomplished by a right called Ordinatio, a religious and liturgical act which was a consecration, a blessing, or a sacrament.

Today the word ordination is reserved for the sacramental act which integrates a man into the order of bishops, presbyters, or deacons, and goes beyond a simple election, designation, delegation, or institution by the community, for it confers a gift of the Holy Spirit that permits the exercise of a sacred power, sacra potestas, which can only come from Christ himself through his church. Ordination is also called consecratio, for it is a setting apart and an investiture by Christ himself for his church. The laying on of hands by the bishop with the consecratory prayer constitutes the visible sign of this ordination. All right, there it is the first few paragraphs of this new section on the last two sacraments, the sacraments at service of communion,

sacraments of mission, the holy orders and holy matrimony. We're going to talk about holy matrimony in a few days, obviously. First, we're leading off with holy orders. Now, a couple things to keep in mind is I love this. Let's be reminded of this fact. Paragraph 1533 reminds us that baptism, confirmation and Eucharist, sacraments of Christian initiation. What are they? They ground the common vocation of all Christ's disciples. So what's going to happen is we're going to talk about a sacrament that many of you have not experienced holy orders. We're also going to talk about a sacrament that I have not experienced holy matrimony. But there's also people who are listening in our community who have experienced neither of these sacraments. And so it's one of these things where

it can be really, really easy to get a little bit salty. So the easier it is to get salty, the more we need to like say, let's just recognize that this is a gift that Jesus Christ has given to the world through his church, sacrament of holy orders, sacrament of matrimony. and kind of in some ways if we can do this, if we can kind of somewhat disassociate ourselves from, well, I don't have that sacrament, therefore salty, right? Has that made any sense? Just be able to say, wow, this is just a gift. I am not married. I will never be married. And that's a gift. I mean, the fact that marriage exists is a gift. And it's so good. It is a gift that I essentially gave up in order to be a priest. Many of you might say, oh, yeah, I gave up holy orders

in order to get married. That's awesome. Or I gave up being a religious sister, a religious brother in order to be married, or vice versa. Or I haven't had an opportunity for either of those, the sacrament of holy orders or the sacrament of matrimony. We recognize that we're all across the board, but what we all share is this, again, this common vocation of all Christ's disciples, a vocation to holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world in baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist. And so we have to remember that that is at the heart of things. That's being fully initiated into Christ's church. You don't have to be in any other vocation in order to be a saint. So just keep that in mind as we move forward. If you've been baptized, confirmed, you receive

Holy Communion, then you're on your way. This is it. There's nothing more essential than being a son of God or a daughter of God. That's so important. These are just ways, gifts that God is given to us to be able to live out that call. I'm not minimizing that, but I am saying if there's a temptation of saltiness, let's get past that and just make saltines out of the saltiness, if that makes any sense. Okay, going on. What happens here? Sacrament of Holy Orders, matrimony. They're directed towards the salvation of others. Remember this. This is what we said before we even started a prayer today, is these sacraments are meant to not be for the person. They're not meant to be, like, the sacrament of marriage is not just for the couple. It's meant to be like this is the way in which

the couple has discerned. This is how God has called us to live out our vocation to be saints by loving each other and being open to a family. And same thing for the holy orders, whether that's the bishop, priest, or deacon. This is not because, oh, this is the way I want to get holier. This is the way that I want to live my life. It's I experience a call that I believe God wants me to say yes to for the service of the people around. me. So remember, these are both vocations at the service of others. These are vocations of discipleship. They're vocations not oriented, principally speaking, to one's own holiness, but to the salvation of others. And that's so, so important for us to understand this and get this into our minds and to

our hearts going on to say these sacraments, those are already consecrated by baptism and confirmation. They receive particular consecrations. So those who receive holy orders are consecrated in Christ's name to feed the church by the word and grace of God. And for spouses, spouses are consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament of matrimony, which is pretty phenomenal. I think it's really amazing. Now, we were reminded of this back in the day, back around paragraphs, you know, 800s and 900s, that there's three degrees of holy orders. There's the episcopate, like bishops. There's the presbyterate, that's priests, and there's the deacconate. That's the deacons. And so just kind of a reminder on that one. I really,

really love this recognition that there's orders as well. Why do we use the word order? Well, it's a order would be this old Roman word, or Latin word, ordo that would designate an established civil body. So any kind of body would be an order or an order. And so other groups have been in the church even have ordo. So catacumans, you have the order of catacumans. Consecreted virgins, they belong to the order of consecrated virgins. You have spouses. You have widows. They're actually there are different groups or different bodies there in the church that come from that. So there are all those orders so good. And there's a unique order, right? Holy orders of the episcopate, the presbyterate, and deaconate, bishops, priests, and deacons. Now, one of the things that the church is going to highlight,

and we're going to talk about this for the next few days, is this ordonatio or this ordination, this particular kind of consecration is, I love this. It's not simply an election, designation, delegation, institution. It's not just simply, okay, we set you apart, but actually with the laying out of hands, there's been an extension of the very power, the very power of Jesus Christ that he extended over the apostles in giving them his gifts of reconciliation, right? Giving them his gifts of authority, giving them his gifts of teaching, that in continuing on, we talked about this again when it comes the apostolic nature of the church, in handing on these gifts, It is not simply, again, election, designation, delegation.

It is this ordination is passing on, again, this sacred power where the individual priest, deacon, or bishop can do in Christ what they could never do without him. This recognition is so powerful to be able to realize that it is not Joe, it's Father Joe. It's not Joe, it's the priesthood of Jesus Christ working through Father Joe that means something can now happen that could never happen without ordination. That any human being can wave their hand over someone else and say, absolve you of all of your sins. And nothing happens. But when this priest or bishop is given this sacred power, the saccharapotestus, right, given the sacred power.

given the sacred power. And he says, I absolve you of all of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Something changes. That any person can get behind an altar and say, this is my body,

this is my blood. But when a bishop or priest does that, reality changes. And so we recognize that Jesus Christ himself has given this gift, this power, this sacrapotestus, right, this sacred power through the church to the bishops, priests, and deacons.

And that happens by the laying out of hands, consecratory prayer by the bishop, you know, laying out of hands by the bishop, the prayer of consecration. Those are the visible signs of this ordination. So we're going to talk about how this came to us in the old covenant tomorrow. We're going to talk about how Jesus Christ is the one high priest.

We're also going to talk about how we participate in this and how priests and deacons and bishops participate in the priest of Jesus. We'll talk about all of this in the next couple of days. But the first thing we just want to say is, okay, every one of us, baptized, confirmed, received the Eucharist. We're all called to the heights of holiness. Not all of us are called to marriage. Not all of us are called to holy orders. But all of us are called to be saints.

And that's one of the things that we all need to remember as we march forward. You guys, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.