The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 355: Summary of the Lord’s Prayer

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

The In-Brief, or the “nugget day”, for the article on the Lord’s Prayer, emphasizes that understanding the identity of God is essential when it comes to our relationship with God. God is not a tyrant or dictator. He is our good Father. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2773-2776. 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 355 we're reading paragraphs 2773 to 2776. 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 cyy and you can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today is day 355. You know, last couple days, yesterday, when I recorded, I was like, I think I might have even read the whole thing, I read the nuggets. Today's just nugget day and I didn't realize we only have four nuggets today. It is paragraph 2773 to 2776. Yeah, you know what that means.

It means we're getting today 365. That's what that means. We're going to end on the day. So this is the in brief. These are the nuggets of this section article with the summary of the whole gospel. Recognize that when Jesus gave us the our Father, he was summarizing the entire gospel. Right? There's nothing as as St. Augustine said, run through all the words of the Holy prayers in scripture. Do not think you'll find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord's Prayer. And so to do the summary today, the in brief, the last little nuggets before we launch tomorrow, which is incredible. We get to launch into the actual context or the body of the our Father, we're going to have these nuggets that just remind us, remind us of the gift of what it is to have Jesus Himself teach us. So before we do this, let's take a moment and pray like Jesus as we turn to our Father

in heaven. Father, you are good. You are God. You are trustworthy. We know that we can lean into your heart. We know that we can lean into your will. We know that we can trust your will in good times and in bad, we know that we can trust you when we are filled with consolation and when we are burdened by challenges and sufferings.

We face death even. We know that we can trust you in desolation. In all times, Lord, help us to be faithful to you. When we can no longer hold on to you, hold on to us. Don't ever let us walk away from you. Lord God, please keep us in the palm of your hand. Keep us in the center of your heart. Help us to walk with you every day of our lives.

And when we do fall, when we do walk away, when we do say no to you, pick us up. As a father picks up his children, and hold us close to you. Make us strong like you. Brace back to your heart. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Amen, it is day 355, we reading paragraphs 2773 to 2776. In brief, in response to his disciples' request, Lord teach us to pray,

Jesus entrusts them with the fundamental Christian prayer, the our Father. The Lord's Prayer is truly the summary of the whole gospel, the most perfect of prayers. It is at the center of the Scriptures. It is called the Lord's Prayer because it comes to us from the Lord Jesus, the master and model of our prayer. The Lord's Prayer is the quintessential prayer of the church. It is an integral part of the major hours of the divine office and of the sacraments

of Christian initiation, baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist. Integrated into the Eucharist, it reveals the eschatological character of its petitions, hoping for the Lord until he comes. Okay, then we have it, you guys. The shortest, is this the shortest we've ever had? I might be paragraph 2773 to 2776

I'm like I think I'm reading this right. This is accurate with just these four paragraphs But let's just take a moment and just savor the nuggets Sometimes we have so much we have to get through today. We don't and so this is obviously is going to be relatively short But let's just pause and and go back to even the opening prayer today That prayer of what's what is essential when it comes to our relationship with God? What is essential? We mentioned, I think we mentioned it yesterday. We definitely will mention it tomorrow. What's essential is that we get the identity of God right. Right? That we get the fact that God is not a tyrant. God is a father. He's not a dictator. He is a dad.

And he's a good dad. He's a good father. You know, so many people, they know what it's like to have a broken relationship with their dad or to have a father who is absent or a father who's even cruel. Yet God is not like that. God our father is a good dad.

And when we approach him, we are approaching our good dad. Because of that, it's not just, oh, I have good thoughts now, I have good feelings about my God, my Father. It's, I trust him. This is the key. And I know we've talked about this so many times. But if there is anything, that's a key to prayer. Obviously humility.

Yes, obviously loving perseverance, of course. But trust is going to be, I wouldn't say, along with those other two humility and loving perseverance, trust is going to make all of the difference in the world. I think we said it yesterday or the day before, but this is a review day, right? It's not a day. We have to go back and say this again, that if I don't trust God, I will be suspicious even of his blessings. But if I do trust God, then I trust him even in the midst of the burdens. I trust him even in the midst of suffering.

I trust him even when it doesn't feel like there are blessings. It doesn't feel like he's present. It doesn't feel like he's active. If I can trust God, if I know I do, if I know that he is not only the Lord, but he is the Father, or Lord Jesus Christ, and by adoption he is your dad and my dad. Then I receive the gift with gratitude, not suspicion. And we even receive those crosses with gratitude and with love. And this is one of the fundamental things that is taught to us by Jesus when he gives us the Lord's Prayer. So important for us to understand this is that the center of the Scriptures, not only

because of the petitions, right? Not only because we reorder our heart, right? It's not just words external to us. If we just said the words, that's fine. We're saying good words, but it's not the point of it. The point is that we have an inner conversion, right? Their ethos, our inner world is drawn to what God loves and is repelled by what God hates. Because of that, the Lord's Prayer is meant to transform our hearts. Because Jesus is the master and model of our prayer. One thing that I didn't mention yesterday is the eschatological nature of the our Father. It's basically right here in paragraph 27, 71, and 27, 72.

It says in the Eucharist, the Lord's Prayer also reveals the eschatological, right? The end times, character of his petitions. It is the proper prayer of the end time, the time of salvation that began with the offering of the Holy Spirit and will be fulfilled with the Lord's return. And we realize that's what we're looking for. I don't know how many times you might think about this in the course of a day, a week, a year that we are waiting for the Lord to return. In so many ways, you know, because it's so long, it seems like it's been so long that

the way that I see my life is typically I'm going to go to the Lord, like that I'm going to him that he's not coming to us. And yet his promise is that he will come to us. His promise is that he will come to us. And we have this faith, we have this faith that is this in 2772 from this unshakable faith brings forth the hope that sustains each of the seven petitions, right? The seven petitions of the our Father, which express the groanings of this present age, this time of patience and expectation during which it does not yet appear what we shall be.

The Eucharist in the Lord's Prayer look eagerly for the Lord's return until he comes. And until now, until then, right now we're living in a time of patience and expectation. Because things aren't as they one day will be, but they will be one day. And that's the expectation. They aren't now, and that's the patience. And so we continue, we continue to pray. We continue to have humility, loving perseverance, and maybe above all, trust.

As we continue to pray, the Lord's Prayer. Tomorrow, as I said, we'll launch it. We're launching into what that first article of which is simply calling out to our father who art in heaven. We'll talk about that tomorrow. But now I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike.

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.