The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 345: Animated by Prayer (2024)

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

We know we can pray anywhere at any time, yet certain places are more favorable for prayer. There are also certain rhythms of prayer in the life of the Church that foster regular attention to the Lord. As Fr. Mike emphasizes with the Catechism, we can’t pray always “if we don’t pray at specific times.” Today Fr. Mike encourages us to find our place and time for prayer. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2691-2699. 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 in God's family as we Journey Together Toward Our Heavenly Home. This is Day 345, we're reading paragraphs 26-91 to 26-99. 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 a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash DIY, and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates Daily notifications you guys. Thank you so much. You know, it's day 345, which means what it means that after this we have 20 Episodes to go we are getting so close to the end and what a great gift has been to be able to journey with you I am praying for you Thank you so much for everyone who has supported the production of this podcast the whole team

So support supported me through your prayers and financial gifts. We could not do this without you We definitely could not have made it all the way to day 345. No, here's the thing about today Yes, we've been doing this 345 days today. We're doing something we've never done before and here's what we've never done before We've never gone from one article or one chapter to another chapter in the same episode I don't know if you know this. I could be wrong in that because I have a bad memory. But here's what we're going to do. We're going to finish this section that's on the guides for prayer, right?

Yesterday we talked about servants of prayer, those people who teach us how to pray. Today we're going to kind of conclude this section by looking at places favorable for prayer like where could you pray? We're going gonna do some nuggets and then we're actually going into chapter three on the life of prayer, just looking at those first three paragraphs on chapter three, the life of prayer.

And this is remarkable because not only are we gonna get some really practical things at the very beginning, places favorable for prayer, easy for me to say, but we're also in starting chapter three in the life of prayer, we get this just beautiful get these beautiful words. For example, paragraph 2697, it says,

prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment, but we tend to forget him who is our life and our all. And this is just the reality. I love the fact that here today on this one random day that we're going from one section to another section, one chapter to another chapter, we both get this practical teaching on places for prayer

as well as just this word that speaks right to our heart. That is, yeah, prayer is the life of the new heart. And yet, we tend to forget. And yet we tend to put God on a shelf. So we have to, we have to remember, if we're gonna have the life of the new heart, and yet, and yet we tend to forget, and yet we tend to put God on a shelf. So we have to, we have to remember, if we're gonna have a life of prayer, we must remember God more often than we draw breath. Think about that.

We must remember God more often than we draw breath. That's a quote from St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Just remarkable. And so we're gonna learn today. We're gonna be taught, we're gonna be guided, so let's pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and so we're gonna learn today. We're gonna be taught, we're guided, so let's pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Father, in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much for bringing us to this day. We thank you for being with us every step along the way. Every time we press to play, Lord God,

we call upon the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask for your Holy Spirit to come into our hearts and to help us love you and love our neighbor The way you deserve the way our neighbor deserves where you command us to love our neighbor and also will illuminate our minds that we can know you more clearly and With courage follow you more closely We give this day to you. We consecrate it to you We consecrate every moment every breath every heartbeat to you for your glory and for the salvation of the world.

We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. It is day 345. We're reading paragraphs 2691 to 2699. Places favorable for prayer. The church, the house of God, is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community.

It is also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The choice of a favorable place is not a matter of indifference for true prayer. For personal prayer, this can be a prayer corner with the sacred scriptures and icons in order to be there in secret before our Father. In a Christian family, this kind of little oratory fosters prayer in common. In regions where monasteries exist, the vocation of these communities is to further the participation of the faithful in the liturgy of the hours and to provide necessary solitude for more

intense personal prayer. Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer. For pilgrims seeking living waters, shrines are special places for living the forms of Christian prayer in church. In brief, in prayer, the pilgrim church is associated with that of the saints whose intercession she asks. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are precious guides for the spiritual life.

The Christian family is the first place for education in prayer. Ordained ministers, the consecrated life, catechesis, prayer groups, and spiritual direction ensure assistance within the Church in the practice of prayer. The most appropriate places for prayer are personal or family oratories, monasteries, places of pilgrimage, and above all, the Church, which is the proper place for liturgical prayer for the parish community and the privileged place for Eucharistic adoration. Chapter 3. The Life of Prayer. Prayer is the life of the new heart.

It ought to animate us at every moment. But we tend to forget Him who is our life and our all. This is why the fathers of the spiritual life in the Deuteronomic and prophetic traditions insist that prayer is a remembrance of God often awakened by the memory of the heart. As St. Gregory of Nazianzus stated, we must remember God more often than we draw breath. But we cannot pray at all times if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it. These are the special times of Christian prayer, both in intensity and duration.

The tradition of the Church proposes to the faithful certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer. Some are daily, such as morning and evening prayer, grace before and after meals, the liturgy of the hours. Sundays, centered on the Eucharist, are kept holy primarily by prayer. The cycle of the liturgical year and its great feasts are also basic rhythms of the Christian's life of prayer. The Lord leads all persons by paths and in ways pleasing to Him, and each believer responds

according to his heart's resolve and the personal expressions of his prayer. However, Christian tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer vocal meditative and Contemplative they have one basic trait in common Composure of heart this vigilance in keeping the word and dwelling in the presence of God Makes these three expressions intense times in the life of prayer All right, there we have it paragraph paragraph 26, 91 to 26, 99. Let's go back to the last section, places favorable for prayer.

So, you know, when it comes to, we're gonna get taught later on, we're gonna hear that any place, you can pray in any place. You can pray while you're shopping, when you're cooking your meals, when you're out for a walk, you can pray anywhere. And yet there are places favorable,

kind of what you say, privileged places for prayer. So we recognize that the church itself, right, the house of God, that's the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community. What's that mean? That means that the best place, the most fitting place, the proper place for the mass is inside the church. It's also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Jesus in the blessed sacrament. So that's, that church building is the proper structure, the proper location for that. Now, going on to say, for personal prayer, this is your own prayer.

This can be a prayer corner with stickers, scriptures, and icons. So the idea behind this is, yes, the church proper place of prayer for the liturgy, right? For the mass, for adoration. And yet, we can't always get to the church every place of prayer for the liturgy, right, for the mass, for adoration? And yet, we can't always get to the church every time we pray. Is there a space in your own home

that could be your quote unquote prayer corner? Is there a place you can make it and kind of almost in some ways sanctify it by having your sacred scriptures really present there? Maybe having some images that would help you and assist you in prayer. It can be so incredible. It calls it a little kind of little oratory and it fosters prayer in common. Next place of prayer, monasteries.

And the vocation of those communities is to further the participation of the faithful in something like the Liturgy of the Hours. So as we talked about many, many times, there are five times a day when bishops, priest deacons, religious sisters and brothers and many lay people have dedicated themselves to say, I'm going to pray morning prayer, daytime prayer, evening prayer, night prayer and the office of readings. And so monasteries, these kind of communities, they can open up their doors as long as they're not cloistered and sometimes even if they're cloistered the monks and nuns will be in a separate place but the faithful in the area can come and join them for these times of prayer in a separate place, but the faithful in the area can come and

join them for these times of prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours and in Mass oftentimes. Lastly, it says here that pilgrimages, often times pilgrimages, evoke our earthly journey toward heaven in our traditionally very special occasions for renewal and prayer. If you've ever been on a pilgrimage, especially if you've ever been on a pilgrimage with Jeff Cavins or myself, You will hear us say this will say that the pilgrimage is a microcosm of the life of your of your life because in the course of a pilgrimage, right we have a destination and there's a journey to get there and Everything that happens in your life happens on a pilgrimage. So you get tired you get cranky You have highs you have lows you you get to rest, you have these moments of intense

joy and moments of, sometimes moments of intense grief. It all happens in the space of, you know, whatever, seven days to 12 days or however long your pilgrimage is, is a microcosm of one's life. And that's why it says here that they evoke our earthly journey toward heaven in our traditionally very special occasions for renewal and prayer. And so there's oftentimes shrines that are associated with these with these pilgrimages. So that's what we had for that last section. Now, as we launched into chapter three, the life of prayer, man, it's so important. I love this paragraph 2697 because there's so many just little nuggets. I know we had some nuggets earlier today, but this there's this gold.

Prayer is the life of the new heart. And of course it ought to animate us at every moment, but that's not how it works, right? Why? Because we tend to forget him who is our life and our all. My guess is after 345 days you have this routine and the routine is, you know, I get in my car, I go for my walk or whenever you're listening to this. And it's like, okay, I feel my heart, I feel my mind with thoughts of God. And I'm reminded constantly, you press play and 50 minutes later, maybe 30 on some of those long days, minutes later, I just realized, okay,

I was reminded of the goodness of God, the reality of God, the presence of God, the love of God, what I owe to God, what he's given me access to. It's such a great reminder because we need to be reminded. What's it say here? We tend to forget him who is our life and our all. In 21 days, you'll be done with this. And then what will take the space of this time

that you've dedicated to the Lord for 365 days? That's the question we get to ask. And we have to plan now, 20 days in advance to be able to say, okay, when this is done, not that we're trying to get ahead of ourselves and get over our skis here, what we're trying to do is I know that for the last 345 days, when you press play, you're being reminded of God's love for you. You're being reminded that he is real. You bring your mind, you're being reminded that your life is not your own.

And we need to be reminded so, so consistently because we so quickly, so quickly forget. And I love this. You know, St. Gregory of Nazanthus, this quote, we must remember God more often than we draw a breath. We have to pray at all times. And yet at the same time, this is one of my killer quotes, not Mike Willett, killer quote,

but this is a killer quote from the Catechism. But we cannot pray at all times if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it. So someone who says, Oh, my work is my prayer. Oh, my, you know, I pray as I go. That's what's wonderful. Keep doing that. Keep offering up your work as your prayer, keep praying as you walk, praying as you go. But we cannot pray at all times if we do not pray at specific times.

And so there are special times of Christian prayer both in intensity and duration. And so, for the next couple days, what we're going to look at is we're going to look at these expressions of prayer. First, we're just gonna look at these three kinds, as you know, it's described in paragraph 2699. Three major expressions of prayer,

vocal, meditative, and contemplative. And that's just so beautiful and so essential for us. Tomorrow we're looking at vocal prayer and meditative prayer. The following day we'll look at contemplative prayer. But we recognize that they all have one thing in common. And that one thing in common, one basic trait in common it says in paragraph 2699, is they have composure of heart, being vigilant.

Remember we have this awareness, this vigilance in keeping the word and dwelling in the presence of God makes these three expressions vocal prayer, meditative prayer and contemplative prayer intense times in the life of prayer. So tomorrow looking at vocal prayer, meditative prayer, the next day contemplative prayer and we'll continue on moving forward as we just allow the Lord to draw us into relationship, deeper and deeper relationship with him. So please take this time right now, as you press stop, as you press pause,

to say, okay God, I've just heard your call to pray, your call upon my life to remember, to remember you regularly in 20 days from now, what will I do so that I can remember you and don't forget you amidst the busy can remember you and don't forget you amidst the busyness of life. Don't forget you amidst the distractions of life, amidst the noise of life. Oh God, help me to remember you now and always. And as you pray, please know, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.