Day 344: Guides for Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

What this episode is about

This content explores the importance of prayer within the framework of the Catholic faith, emphasizing the "cloud of witnesses" from the communion of saints who guide and inspire believers. It highlights the diversity of spiritualities and approaches to prayer as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, encouraging individuals to connect with various traditions and practices in their spiritual journey.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Brother Mike Schmitz (Host)

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Brother Mike Schmitz, Ascension
2. 6:00 – 9:00: St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux
3. 12:00 – 15:00: St. John of the Cross
4. 15:00 – 18:00: St. John of the Cross

Notable quotes from "Day 344: Guides for Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"

• 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.

  about Brother Mike Schmitz · at 0:00

• Servants of the living tradition of prayer according to St John of the cross the person wishing to advance toward Perfection should take care into whose hands he entrusts…

  about St. John of the Cross · at 7:41

• She died at only 20 24 years old she went into the convent at 15 years old at one point St TZ she prayed that after her death she would be able to lead many souls to Heaven…

  about St. Therese of Lisieux · at 8:58

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Brother Mike Schmitz — Person · Host / main speaker · 1 mention · first at 0:05
  He introduces the episode, leads the reading of CCC 2683–2690, and provides commentary on saints, spiritualities, and spiritual direction.
• St. John of the Cross — Person · Referenced expert / quoted authority on spiritual direction · 3 mentions · first at 7:43
  Quoted from CCC 2690 to emphasize choosing an experienced, discreet spiritual director when seeking growth in prayer and holiness.
• St. Therese of Lisieux — Person · Referenced saint / illustrative example of intercession · 1 mention · first at 8:54
  Used as an example of the saints’ intercessory role—her desire to help lead souls to heaven through prayer after death.

Sponsors

• Ascension — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 0:14
  Sponsor of the podcast, providing the catechism reading plan and resources
  Can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic church you can also download your own catechism and year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:05 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 it is day 344 we're reading paragraphs 2683 to 2690 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 and year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com Cy and you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications because today is

0:46 day 344 as I said we're reading paragraphs 2683 to 2690 we're looking today at guides for prayer and so we recognize that we have a cloud of witnesses meaning we are surrounded remember the letter to the Hebrews chapter 12 talks about about the fact that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses those who have gone before us and have lived out their life following after Jesus of course when the letter to the Hebrews was written the cloud of witnesses with the Old Testament folks but still living in Covenant with the Lord God they contemplated God they praise God they constantly care for those for whom they've left on Earth these are the Saints in heaven we're surrounded by them this communion of saints if I talk a little quickly I apologize these communion of saints they were very different in what paragraph 2684 reminds us of is that in the communion of saints there are many and varied spiritualities

1:35 that have been developed in the throughout the history of the churches and so we recognize that there's different ways of praying that's so important for us because there's no one way for Christian prayer there's one way to the father that's Jesus there's no there's no one way of Christian prayer there's different spiritualities different kinds of uh ways of living different kinds of ways of praying and so we're looking at after this section Servants of prayer meaning there are different places we learn how to pray in different ways in which people have consecrated them their lives in prayer so for example the Christian family that's one of the ways uh people learn how to pray or one of the places people learn how to pray ordained ministers are some of the people who are responsible for teaching others how to pray Religious brothers and sisters right they dedicated their whole lives to prayer we have catechesis of children

2:20 young people and adults what's the aim teaching people how to meditate on the word of God and others so we're looking at those examples today we're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in heaven and on Earth in our history and our patrimony of the church Our Heritage there's all these different spiritualities and all these different sources of people who are teaching us groups of people in in different areas of the church that's teaching us how to pray we're looking at those areas and those ways to pray a little bit of those ways to pray today so as we launch into this day let's take a moment and stop and actually do it let's pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen Father in heaven we praise and glorify your name we thank you we thank you for giving us this day we thank you for calling us to be yours for calling us to be in communication with you thank you

3:06 for teaching us how to pray both through your church in generally as well as through the individuals and the the groups of people you've brought into our lives Lord God in this moment we raise before you all of those who have ever ever taught us how to pray for our our moms and dads if they taught us how to pray for our grandparents if they taught us how to pray for our teachers who taught how to pray for for the religious sisters and brothers dedicated their lives to not only developing and deepening their prayer life but also teaching others we pray for the priests and deacons and and Bishops and pastors who have taught us how to pray and we thank you God for all those who just came into our lives out of the goodness of their hearts and they just showed us how to take one more step closer to you we thank you for them and we ask that you please bless them right now bless them now and always in the name of your

3:59 son Jesus Jesus Christ Our Lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen it is day 344 we're reading paragraphs 2683 to 2690 article three guides for prayer a cloud of witnesses the witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom especially those whom the church recognizes as Saints share in the living tradition of Prayer by the example of their lives the transmission of the writings and their prayer today they contemplate God Praise Him and constantly care for Those whom they have left on earth when they entered into the joy of their Master they were put in charge of many things their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan we can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world in the communion of saints many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches the personal charism of some

4:54 witnesses to God's love for men has been handed on like the spirit of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist so that their followers may have a share in this Spirit a distinct spirituality can also Arise at the point of convergence of lurgical and Theological currents bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history the different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful in their Rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit as St Basel stated the spirit is truly the dwelling of the Saints and the Saints are for the spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his Temple Servants of prayer the Christian family is the first place of Education in prayer based on

5:49 the sacrament of marriage the family is the domestic Church where God's children learn to pray as the church and to persevere in prayer for young children in particular daily daily family prayer is the first witness of the church's living memory as awakened Patiently by the Holy Spirit ordained ministers are also responsible for the formation and prayer of their brothers and sisters in Christ Servants of the Good Shepherd they are ordained to lead the people of God to The Living Waters of prayer the word of God the Liturgy the theological life the life of faith hope and charity and the today of God in concrete situations Many religious have consecrated their whole lives to prayer Hermits monks and nuns since the time of the desert fathers have devoted their time to praising God and interceding for his people the consecrated life cannot be sustained or spread without prayer it is one of the living sources of

6:42 contemplation and the spiritual life of the church the catechesis of children young people and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on the word of God in personal prayer practicing it in lurgical prayer and internalizing it at all times in order to bear fruit in a new life life kesis is also a time for the discernment and education of popular piety the memorization of basic prayers offers an essential support to the life of prayer but it is important to help Learners Savor their meaning prayer groups indeed schools of prayer are today one of the signs and one of the driving forces of renewal of Prayer in the church provided they drink from authentic Wellsprings of Christian prayer concern for ecclesial communion is a sign of true prayer in the church the holy spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom faith and discernment for the sake of this common good which is prayer spiritual Direction

7:40 men and women so endowed are true Servants of the living tradition of prayer according to St John of the cross the person wishing to advance toward Perfection should take care into whose hands he entrusts himself for as the master is so will the disciple be and as the father is so will be the son and further in addition to being learned and discreet a director should be experienced if the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it and he will not even understand them all right there we have it paragraphs 2683 to 2690 so just first thing we have 2683 we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses right so there are Saints in heaven this is the church triumphant we already talked about this we recognize that these Saints in heaven their main pre occupation is contemplating God praising God and constantly Caring For Those whom

8:35 they've left on Earth so remember what one some of the things we do we glorify God we bless God we also intercede for others these prayers are petition on behalf of others that is what is so good that is what the Saints in heaven are doing it says their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan we can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world there's a story of young St TZ of lissu you know she died at only 20 24 years old she went into the convent at 15 years old at one point St TZ she prayed that after her death she would be able to lead many souls to Heaven that through her intercession before God's Heavenly Throne that she would devote eternity or at least the time on Earth here to intercede on behalf of those Souls here on Earth and that's what the Saints do Saints in heaven are interceding on our behalf as they worship God and praise God constantly it's incredible now 2684

9:25 highlights that yes in the communion of saints so many various people there are many and various spiritualities I love this this line the personal charism of some witnesses to God's love for men has been handed on like you remember how in the Old Testament there's the spirit of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist so that their followers may have a share in this Spirit something similar happens in the church where there is this Incredible Gift of when you have a spiritual mentor of some sort or even not even if you know that spiritual Mentor but there's this a way of praying in the church at times that arises in certain contexts in certain you know moments in history and that gets passed down to the Next Generation and to the Next Generation which is remarkable and it's incredible it's part of the living tradition of prayer and that's an essential guide for us on this earth now some of those sources of prayer or some

10:14 of those sources of people who are teaching others how to pray number one 2685 is the Christian family it says the family is the domestic Church where God's children learn to pray as the church and to persevere in prayer which I think is arable I mean think about this what would it be to be discipled in prayer like to be able to be walked with from someone who's actually been there before and like oh yeah this is what distraction is like this is what dryness in prayer is like this is how you persevere in prayer I mean think about this here is this community of the catechism in ear we went through the whole Bible in a year now we're going through the catechism we're learning so much about the faith and even now in this fourth pillar we're learning about the mystery in the depth of prayer wouldn't it be incredible if families then said okay we're going to be ser serious about this yes of course we're going to know what

11:01 we believe and of course we're going to we're going to worship the way God wants us to worship and strive to live the way he wants us to live but also we're going to disciple our kids in prayer I don't just mean teach them the memorize prayers although that's part of it here we even it even says in paragraph 2688 that memorization of prayers is is good it offers an essential support but imagine what if you had someone as a kid when you were a child or maybe an adolescent who showed you hey this is how you pray and you're saying yeah but I'm really bored okay this is how you deal with boredom yeah but like I'm really distracted okay this is how you deal with distraction yeah but what and and to have someone who just mentored you paragraph 2685 highlights the fact that the Christian family is the first place of education and prayer and it should also teach us how to persevere in prayer and I just think that's amazing

11:49 would it be cool if you had a a parent or you had family members who showed you how to pray and discipled you in prayer you are blessed indeed but if you didn't you can be that blessing you can be that blessing it's just remarkable we we do this thing we have a camp every summer it's a couple weeks long you know it's onewe installments for middle schoolers and so if kids have gotten done with sixth grade seventh grade or eighth grade they can be part of the Camp Senior High I think it's if they've completed uh 10th grade 11th grade or 12th grade they can be what we call Junior counselors but there's this one grade right ninth grade where they can't be campers anymore and they can't yet be junior counselors yet and so what we do is we have they can apply after their nth grade year after their freshman year of high school they can apply to be on a thing called The Prayer team and it's one of my favorite things of all because

12:39 these young people they go away for a week and they're at our camp but they're kind of like cloistered off to the side and we see them when we have mass with them and but they're kind of instructed not to talk to any of the campers not to visit around with the junior counselors they can talk to the adult staff of course and they can talk to each other but this whole week is dedicated to discipleship and prayer and it's we have a a priests come we have some religious sisters at times we have a bunch of young adults who themselves have have been discipled in prayer and they just walk with them for a a solid week and say okay this is your basics in prayer this is how you deal with these things like distraction here's how you do intercessory prayer here's how you can do uh meditative prayer here's how you can you know journal in prayer here's how you can pray with scripture and for one week one solid week they get

13:21 discipled and how to pray and it's it's one of the things I'm just most grateful for when it comes to what we do as a dice but especially at what we do at this Camp because it gives these young people an opportunity to have what many of us never had a chance to have the opportunity to have some kind of Mentor who shows us how to pray now we don't all get a chance to have a spiritual director that's just the reality and yet we all need to be taught how to pray the role of the spiritual director is fascinating paragraph 2690 highlights this and says that there are certain of the faithful certain people in the church have been given the gifts of by the Holy Spirit the gifts of wisdom faith and discernment for the sake of the common good and that's spiritual Direction and so they should be true Servants of the living tradition of prayer and then there's this quote it's the last quote we read today from St

14:11 John of the Cross here's what it says it says according to St John of the cross the person wishing to advance toward Perfection should take care into whose hands he entrusts himself right so if you're going to seek out a spiritual director be careful into whose hands you entrust yourself goes on to say for as the master is so will the disciple be and as the father is so will be the son which is just really really remarkable I I always think of it like this this is true when it comes to parents it's true when it comes to you know pastors of parishes like the priests you have to see yourself in some ways as the Prototype in the sense that what we're trying to do in many ways is we're trying to help the young people the or the people that we're we're serving we want to help them become like us and you might hear that and go no no no no no I don't want them to be like me and I understand understand that

14:59 sentiment and yet if you're in a place of responsibility if you're in a place of authority if you're responsible for their spiritual life the goal should be okay I want them to be imitators of me like St Paul says be imitators of me as I'm an imitator of Christ what that means is if I'm not an imitator of Christ then I need to check myself I need to stop I need to pause for a moment and and ask okay what's the goal here ask this of myself because I am definitely far far from perfect and so I asked the question okay if if my students if the people that I I'm I'm here to serve on this campus if they lived life exactly the way I'm living if they prayed exactly the way I pray if they had a relationship with God the way I have if they have a relationship with their friends and the people around them the way I have would they become great Saints or not if they lived like me would they become great Saints or would they just

15:53 become nice people and that is a really sobering question because yes not all of us are called to have a spiritual director or to be a spiritual director but we realize that if I seek a spiritual director they're not going to be a perfect person obviously because no one's perfect but they have to be striving for Holiness they must be striving for Holiness and they should have some experience John of the Cross goes on to say in addition to being learned and discreet a director should be experienced if the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it and he will not even understand them and this is this is often the case and yet at the same time there's a Darth of spiritual directors and so there's so many people who are like I want mentorship I want discipleship I want a director and yet we don't have them well

16:41 we keep this in mind the holy spirit is the director like capital T the capital D du director the holy spirit is the spiritual director of the faithful and so we stay close to the church and listen let the church teach us and we listen to the Holy Spirit listen to the word of God and we let the holy spirit guide us and the word of God form us and when we do that we know that God is going to provide whether that is through his word and through his church and his Spirit or even through his word church and spirit in the person of someone who would be a reliable spiritual director but I would say this do not be afraid don't be afraid because there are so many places that we can learn how to pray so many sources of teaching how to pray whether that be you know resources online like this or your local church or maybe you are blessed enough to get a spiritual director that you can trust regardless regardless know this you and

17:38 I we are in the School of prayer and we are lifelong Learners in that school there is no graduation because for all eternity you and I will be God willing will be with that communion of saints and what will we do we will spend eternity contemplating God praising God and constantly Caring For Those whom we've left on earth that is our destiny that is our hope and that's my prayer I'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father mik I canot wait to see you tomorrow God

18:24 bless

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Day 344: Guides for Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"?

Brother Mike Schmitz (Host).

What is "Day 344: Guides for Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)" about?

This content explores the importance of prayer within the framework of the Catholic faith, emphasizing the "cloud of witnesses" from the communion of saints who guide and inspire believers. It highlights the diversity of spiritualities and approaches to prayer as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, encouraging individuals to connect with various traditions and practices in their…

What is mentioned in this The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) episode?

4 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Brother Mike Schmitz, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Day 344: Guides for Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"?

The episode runs 18 min; the transcript is about 3,736 words in 23 timestamped sections.

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