The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 335: Jesus Teaches Us to Pray (2025)

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

At the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to pray through his own prayer to the Father. As we watch Jesus pray, his prayer becomes our template for our own prayer. Fr. Mike emphasizes that our prayer should not just be external, but rather should be an internal conversion of heart. This internal conversion of heart involves many aspects such as, reconciliation, loving our enemies, praying to the Father in secret, and prayerful forgiveness. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2607-2615. 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 our heavenly home. This is day 335. We're reading paragraphs 2607 to 2615. 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 ascensionpress.com slash CI.

And you can click follow or subscribing your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications. Speaking of today, today is a great day to be grateful. And I am grateful. Thank you so much for all of you who have supported the production of this podcast by your prayers. Thank you for praying for me and praying for all the people who work on this podcast. and thank you for praying for each other. And also thank you for all those who help us with your financial gifts. We literally could not do this without you.

We could not get to day 335. You know, yesterday we talked about how Jesus prays. Today we're taking the next step. And Jesus teaches us how to pray. And this is remarkable because paragraph 2607 begins by saying, you know, just what we said yesterday, Jesus prays and we see Jesus praying. The first line says, when Jesus prays, he's already teaching us how to pray. Which is completely true.

Just by watching Christ pray. by watching Jesus pray, the son approach the Father. We have a map, right? That's our template for how we can approach the Father as well. And yet at the same time, there are some times when Jesus explicitly teaches us how to pray. And so we're going to look at those things today, the aspects, the character of Christ's prayer, as well as what he encourages us and how he encourages us, how to pray. Does that make sense? I think it makes sense.

So let's do that. Let us pray as Jesus taught us, not in the sense of the Our Father, but in terms of just coming before our Father with great trust, with faith. filial boldness, right? The boldness of sons and daughters of a good, good dad. And we as we pray Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus, your only begotten son. We enter into your presence. By the power of your Holy Spirit, teach us to pray, help us to pray, help us to be the men and women that you have called and redeemed us to be. Help us to always approach you as our good Father, who is just and loving and merciful and good. And so good, good, dad, good father. We ask that you please in this moment. Continue to teach us how to pray, not just in moments where we're saying our prayers,

but in every moment. Help us to have that glance turned toward you, a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy in every moment of our lives. Help us to always pray as your son, our Lord taught us how to pray. In his name, we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is Day 335. We are reading paragraphs 26.15. Jesus teaches us how to pray. When Jesus prays, he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his father is the theological path, the path of faith, hope, and charity of our prayer to God. But the gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher, he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of

prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in his church. From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus on conversion of heart, reconciliation with one's brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and seeking the kingdom before all else. This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father. Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a

filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It is possible because the beloved son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to seek and to knock since he himself is the door and the way. Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us filial boldness, saying, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will. Such is the power of prayer and of faith that does not doubt. All things are possible to him who believes. Jesus is as saddened by the lack of faith of his own neighbors and the little faith of his own disciples as he has struck with admiration at the great faith of the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman. The prayer of faith consists not only in saying

Lord, Lord, but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with the divine plan. In Jesus, the kingdom of God is at hand. He calls his hearers to conversion and faith, but also to watchfulness. In prayer, the disciple keeps watch, attentive to him who is and him who comes, in memory of his first coming in the loathiness of the flesh, and in the hope of his second coming in glory. In communion with their master, the disciples' prayer is a battle. Only by keeping watch in prayer can one avoid falling into temptation. Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke. The first, The important friend invites us to urgent prayer.

Knock, and it will be open to you. To the one who prays like this, the Heavenly Father will give whatever he needs, and above all, the Holy Spirit, who contains all gifts. The second, the importantate widow, is centered on one of the qualities of prayer. It is necessary to pray always without ceasing, and with the patience of faith. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? The third parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector, concerns the humility of the heart that prays. God, be merciful to me a sinner. The church continues to make

this prayer its own, Kirie Elyison. When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to ask in His name. Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father because Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. Faith bears its fruit in love. It means keeping the word and the commandments of Jesus. It means abiding with Him and the Father who, in Him, so loves us that He abides with us. In this new covenant, the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus. Even more, what the Father gives us when our prayer is united with that of Jesus is another counselor,

to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth. This new dimension of prayer and of its circumstances is displayed throughout the farewell discourse. In the Holy Spirit, Christian prayer is a communion of love with the Father, not only through Christ, but also in Him. He said, hitherto, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. All right, there we have it, barographs 2607.

2615, this is incredible, just absolutely beautiful. And I love how this section just unfolds and unpacked. It tells us in 2607 exactly what is it going to teach us and then it teaches us. I love when it's that clear. For example, again, 26-07 highlights by saying when Jesus prays, he's already teaching us how to pray. We watch Jesus and his prayer becomes the template. His trust in the father becomes the template. His coming before God consistently and regularly and persistently is the key for all of us. And this is so important. Paragraph 2607 goes on to say, but the gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. And he says so good, because here's the next steps. It says, like a wise teacher, he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the

father. And that is so incredible. You know, Jesus, the people he teaches how to pray are the Jewish people. Like, they know who God is in so many ways, but he's revealing a new dimension of God that they didn't realize. They didn't know that God was a Trinity. They didn't know that God is, at the very heart of God's identity, is love. Of course, they knew God is just. Of course, they knew that God is good, that God loves them. But Jesus unpacks and packs it even more fully. Goes on to say, then Jesus reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he'll speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples, who will then be the teachers of the prayer in the church. And so, and so Jesus reveals these key aspects, these key elements of what Christian prayer is going

be. So paragraph 26 of 8 says, from the sermon on the mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart. So recognize, we've talked about this so many times that our prayer, our pious acts, our liturgy, our worship, all these things. They're external in so many ways, but they have to have to match up with this conversion of heart, this interior, I belong to the Lord. Right. And what does that look like? Well, here in the sermon on the mount, Jesus makes it pretty clear. If we're going to have this conversion of heart, it's going to mean things like reconciliation with your brother before you present your offering on the altar. If you're going to have conversion of heart, it means that you strive to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, that you are going to pray to the father

in secret, not trying to heap up empty phrases. It's going to mean, if we have this conversion of heart, it's going to mean prayerful forgiveness from the depths of your heart. It's going to mean striving after purity of heart and seeking the kingdom before everything else. So that recognition of we're being converted into God's sons and daughters. This depth of conversion is so, so important. That's one of the first steps that Jesus insists on, that it's not just external. And it's not just, in my prayer time, that's when I come before the Lord. But the rest of my life, you know, I'll do whatever I want.

This coherence of one's life. And this is going to be so important for us. We're going to hear this later on. But we pray as we live because we live as we pray. This is a key that we need to know. We live as we pray because we pray as we live. And so if my heart during the day, during the course of my life, is far from God, then how in the world?

Why in the world would I imagine that my heart would be close to God when I'm praying? No, we live as we pray because we pray as we live. So we need conversion of heart. Second, in paragraph 2609, it says once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. And we, of course, we know what faith, the humble submission of the intellects and will before God. We talked about that many times. I love in this section, here's kind of a new, not a new definition of faith, but just another way to peel back. What's the reality of faith? It says this, faith is a filial adherence to God

beyond what we feel and understand. I love that. Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. So filial, remember, as a son or daughter, to God the Father, beyond what we feel and understand. I'm adhering to the Father as his child, beyond what I feel. beyond what I understand. And so this is remarkable. So we're committed to conversion. Our prayer happens in faith. And then paragraph 2610 talks about how then our prayer has to have this filial boldness,

right, this sense of, I'm coming before my father, who is good. Remember, we talked about this, how Abraham, Moses, the figures of the old covenant, the more and more they learned about the identity of God, the more their prayer changed. They realized that they could come before God because he's good and he cares and they could intercede on behalf of others. So therefore for us, I mean, we've been going 335 days. We've been learning about God. And if you also been following along with the Bible in a year, you've been learning about God, you've been learning what his heart is like. Because of that, we know that we have the heart of a good father who is just, who cares about us, who knows your name, who has counted

the hairs on your head, who knows every strand of DNA, who knows he's been with you, every breath and every heartbeat. Therefore, because of that, we get to have this filial boldness. Because we know who God is. We get to come before him as humble, of course, with humility, but also with this strange mix of humility and boldness. It's so incredible. Now, at the same time, we have conversion, right? We have faith. We have filial boldness. But also paragraph 2611 highlights this, that the prayer of faith isn't just that we call out Lord, Lord. Remember, Jesus even said that. Not all those who say to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but who? But only those who do the will of my father in heaven. So we recognize that the faith is not just something we hold in our

hearts, although we have conversion of heart and conversion of life, but faith is something that has to be lived. And if I don't live that faith, then it is, is it really faith? Is it really faith? Is it a big question? Or is it just kind of a vague feeling or vague intuition or a vague wish? So we have faith. We have this conversion of heart. We have filial boldness. We have faith that actually moves and works, but also paragraph 2612 says we're also going to pray with watchfulness. And watchfulness is knowing that Jesus is coming back. Yes, of course that. But also, I would say it's also an awareness. It's an awareness that God is active in your life. So watchfulness, yes, we're waiting for the second coming of our Lord, that last coming, the final

coming of our Lord. That that's real. But also an awareness that he's here, right? now like with you as you're listening to these words god is here god is with you and god is attentive to you in this moment and so if we're going to pray like jesus he teaches us how to pray with his watchfulness for his final coming but also an awareness he is with you right now by the power of his holy spirit god is attentive to you god is present to you and that has to that has to change the way in which we pray so again conversion of heart faith filial boldness, faith that moves, watchfulness, slash awareness. And now we keep moving on, keep moving on, because Jesus taught us how to pray in so many ways. There are three parables

that are given to us in the Gospel of St. Luke. There's the, two of them are importantate, right? I want to say importantate. Basically, the first is the importantant friend, right? The one who goes to his neighbor and says, I have a, I have a visitor. They're coming here, and please help me give them some food for them, basically. And no, we're already in bed. Everyone's in bed. He says, but if he keeps knocking, if he keeps on knocking on the door, it will be opened. And so that's this encouragement. Just keep on knocking and the door will be opened. The next is the important widow, right? And that quality of prayer that is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith. And this is so

important, not only that we continue to persevere, but we persevere with patience. And then the third parable is the Pharisee and the tax collector. Remember that the Pharisee goes all the way up to the front in the temple and says, God, you know, here's all, I give you. I give you. thanks for all the great things that I do and the tax collectors and back. And he says, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. And that concerns the humility of heart. And so we even say that at every mass. It says here in paragraph 26, 13, it highlights the fact that at the beginning of mass, we say, Lord have mercy, that Greek term curie I lay son. And so all three of these, this persevering prayer, this prayer that is made with patience. And also this prayer that's made

in humility, we can just say, Lord, I know you are God and you're good. And I am a sinner. And I need your mercy. These are three aspects of our prayer always, which is remarkable. Last couple notes. Third paragraph 26, 14 highlights the fact that Jesus Christ has given us. We get to pray in his name. And when we pray in his name and the power of us Holy Spirit, we have access to the father. we get to as we live when we live like the son we get to abide like the son in the father who in christ so loves us that he abides with us and just reflect on that for just one moment we get to ask the father in the name of jesus for all things not only that but as the father's adopted sons and daughters we get to take our place with the Son.

When we pray, we ask in his name, we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We also pray in the name of Jesus. And so when we keep the words and commandments of Jesus, we get to abide with Jesus in the Father, who in Jesus so loves us that He abides with us. And this is so incredible. I love the last line of 2614.

In this new covenant, the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus. that Jesus is prayers. He says, Father, I know you hear my prayer. You always hear my prayer. And we have assertitude that our prayer will be heard. Now, our prayer is answered according to the Father's will. That's so important. We're going to learn more about that. Our prayer is answered and accord with the Father's will. But we know that our prayer is always heard, that your cries are always heard. Your laments, your complaints, my struggles, every one of us, they're all always

heard because what's revealed to us in the sun and through the rest of scriptures as well what's revealed to us is that the father loves us that the father loves you and that's how we approach God yes he is good yes he is holy yes he is he's there's no shade or shadow or spot or blemish there's no there's no weakness in him and yet he loves you and me in our weakness and in our shadow in our shade he loves us in the midst of our sin and so we can approach him with confidence, that filial boldness, but also humility, knowing that God loves you as you are. He just loves you too much to let you stay that way.

You ever heard that? Well, it's true. God loves you now, and so we pray always. We pray always. Please pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.