The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 218: Summary of Holy Orders (2026)

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

Together, with Fr. Mike, we reach the conclusion and “nugget day” for the section on the sacrament of Holy Orders. Fr. Mike reiterates that all three degrees of the sacrament are a longed for element of the “priestly people.” They are those called to go before God and before his people as a mediator. Fr. Mike also explains that for those who are not called to either “sacrament of service”, Holy Orders or Matrimony, we are all called “to be able to rejoice with those who have received gifts.” Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1590-1600. 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 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 a heavenly home. It is Day 218. We are reading paragraphs 1590 to 1600. That's incredible. Pretty remarkable. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition addition 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 a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY, and you can click follow or subscribing your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today, Nugget Day, and we've got quite a few. I believe there are 11 nuggets, paragraph 1590 to 1,600. That's like 10, I know, but sometimes, you know, counting 1590 to 1600. It's nuggets on the Holy Orders. And tomorrow we get to launch into holy matrimony, which is just awesome. So good. But today, it is going to be that review day. It's going to be the in brief day.

It is Nugget Day. And so as we dive in to today, to just be reminded of the great gift that the Lord Jesus gave to us when he instituted the New Testament priesthood, let's just call upon our Heavenly Father and pray. Let's pray now. Father in heaven, we praise you and give you glory. We thank you so much. We ask that you please hear our prayer.

We ask that you not only fill us right now in this moment with your Holy Spirit, a spirit of wisdom, of insight, a spirit of counsel, and of knowledge, a spirit of a fear of the Lord, a spirit that recognizes your gifts. The natural gift you give to us each day, with a sunrise, the natural gift you give to us each day of a heart in our chest that beats and breath in our lungs, but also the supernatural gifts that you've given to us through the grace of your sacraments, with the grace of your church. Thank you for giving us the Holy Priesthood. Thank you for giving us Holy Orders. Thank you for our bishop and for our pastor. Thank you for our deacons who serve in the church. Lord God, we ask you to

please increase the number of men you're calling to serve your church as priests and deacons. We ask you to please increase also religious communities, religious sisters, and religious brothers. Help all these vocations to abound in your grace. Continuing today, we're praying also for those who are called to holy matrimony, recognizing that, Lord God, you fill your earth with people made in your image and you call us to follow you and call us to serve each other in so many different ways. And two of these ways are through holy matrimony and through holy orders. We ask you to please increase the number of those people who are called to those vocations and who say yes to those vocations.

In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And today is 218, Paragraphs 1590 to 1600. In brief, St. Paul said to his disciple, Timothy, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you

through the laying on of my hands. And if anyone aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. To Titus, he said, This is why I left you in Crete, that you amend what was defective and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you. The whole church is a priestly people,

through baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the common priesthood of the faithful, based on this common priesthood and ordered to its service. There exists another participation in the mission of Christ. The ministry conferred by the Sacrament of Holy Orders, where the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ the head in the midst of the community. The ministerial priesthood differs in essence from the common priesthood of the faithful because it confers a sacred power for the service of the faithful.

The ordained ministers exercised their service for the people of God by teaching, Munis Dochendi, Divine Worship, Munis Liturgicum, and Pastoral Governance, Munis Rigendi. Since the beginning, the ordained ministry has been conferred and exercised in three degrees, that of bishops, that of presbyters, and that of deacons. The ministries conferred by ordination are irreplaceable for the organic structure of the church, as St. Ignatius of Antioch noted, without the bishop, presbyters, and deacons, one cannot speak of the church. The bishop receives the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders, which integrates him into the Episcopal College and makes him the visible head of the particular

church entrusted to him. As successors of the apostles and members of the college, the bishops share in the apostolic responsibility and mission of the whole church under the authority of the Pope, successor of St. Peter. Priests are united with the bishops in sacerdotal dignity, and at the same time depend on them in the exercise of their pastoral functions. They are called to be the bishop's prudent co-workers. They form around their bishop the presbyterium, which bears responsibility with him for the particular church. They receive from the bishop the charge of a parish community or a determinate ecclesial office. Deacons are ministers ordained for tasks of service of the church. They do not receive the ministerial priesthood, but ordination confers

on them important functions in the ministry of the word, divine worship, pastoral governance, and the service of charity, tasks which they must carry out under the pastoral authority of their bishop. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by the laying on of hands, followed by a solemn prayer of consecration, asking God to grant the ordinate and the graces of the Holy Spirit required for his ministry. Ordination imprints an indelible sacramental character. The Church confers the Sacrament of Holy Orders only on baptized men, Viri, whose suitability for the exercise of the ministry has been duly recognized. Church authority alone has the responsibility and right to call someone to receive the sacrament of holy orders. In the Latin Church, the sacrament of holy orders for the

presbyterate is normally conferred only on candidates who are ready to embrace celibacy freely, and who publicly manifest their intention of staying celibate for the love of God's kingdom and the service of men. It is bishops who confer the sacrament of holy orders in the three degrees. Okay, there we have it paragraph 1590 to 1600 man okay a couple things to keep in mind this is the conclusion of our time studying or you know diving more deeply into the sacrament of holy orders and some things to remember the sacrament of holy orders right the episcopacy the presbyterate and the deacconate all three of those that you know one sacrament of holy orders but the three degrees here they're not out of the blue that god from the beginning of his calling the people of

Israel. He wanted them. He longed for them to be a priestly people. In fact, in so many ways, originally they were a priestly people. And yet there is this, you know, we know the story of the golden calf where the fathers of that community, they lost their priesthood in so many clear, really, really clear ways. And so was given to the tribe of Levi. And it was exercised in so many, again, so many different ways. It is fulfilled in Jesus. And not only the priesthood of Levi, but also the priesthood of Makisadek, that recognition that there are those who go before the Lord on behalf of the people and go from the Lord to serve the people. And this is this, I guess you could say it like this, a work of mediation going back and forth between God and the people. That doesn't mean that

the people can't go to God themselves. And doesn't mean that God can't come to the people themselves. Obviously, that's not the case. But it is the case that God has ordained it in such a way. Pardon the pun. God has ordained it in such a way that he has called certain people to act as his ambassadors in a very unique way of offering the sacrifice and of giving that sacrifice to the Lord on behalf of the people, but also bringing God's grace from God to the people. And this is just such a gift for us. Why? Because that's why God gave it, because it's a gift. And it's one of the things we've been saying this for the last few days. As long as we've been talking about the priesthood, we've been talking about the uniqueness

of the priesthood, the holiness of the priesthood, also the brokenness of the priesthood, the recognition that God calls ordinary men. Yeah, there are some men who are individually extraordinary, but for the most part, we're all just ordinary men. And so that means we have ordinary intellects and we have ordinary hearts that love okay and don't love very well at times that can love in great ways and can love in poor ways. Ordinary men who lose their tempers, ordinary men who lose their tempers, ordinary men who can be cranky, ordinary men who can be selfish, ordinary men who can be sinful. And at the same time, the grace of the sacrament is so, so real. And so I just, I just, as we conclude this, holy orders, you know, tomorrow we're going to start talking about holy matrimony.

And we're talking about the high call of what it is really to say yes to your spouse and say yes to God by saying yes to your spouse and in marriage. And yet we know, we know. know this too. We know that God calls ordinary people to marriage. God calls bad people to marriage. And he calls those broken people to be just as clear representatives of God's identity. As husbands loved wives and as wives love husbands, that inner mystery, remember the inner most secret of God, which is that he is an eternal exchange of love. That's so clearly imaged in an icon in some ways of in marriage as spouse loves spouse and that love is so real. You have to name it. three months later, three months later, nine months later, my biology is a little off, my counting's a

little off. But we recognize this, right? We recognize that broken people are called to marriage, and they're called to be just as holy as those people who already are holy. In the same way, broken people are called the priesthood, and they're called to be just as holy as the holiest priest ever. Because all of us, this is, again, we none of us are called to a vocation based on our goodness, based on our inherent holiness. Every one of us is called to a vocation so that we might serve. So that in pouring our lives out, we might become more and more like Jesus who poured himself out in love to the father for the sake of the salvation of the whole world. That's why husbands and wives pour their lives out to each other, out of love for the Father for the salvation of the world.

And that's why priests are called to pour themselves out to the Father in love for the sake of the body of Christ. Remember, this sacrament exists. It's a unique thing, right? The ministerial priesthood is different than the kingdom priesthood, in essence, not just in degree, but it is different so that the kingdom priesthood, the baptismal priesthood, so that all the people of God, the whole body of Christ, might be served. That is why priests exist, not to lord it over anyone, but to serve everyone. So when we find a priest who doesn't do that, when we find a dad, right, we find a dad who isn't present. We find a dad who's absent. we find a shepherd who has abandoned his sheep.

We, yes, have to correct them, have to reprove them, but we have to also pray for them. And so that's my invitation today is every one of us is called to the heights of holiness. If you're in holy matrimony, heights of holiness. If you're in holy orders, heights of holiness. If you're in neither heights of holiness. One of the pain points I know is going to be for many people listening who like, okay, here we are on the last day of holy orders. before we start holy matrimony, I'm called to, in someone's listening saying, I'm called to neither.

I would like to be. Maybe you've applied to the seminary and you were turned away. Maybe you long to get married and you never had the chance. Or maybe you were married once and things didn't work out. And you are here saying, okay, so this is great. We're talking about priests, talking about married people. And I'm neither one of them. I don't have a chance of being either of them. What about me? Remember this. Remember that what does Jesus say? What is, Jesus say about his attention to you? He says that the Lord knows, the Father, the Father knows the hairs on your head, that you are worth more than many sparrows. That Jesus reminds us that when you might feel insignificant because, oh, okay, they're talking about holy orders. I'm not

there. We're talking about holy matrimony. I'm not there. You're not insignificant. We're talking about some of the gifts that God has given other people. And one of the great calls that we have is to be able to rejoice with those who have received gifts even when we haven't received those gifts, right? That's what a huge call that all of us are called to, to be able to rejoice with those who have received gifts even when we're among those who have not. And yet it's hard, I know.

And so please know that I'm praying for you. I'm praying my brother priests, my brother bishops, not brother bishops, but my father bishops and deacons. I'm praying for all of you. I truly am praying for all of you. And all of you who are in seminary, all the young men who are journeying and just longing to God, just speak to me, tell me what you want me to do with my life. I'm at your disposal. I'm praying for you, my brothers in seminary are those discerning seminary. All of you who longed to get married,

all of you who are married, all of you who once were married, I'm praying for you as well. Wherever you're at in the story that God is writing, just know that you matter. and your story matters. Your yes to God matters. And yes, maybe it's not in the priesthood or in the episcopacy, maybe it's not holy order, maybe it's not holy matrimony.

But that's not what matters. What matters is you and your yes to the Lord because he has not forgotten you. He's called others to take a step. Maybe that he's not calling you to take, but he has not forgotten you all he's asking is that you take the step that you need to take today,

which sometimes takes a lot of courage and a lot of trust to have confidence that, okay, this matters. Take that step. Okay, this matters. Give that yes. Okay, this matters. I'm going to trust. So it's tough.

That's why I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.