Day 348: The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the nature of prayer as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, emphasizing that prayer is both a divine gift of grace and a human response. Key points include the importance of understanding prayer as a response to God's initiative and the significance of cultivating a deeper connection with God through this "Battle of Prayer."

Key takeaways

• Prayer is a two-way street: God's grace meets our determined effort, not just a warm soak.
• Expecting effortless prayer? Spoiler alert: you're in the same boat as every other believer.
• Effective prayer fights against self and temptation; it's not just a mental vacation.
• Doubt about prayer? You're simply encountering the universal struggle against distraction and doubt.
• Prayer's 'battle' isn't against noise but within ourselves; real victory starts with recognition of God's grace.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Brother Mike Schmitz (Host)

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Brother Mike Schmitz, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Ascension
2. 15:00 – 20:00: Father Thomas Dubay
3. 25:00 – 25:57: Brother Mike Schmitz

Notable quotes from "Day 348: The Battle of 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 the 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.

  about Brother Mike Schmitz · at 0:00

• His response he had a little bit of a little Edge to it and he said no that's no problem if you're a mom or dad you don't have to pray that's no problem you can be a mediocre…

  about Father Thomas Dubay · at 15:46

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Brother Mike Schmitz — Person · Host / main speaker · 2 mentions · first at 0:05
  He introduces the episode, leads the prayer, and provides the primary teaching/commentary on the Catechism section 'The Battle of Prayer.'
• Father Thomas Dubay — Person · Referenced expert / cited spiritual writer · 1 mention · first at 15:09
  Schmitz cites Dubay as an authority on prayer, recounting Dubay’s memorable advice about being 'too busy to pray' and referencing his Q&A-style prayer book.

Books & papers

• Catechism of the Catholic Church — Book · Primary recommendation · 1 mention · first at 0:18
  Central text discussed in the podcast, providing the foundation for the daily readings and reflections.
  Hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the catechism in the 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.

Sponsors

• Ascension — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 0:15
  The company sponsoring the podcast and providing the edition of the Catechism used in the readings.
  Toward our Heavenly home this is day 348 we're reading paragraphs 2725 to 2731 as always I'm using the Ascension edition of the catechism which includes the foundations of…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:05 hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the catechism in the 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 the 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 348 we're reading paragraphs 2725 to 2731 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 Cy and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today is day 3:48 it is a

0:47 day I've been longing for waiting for looking eagerly for eagerly looking eagerly to I don't know um today paragraph 2725 to 2731 we begin today my favorite section in the the entire catechism I don't know why I kind of know why here's the reason why we're talking about the Battle of prayer today and the very first line in 27:25 is a line that I will go over every time I talk to someone about prayer almost every time but every time we go through with our our CIA class you know the right of Christian initiation for adults the people who are becoming Christian or becoming Catholic they don't yet know how to pray this is one of the things that I always like to what's the word I always like to emphasize I like to introduce them to because it says paragraph 27:25 prayer is both a gift of Grace and a determined response on our part on our part it is a gift of Grace obviously we know this prayer is always

1:36 a response right when we pray it's we're responding to God's initiation or God's in God's initi initiative is that the word and so it's a gift of Grace and it's a determined response on our part and the very next sentence we talked about this I think with sister Miriam says it always presupposes effort and this is so critical this is critical for me this is critical for every one of us because my vision of prayer for so many years was just I guess it's supposed to be easy this should be something like if I love God this should all come easily that if that if I'm trying to do his will this should be simple it should be pie of cake in fact the image I had in my head was it should be like getting into a warm hot Tu hot tub just kind of soak in there just soak in the spirit just soak in God's grace that's what it sounded like when I read what other people described as like the prayers of the Saints I thought that's what it

2:22 should feel like and it didn't and I was troubled and then I read this this is why I love it so much is it just was such a consolation to me that oh prayer is difficult that makes sense if that's and if that's the the norm then I'm not doing something wrong and something similar is true for all of us listening today prayer is both a gift of Grace and a determined response on our part it always presupposes effort if you have found yourself having difficulty in prayer you are in the right boat you're you're doing maybe you're not doing the wrong thing after all maybe this is just how it goes that's what we're going to hear about today we're also going to look at some objections to prayer because there are some again this is this whole section is Rich it is so rich I'm going to try to keep this episode as short as we possibly can because my temptation is to break down literally every sentence we're not going to do

3:10 that so let's pray not only that we can keep this to the point but also that the Lord will help us become prayers in the midst of difficulty as we pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen Father in heaven we give you praise and glory thank you so much for bringing us to this day thank you so much for getting us all the way to day 348 we thank you Lord for the UPS and downs we thank you for the battles we faced we thank you for the the successes and the achievements that you have done through us and through our effort we thank you for the grace that we are unaware of you surround us you fill us with your grace and we so often are completely unaware about the ways in which you have sustained us the ways in which you have been the one unseen and unfelt but not not inactive and Not absent Lord God you are always always present you are always active for all the times that we have failed to

4:03 recognize your grace your presence your action we repent of that and we acknowledge you now and we thank you now and we praise and love you now be with us always and help us always to recognize your presence and your action in our lives we make this Mighty we make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ Our Lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen it is day 348 we're reading paragraphs 2725 to 2731 Article 2 the Battle of prayer prayer is both a gift of Grace and a determined response on our part it always presupposes effort the great figures of Prayer in the old Covenant before Christ as well as the mother of God the Saints and he himself all teach us this prayer is a battle against whom against ourselves and against the Ws of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer away from Union with God we pray as we live because we live as we pray if we do not want to act

5:07 habitually according to the spirit of Christ neither can we pray habitually in his name the spiritual Battle of the Christian's new life is inseparable from the Battle of prayer objections to prayer in the Battle of prayer we must face in ourselves and around us erroneous Notions of prayer some people view prayer as a simple psychological iCal activity others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void still others reduce prayer to Ritual words and postures many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do they don't have the time those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know that prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone we must also face the fact that certain attitudes deriving from the mentality of this present world can penetrate Our Lives if we are not

6:02 vigilant for example some would have it that only that is true which can be verified by reason and science yet prayer is a mystery that overflows both our conscious and unconscious lives others overly priz production and profit thus prayer being unproductive is useless still others exalt sensuality and comfort as the criteria of the true the good and the Beautiful whereas prayer the love of beauty falia is CAU up in the glory of the living and true God finally some see prayer as a flight from the world in reaction against activism but in fact Christian prayer is neither an escape from reality nor a divorce from Life finally our battle has to confront what we experience as failure in prayer discouragement during periods of dryness sadness that because we have great possessions we have not given all to the Lord disappointment over not being heard according to our own will wounded Pride stiffened by the

7:00 indignity that is ours as Sinners our resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmar gift and so forth the conclusion is always the same what good does it do to pray to overcome these obstacles we must battle to gain humility trust and perseverance humble vigilance of heart facing difficulties in prayer the habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction it can affect words and their meaning in vocal prayer it can concern more profoundly him to whom we are praying in vocal prayer lurgical or personal meditation and contemplative prayer to set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified therein lies the battle the choice of which

8:01 Master to serve in positive terms the battle against the possessive and dominating self requires vigilance sobriety of heart when Jesus insists on vigilance he always relates it to himself to his coming on the last day and every day today the bridegroom comes in the middle of the night the light that must not be extinguished is that of Faith come my heart says seek his face another difficulty especially for those who sincerely want to pray is dryness dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God with no taste for thoughts memories and feelings even spiritual ones this is the moment of sheer Faith clinging Faithfully to Jesus in his Agony and in his tomb unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it Bears much fruit if dryness is due to the lack of roots because the word has fallen on Rocky soil the battle requires

9:02 conversion there we have it paragraph 2725 to 2731 you guys was am I wrong this is incredible is it not incredible it is okay there's so much to say so let's just dive in as quickly and efficiently as possible paragraph 27:25 says so much as I already mentioned the the first thing it says it's a gift of Grace prayer is and a determined response on our part it always presupposes effort my image as I said a little bit before my image was when you pray it's like getting into the hot tub I realized that that is not prayer prayer is yes God is the one who moves and Grace needs to be present right we realize in paragraph 27:26 the last line there it says those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know that prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone so we need to understand this right we don't just we don't you know White Knuckle our way into Holiness we do not White Knuckle

9:51 our way into prayer prayer comes from the Holy Spirit it is a gift of Grace so we need to establish that so clearly so clearly every every every form of growth we have in prayer is is God's work and we're merely cooperating with God's work at the same time on our part it is gift and grit it is Grace and grit that is what it is it is a gift of Grace and always presupposes effort and I love this next line in 2725 says the great figures of Prayer in the old Covenant before Christ as well as the mother of God the Saints and Jesus himself all teach us this prayer is a battle so good but he asked the question this is so good the church asked the question against Tom well here's the answer two two forms I mean maybe many more but here's two against ourselves and against the Ws of the tempter who does all that he can to turn man away from prayer away from Union with God think about this prayer is a battle against me prayer is

10:44 a battle against myself because what happens I have the thought to pray it even says this it says this later on in paragraph We hit tomorrow paragraph 2732 where it says that the moment we begin to pray a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent fire for priority and isn't this the case when we make the decision like I realize that God is inviting me to pray there's all the other things that come up like I need to do this I need to do that I need to do so many other things but prayer is a battle first against ourselves also we're going to learn learn some other ways against what I expect to get out of prayer that's going to be something I have to battle against but also against the Ws of the tempter who does all that he can to turn us away from prayer away from Union with God that is so critical that yes I have to fight against myself and in so many ways I Am My Own Worst Enemy at the same time the evil one he

11:35 does not want what God wants what God wants is for us to have Union with him we we will be Most Blessed when we have Union with God and the evil one just if he can do anything that gets us just off track even if that just simply means oh I'm too busy to pray today or whatever the thing is he does not want us to have Union with God I love the next line the last actual section of this 2725 paragraph is critically important for every one of us because what can happen a lot of times is we say okay I'm going to live however I want to live but when I go to pray I should I should experience this Union with God if God's grace is there then I should experience an abundance of his grace and this should be part of that keeps transforming my heart and yet I'm going to live how I want to live if you the catechism goes on to say it says we pray as we live because we live as we pray this is so good we pray as we live

12:27 because we live as we pray if we do not want to act habitually according to the spirit of Christ neither can we pray habitually in his name that is ah conviction is what that is that is called conviction of the Holy Spirit where we realize yeah if I don't want to walk according to the spirit of Jesus Christ if I don't want to live on a regular basis according to the spirit of Jesus Christ if I don't want to do God's will on a regular basis that's habitually in in the spirit of Jesus Christ then how in the world why in the world would I think I could regularly pray in the spirit of Jesus Christ regular Lely pray in the in the name of Jesus himself we realize that our lives how we live are inseparable from how we pray so what we do we had pillar three pillar three is all about the moral life all about life in Christ we spent a long time looking at the Commandments looking at how God is calling us to have our

13:17 hearts be converted and now we're in pillar four they are incredibly connected it says here in paragraph 27:25 the last line the spiritual battle and he uses quotes the spiritual Battle of the Christians new life is inseparable from the Battle of prayer so the new life and new prayer they have to be connected I cannot consistently live out of the spirit of Christ I cannot live consistently live out of that that state of grace that State of Union with God in my actions but then hope that I have some kind of deep connection with God in my prayer that's just impossible to have now that's conviction that's so good the next section objections to prayer this is this is great what are some erroneous Notions of prayer well I've talked about some erroneous Notions of Prayer in previous episodes but let's see what let's see what the church says right here in paragraph 27:26 says one some people view prayer as a simple

14:06 psychological activity you know so here's the magazine article that says you know 15 minutes a day of just you know this meditation and meditation simply is this as as they were prescribing it is just deep breaths and you know kind of calming yourself down that's good take deep breaths calm yourself down that's wonderful that is not prayer is not simply a psychological activity others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void right just clear your mind clear your mind that's that's not prayer either still others this is good for us reduce prayer to Ritual words or postures oh so I I said my prayers I uh made the sign of the cross I genuflected I uh whatever the the ritual words ritual postures that's those are actions and those actions can be great they can be good but that's not prayer either we can't simply reduce prayer to Ritual words and ritual postures right so I can't just go

14:56 through the motions I need to put my heart into this now goes on to say many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do I just I would like to pray but I don't have the time and that's why I love father Thomas dubet at one point I think maybe I said this in the interview with sister Miriam as well you know all the things we said I don't even remember but I mentioned father Thomas dubet and father Thomas dub had a had a book I think it was called prayer primer and it was a question answer book on prayer and one of the times one of the questions was something along the lines of you know I'm a I'm a mom or I'm a dad I I'm busy and I just don't have time to pray and father dubet who's kind of who who is the most the most gentle person I've ever met in my entire life just like uh Full of Life full of joy but also I don't I never heard him speak a word of

15:44 sarcasm but he kind of had a little in his response he had a little bit of a little Edge to it and he said no that's no problem if you're a mom or dad you don't have to pray that's no problem you you can be a mediocre Mom you can be a mediocre Dad no big deal and was one of those like oh there you go and your priest like priest I'm so busy I can't pray that's no problem you can be a mediocre priest uh just that's it we realize here in paragraph 2726 that sometimes even us Christians we unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation a thing to do that's incompatible with all the other things we have to do we don't have time and then there's that last line we already said before where we realize that those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they don't know that prayer also comes from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone we have to realize this is so important for us so

16:33 important for us we realize that this is a yes to the Lord and he's the one who causes the growth he is the one that that brings us closer and closer to him We're merely cooperating with him now as we keep moving through this section paragraph 2727 highlights that often times we can have a mentality of this present world this is for example some would have it that only that is true which can be verified by reason and Science and you maybe heard of these things there are some studies that they have like they'll say you know they'll have patients on the second floor of a hospital patients on the third floor of a hospital and they have a a scientific study where they'll pray for the patients on the second floor but not pray for the patients on the third floor and what's the result that that's fine but again we realize that it is not true that only that is true which can be verified by reason and science why

17:25 because prayer is a mystery that overflows both our conscious and unconscious lives that's just you can't we can't measure what's going on well they didn't get better or they did get better yeah but we can't measure what's going on because health is not the only good there can be deep conversions happening on the second floor because people are praying even if they remained ill even if they died from their sickness we realize that we can't measure God's grace moving on it says others overly prize production and profit thus prayer being unproductive is useless that's just isn't that the case going back to someone who says I don't have the time well prayer is unproductive it doesn't do anything if we're talking about real prayer not like here's the temptation all of us have and when I say all of us I mean me is okay I'm going to go prayer Lord help me do this next thing okay I'm going to go

18:17 into prayer Lord I need to give a homy I need to write a talk I need to figure out a decision to make for this next you know whatever the thing is and so often times the ways of this world right the mentality of this present world invades my prayer in this way where I realize that I sometimes am tempted to use my prayer time or the time that's dedicated just for Union with God I'm using it to solve problems right I'm using it to be productive and this reminder no prayer is actually unproductive and yes it brings us closer to the Lord and yes we get to know his heart and our hearts become transformed to be like his but it's not like prayer is supposed to help us become better businessmen or better doctors or better plumbers or whatever the thing is prayer is meant to help us be better Christians and yes hopefully hopefully being better Christians helps us become better in those other areas of

19:05 our lives but its primary goal is not to be productive and going on I love this last one in paragraph 27:27 it says still others exalt sensuality and comfort as the criteria of the true the good and the Beautiful have you ever met anyone like this maybe you've been someone like this like wait a second how can this be how can this be from God if it's not comfortable if it's not it doesn't feel good this is difficult right now this is a place not of comfort but of distress how could that be true good and beautiful how could that be from God and yet we realize prayer is at the love of beauty filic colia is caught up in the glory of the living and true God and this reality that no God is often in the difficulty God is often in the discomfort in fact God can do more for us some ways in that discomfort than he does in Us in that pleasure or that Comfort it's so important for us to to realize this now finally paragraph 2728

20:04 and when I say finally that's finally of this section there's a couple more things to highlight finally 27:28 says our battle has to confront what we experience as failure in prayer and for the rest of the time we're going to read through this section of Battle of prayer it's going to be responding to these these bullets so the bullets here are for example what well how about discouragement during periods of dryness sadness that because we have great possessions we've not given all to the Lord disappointment over not being heard according to our own will and we're going to talk about that tomorrow what why do we complain about not being heard well we realize it's not that we're complaining about not being heard well maybe it is maybe it is mostly though it's complaining about not being heard or disappoint being disappointed or saddened over not being heard according to our own will like I know I came

20:52 before the Lord and he didn't even answer he didn't even hear me well he heard you maybe he answered you maybe he didn't answer in the way that you or I wanted you know what I mean and I don't mean to be sensit insensitive about that but it's just there's something about this that these are these are difficulties in prayer wounded Pride stiffened by the indignity that is ours as Sinners and that's reality right man I want to be first I want to be right I I want to be the one who who gets what he wants and yet here in prayer God is first and I'm not even second man I mean think about this how many people in this world that God loves that I'm not God is first he is and he is on a plane completely on on on his level of of his own as the Lord God himself the only the only Divine being in that could ever exist or ever will exist and I'm not so I need to recognize that my pride can get in the way our

21:53 resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmar gift that can also I can perceive that as failure in prayer but all those things again the the periods of dryness um discouragement sadness disappointment all those things it says this the conclusion is always the same here's the question what good does it do to pray what good does it do to pray because you might hear these words today and I as I said I hear B the Battle of prayer awesome let's do this prayers always involves effort that's great let's do this and you might hear it and say GH GH prayer it's so hard it's a battle what good does it do and what we're going to hear is well how do I navigate that challenge to overcome these obstacles we must battle to gain humility trust and perseverance so key humility trust and perseverance that's why the next section is all about humble vigilance of heart so we have distractions we need to be

22:57 vigilant we need to recognize that periods of dryness are there for our good now we can talk about distraction I just want to say these last words because as I said we're going a little long but you know here we are distraction not be bothered by Distraction to not sit about hunting down distractions but just a realize when you're distracted calmly and gently bring your your attention back to the Lord when it comes to dryness to realize that dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God so that's the thing we have to realize if there's a dryness in prayer I have to ask myself this first question have I separated my heart from the Lord no dryness is normal but the first question when when I experienced that dryness is have I taken my heart back from the Lord have I intentionally and consciously chosen to say no to his will and if that's not the case if it's like

23:48 no I don't have any awareness that I've said no to God's will I I I think I'm pursuing him I think I'm doing what he's asked me to do then the next question is okay Lord how do you you want to use this dryness in prayer to purify My Heart Lord in fact the Lord God will use that dryness in prayer to purify your heart this is the moment as it says here this is the moment of sheer Faith clinging Faithfully to Jesus in his Agony and in his tomb to be able to show up again and again even in the midst of dryness does vastly so much more for the soul than virtually any other kind of prayer to cling Faithfully to God simply knowing I trust in your promises and what he does in those moments is he makes your heart bigger makes your love purer because why I don't love the gifts I love The Giver I'm not here because I'm not I'm not getting any gifts right I there there is no bless this is dry this is this feels empty I'm here for

24:43 the giver I'm not here for the gift and that purifies your heart it purifies your love and it does so much more so please take consolation in this take consolation the fact that when you show up to prayer and it's dry and there's distractions okay Lord I'm going to calmly and gently acknowledge the distraction and bring my heart and my attention back to you when I experience that dryness I'm going to ask the question am I living outside of your will if there's nothing obvious if there's nothing obvious then be at peace Lord God use this dryness to purify my love for you cuz that's what he's doing now remember God does the work we are merely cooperating with his work even though sometimes that cooperation is difficult he is present and he is doing something so have faith I am praying for you please pray for me my name is father mik I cannot wait to see you tomorrow God

25:53 bless

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Day 348: The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"?

Brother Mike Schmitz (Host).

What is "Day 348: The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)" about?

The discussion centers on the nature of prayer as outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, emphasizing that prayer is both a divine gift of grace and a human response. Key points include the importance of understanding prayer as a response to God's initiative and the significance of cultivating a deeper connection with God through this "Battle of Prayer."

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, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Father Thomas Dubay. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Day 348: The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"?

The episode runs 26 min; the transcript is about 5,145 words in 30 timestamped sections.

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