The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 356: We Dare to Say (2025)

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

When we pray the Our Father, we are invited to pray with “filial boldness” as children of God. Fr. Mike emphasizes that we are God’s adopted sons and daughters, and so because of that, we are able to call him “Abba, Father.” He also emphasizes that because of this adoption we are called to “continual conversion and new life.” Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2777-2785. 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 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 356. We're hearing in paragraphs 2777 to 2785, as always. I'm using you. 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,

whatever version you like. You can also download your own catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com and c.I. And you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. You know, also I realize that some people watch them on the YouTube, and that's great. I think, is it possible to subscribe on you? I don't know. But if you're joining us through your computer and the magic of YouTube, welcome.

This is wonderful. Today, it's a 356. What a gift today. We're going to talk about the beginning of the Our Father. And I love the fact that you might miss this, especially if you have the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which I love. Again, I can't say enough about the Ascension Edition. But right underneath where it says, this is probably page 700, if you're with the Ascension Edition, it says Article 2, Our Father Who Art in Heaven. And then the next line is, in quotes, it says, we dare to say. And there's something so powerful about that. And just it doesn't even, I love it, because in paragraph 2777, it highlights, yeah, we have filial boldness and we dare in all confidence that there's something remarkable. It's crazy that if we stopped and thought about, wait a second, we get to stand in private or in public, we get to kneel in private and public wherever we are, and we get to actually call upon God as our father. We dare to say that God is our father and that we are actually as beloved and adopted sons and daughters. It is incredible. We're going to talk about that today because that's the whole focus of today. Tomorrow we'll look at the fact that we say, our father, and then we'll go on more and more.

You know how yesterday was super duper short? Today is not so much super duper short. In fact, today we have quite a few paragraphs with a ton of content in. So just, again, we just prayerfully enter into this, but realize at the heart of today's teaching is the fact that we get to call because of the Holy Spirit, because of what Jesus has done for us, because of what the Holy Spirit has made real, right, has made actual, the Jesus made possible, the Holy Spirit made actual, the fact that you and I actually truly, have our God in heaven who's our father, who's Abba, whose dad.

And that is such a great gift. So let's talk to him. Let's pray right now. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Father in heaven, Abba, Dad, in heaven. We thank you so much. Thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for your Holy Spirit.

You've poured into our hearts that allows us to cry out, Aba. Thank you, Lord God, for bringing us to this moment, for bringing us to this day, bringing us today, 356, and for reminding us that regardless of how we've lived, if we have lived as the son who has ran away from home and wants nothing to do with you, or if we've lived as the son who stayed at home but has served you as a slave and not his son, we ask that you please. Let us live in your home. Let us live in your house. Let us live in your heart. Let us return home in repentance. Let us return to your heart with trust. Lord God, we praise you and bless you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for making us your sons and daughters.

Help us to find our home and your heart, our true and real father. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 356. We are reading paragraphs 2777 to paragraph 2785. Article 2. Our Father who art in heaven. We dare to say.

In the Roman liturgy, the Eucharistic Assembly is invited to pray to our heavenly father with filial boldness. Eastern liturgies develop and use similar expressions, dare in all confidence, make us worthy of. From the burning bush, Moses heard a voice saying to him, do not come near, put off your shoes from

your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. Only Jesus could cross that threshold of the divine holiness, for when he had made purification for sins, he brought us into the Father's presence. Here am I, and the children God has given me.

St. Peter Chrysalogus stated, Our awareness of our status as slaves would make us sink into the ground and our earthly condition would dissolve into dust if the authority of our father himself and the spirit of his son had not impelled us to this cry, Abba, Father. When would a mortal dare call God Father? If man's innermost being were not animated by power from on high? This power of the spirit who introduces us to the Lord's prayer

is expressed in the liturgies of East and of West by the beautiful, characteristically Christian expression, Parisia, straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness, the certainty of being loved. Father, before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord's Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images

drawn from this world. Humility makes us recognize that no one knows the son except the Father, and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him, that is, to little children. The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history and influencing our relationship with God. God our father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area upon him would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the son has revealed him to us. Tertullian stated,

The expression God the Father has never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who He was, he heard another name. The Father's name has been revealed to us in the Son, for the name, Son, implies the new name, Father. We can invoke God as Father because He is revealed to us by His Son become man and because His Spirit makes him known to us. The personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that man cannot conceive of, nor the angelic powers even dimly see. And yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that very relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of God. When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with Him and with His Son Jesus Christ. Then we know and recognize Him with an ever

new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication, For it is the glory of God that we should recognize him as Father, the true God. We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his presence in us. We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only son. By baptism, he incorporates us into the body of His Christ. Through the anointing of his spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us

other Christ's. St. Cyril of Jerusalem states, God indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious body of Christ. So then, you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called Christ's. St. Cyprian further states, The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, Father, because he has now begun to be a son. Thus, the Lord's Prayer revealed, us to ourselves at the same time that it reveals the Father to us. St. Ambrose states, O man, you did not dare to raise your face to heaven. You lowered your eyes to the earth,

and suddenly you have received the grace of Christ. All your sins have been forgiven. From being a wicked servant, you have become a good son. Then raise your eyes to the Father who has begotten you through baptism, to the Father who has redeemed you through His Son, and say, Our Father. But do not claim any privilege. He is the father in a special way only of Christ, but he is the common father of us all, because while he has begotten only Christ, he has created us.

Then also say, by his grace, our father, so that you may merit being his son. The free gift of adoption requires, on our part, continual conversion and new life. Praying to our father should develop in us two fundamental dispositions. First, the desire to become like him. Though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace, and we must respond to this grace. St. Cyprian states, we must remember and know that when we call God our father, we ought to

behave as sons of God. St. John Christosum states, you cannot call the God of all kindness your father if you preserve a cruel and inhuman heart. For in this case, you no longer have in you the marks of the Heavenly Father's kindness. St. Gregory of Nissa states, we must contemplate the beauty of the Father without ceasing and adorn our own souls accordingly. Second, a humble and trusting heart that enables us to turn and become like children, for it is to little children that the Father is revealed. St. John Cashin wrote, The prayer is accomplished by the contemplation of God alone and by the warmth of love, through which the soul molded and directed to love him, very familiarly to God as to its own father with special devotion. St. Augustine further stated,

Our father, at this name, love is aroused in us, and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask. What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children? Man, there we are paragraph 2777, 2785. Golly, this is what a, these quotes are crazy they're off they're just off the charts okay let's go back i think even that last quote by st augustine i mean all of them are amazing like you we had the one just a second ago by st cyprian in paragraph 2784 who said we must remember we know that when we call god our father we ought to behave as sons of god conviction definitely but that one from st augustine what would he not give to his children who ask since he has already granted them the gift of being his children

that's what's what god has done to us in done for us he has made up us is adopted sons and daughters by the Holy Spirit by faith and baptism. And so we get to call God our father. Now, here's the key. We've heard this before. We've mentioned this before. Not every human being who's born is a son or daughter of God. Yes, in some way we, again, we all share in the image of God. Yes, definitely. We are all beloved creatures of God. Yes, 100%. That's true. But it's only by faith in baptism that we become God's sons and daughters by adoption. And so that we just need to stop and give God. Thanks for that. Just praise God that you, maybe some of us who are listening to this, who are participating in the catechism in the year, there's never a day that went by that you

weren't aware that you were an adopted son or daughter of God. That might be the case, because I was baptized on March 1st, 1975. And so I was pretty little. I was pretty young at that point. there's never been a day when I can remember not being an adopted son of God, adopted son of the father. From an early age, my parents taught me. This is how you pray. You call God your father. Michael, God is your father.

It's so, what an incredible gift. I've never known a day because I don't remember those first months when I wasn't baptized. I've never known a time when I didn't realize this. But at the same time, how about this? How many of us, how many of us who are baptized when we were little? We don't realize. We don't actually weigh up and count out the difference that it makes that God is our father. And how?

What's the difference that it makes? Well, it makes an infinite amount of difference. But let's start here. I'm going to slow it down because I'm just getting so excited. I'm so grateful. You know, this whole pillar on prayer begins with what? It begins with the question that the disciples ask Jesus. Lord, teach us to pray.

And Jesus responds by saying, when you pray, do not babble like the pagans, who think that because of their many words, they'll be heard. No, when you pray, say our father, right? So let's start at the very beginning here. Jesus says, when you pray, do not babble like the pagans who think that because of their many words, they'll be heard. So I might have mentioned this before a couple times.

Some people say, well, you know, you Catholics, you repeat yourself in prayers. Like, you know, you pray the rosary, you pray the chaplain of divine mercy, you say these same prayers over and over again. And Jesus is saying, don't do that. Don't repeat your prayers. So he's not.

He's saying, don't babel like. like the pagans, why? Because Jesus is not condemning the idea of repeating yourself in prayer. We know that Jesus himself would have prayed the Psalms multiple times, meaning he would have repeated himself. We know that Jesus, when he prayed out loud in the garden at the seminy, he came back to his father and said the exact same words, or words very much like it. Father, let this cup pass for me, but not my will, but your will be done. He says this again and again. So Jesus repeats his prayers. He's not condemning repetitive prayer. He's condemning, babbling like the pagans, and the motivation is,

who think that because of their many words, they'll be heard. It goes back to the heart of, who do you think you're talking to? When we're praying, who are we talking to? You know, because in those Greco-Roman religions or any of the religions, you know, the gods aren't good. The goddesses aren't good. They're not just. They don't care about you.

They don't love you. And so, yeah, if you want their blessing, you have to get their attention. That's one of the things you have to do. You have to do something of note to get the god or goddess's attention in order. to maybe, maybe get their blessing. You also might get their curse, but if you're desperate enough to go for their blessing, then you have to do something remarkable. You have to babble. You have to you have to say the right incantation. You have to, you know, jump on one foot and spin in a circle, whatever the thing is. You have to even sometimes, there are places, there were religions that

said, if you want to get the God's attention, you didn't just have to offer a sacrifice. You had to actually hurt yourself. Let your own blood be spilled in order to get those gods and goddess's attention. Jesus is saying, when you pray, realize who you're talking to. You're not talking to a God who you need to fight for their attention. When you pray, simply say our father. And when you pray our father and realize who God truly is, you realize that he's been battling for your attention this whole time, your whole life. I think about this. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. Your whole life, God has been fighting for your attention. How, how shallow, how selfish we are. because here is the god of the universe who needs nothing but it matters to him that we have that

gentle glance turn toward heaven it matters to him that we turn to him it matters to him when we give him our attention don't babel like the pagans thinking that you have to fight for the god or goddess's attention when you pray simply say our father and when the moment you pray our father you realize that he's already looking at you. You already have his attention. You don't have to fight for it. In fact, again, he's been fighting for your attention. Just very much unlike those gods or goddesses,

you don't need to bleed to get his attention. In fact, we know this truth in Jesus Christ. God has bled to get our attention. He's bled to get our hearts. And that's who we're talking. That's why the very heart of this prayer that our father is the identity of God. then we're praying to our father. Now, this is really important because in paragraph 2779,

it highlights this. It says, before we make our own, this first exclamation of the Lord's prayer, father, right? We must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn from this world. So we have to cleanse our hearts. Why? Humility makes us recognize that, yeah, we don't know the, we don't know the father. He says, no one knows the son except the father, and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him, right? So we we call Godfather, but we don't know unless the son reveals him to us. It goes on to say, we don't not only need humility, we also need the purification of our hearts that has to do with paternal or maternal images stemming from our personal and cultural history and influencing our relationship with God.

This is so true, isn't it? That how many times I talk to so many people who have had a difficult relationship with their own dads and to be able to say, and to tell them, you know, Jesus says you can call God dad. That's how close. I remember a young woman and she said, you know, actually I prefer calling God father because I'm like, yeah, but you know, Abba ultimately kind of, you know, means dad. It's that very familiar way of talking to your own father. We'd say dad. And she said, yeah, but here's the problem is that my dad was cruel. My dad was horrible. And so if I say father, then it's like, oh, yeah, that's who God is. If I say dad, that's who my dad was. and she did not have a good father.

She didn't have a good dad. And so father for her felt closer than dad did. Does that make sense? And we all have this in so many ways. We have paternal or maternal images and that they come from our own personal and cultural history and they influence our relationship with God. But what we have to do with this and that purification, I love how it keeps going on in paragraph 2779.

It says, God our father transcends the categories of the created world to impose our own ideas in this area upon him will be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. Because you might have had amazing dad. And maybe your dad gave you everything you ever wanted. And you say, yeah, when I come to the father in heaven, oh, my gosh, he's my dad too. He's going to give me everything I ever want. Like, oh, pause on this one. So you might have had an incredible dad and who gave you everything you ever wanted. And yet God, the father is a is a truly good dad who does not give us everything we wanted. He only gives us what we need. He only gives us what's actually ultimately good for us. And so I have to, I might a fabricated an idol, a false idol of my own dad. Also at the same time, if my dad was

again cruel, absent all these things, I might want to say, that's who God is. And that's not. That idol has to be pulled down. And so it says, some of the last lines here, it says, to pray to the father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the son has revealed him to us. That is so important, so important. To pray to the father is to enter into his mystery as he is, and as the son has revealed him to us. And so what we do, again, we just ask the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit. You know, to teach us to pray. We don't know how to pray as we ought.

And so come Holy Spirit and help me to know the Father as he truly is. Help me to know who he really, really is as opposed to my false idol I want to adore or the false idol that I want to reject. Like they know who the true God is so that I can love him. I truly adore him and belong to him. that's the key. And it is so key. It's so critical that paragraph 2784 and 2785 highlight this. It says the free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and new life. And so how do we do this? So praying the our father should develop in us two fundamental dispositions. Number one,

the desire to become like him. And I love it says, though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace and we must respond to this grace. That's the first thing. Fundamental disposition. the desire to become like him. I want to love what God loves, hate what God hates. I want to have the heart of the Father. I want to the heart of Jesus. That's what we need. That's what we want, desire.

Secondly, a humble and trusting heart that enables us to turn and become like children. For it is to little children that the Father is revealed. Remember I've said so many times now that the number one thing, you know, after we have this persevering love and we have this humility, the humble and trusting heart, trust in the Father.

that he is a good, good dad, that he loves us. He is a real dad. He is a true father. And so I want to be like him. I want to be like my dad. I truly, I want to be like my dad on earth. But even my dad on earth wants to be like our mutual father in heaven. We have that desire to become like our father in heaven. And in order to do that, we need this humble and trusting heart that's willing to say like Jesus in the garden, the truth. And also, I trust. Father, let this cup pass from me yet, not my will. Your will be done. In all of our prayers, we have that truth. Here's the honest truth. And here is trust. We need, we need both. We need all these things. And we get to, we get to turn to our father. Okay, I was ramped up today. I'm so sorry. But this is everything. This is everything.

to realize that God truly is your father and my father by faith and by baptism by the giving of the Holy Spirit and just that truth can change a life that truth can change an eternity and so I'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father Mike I cannot wait to see you tomorrow God bless