Day 352: Summary of The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

What this episode is about

The discussion focuses on the "Battle of Prayer," highlighting the obstacles and misconceptions associated with prayer while emphasizing God's invitation for faithful engagement. Key points include the importance of perseverance in prayer and the call to respond with trust and love despite challenges.

Key takeaways

• Prayer transforms the soul, but first, you've got to fight against your own distractions.
• Even saints struggled; prayer often feels like a battleground, not a peaceful retreat.
• Faith doesn’t eliminate doubt; it empowers us to persevere through the desert of dryness.
• Feeling unheard? That’s just part of the test; true trust blooms in the silence.
• The real miracle? Finding that prayer, like coffee, is best when brewed daily.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Brother Mike Schmitz (Host)

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Brother Mike Schmitz, Ascension
2. 12:00 – 14:36: Brother Mike Schmitz

Notable quotes from "Day 352: Summary of The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"

• 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…

  about Catechism of the Catholic Church · at 0:31

• Like he prays so good you guys I'll tell you what I'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father Mike I cannot wait to see you tomorrow God bless.

  about Brother Mike Schmitz · at 14:05

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 show, leads the opening prayer, reads the Catechism passages for Day 352, and provides the main teaching/reflection on the 'battle of prayer' (distraction, dryness, trust, perseverance).

Books & papers

• Catechism of the Catholic Church — Book · Primary recommendation · 2 mentions · first at 0:15
  Central text discussed in the podcast, used as the foundation for daily readings and reflections.

Sponsors

• Ascension — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 0:15
  Sponsor of the podcast, providing the edition of the Catechism used in the readings.
  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 lastly you can click follow or.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:05 hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the catechism in 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 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 352 we reading paragraphs 2752 to 275 8 as always I am 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 lastly you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications today is

0:50 nugget day congratulations you guys it's day 352 we're eaing nuggets 2752 to 2758 it is a summary and in brief a recapitulation as I I said yesterday of what we just talked about when it comes to the Battle of prayer and also yesterday specifically prayer of the hour of Jesus so these are going to be kind of some a review but I think it's well you know what I'm thinking I love this section and I'm sad to go I'm excited to talk tomorrow about the Lord's Prayer that's going to be incredible but these nuggets are some some of my favorite uh chicken nuggets you know what I'm saying just you know get some good diping sauce and we're I'm stopping with it this okay let's let's launch into prayer right now cuz we know what we're going to talk about we're going to talk about the Battle of prayer today we're going to look at the obstacles to prayer and some of the erroneous Notions of prayer just be

1:39 reminded of the way that God is calling us to engage right to respond with faith and love and hope and trust and perseverance to is called to pray so let's do that now in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen father and heaven we give you praise and glory thank you so much thank you for bringing us to this day thank you for bringing us almost the entire way through this catechism Lord God as as we continue to walk as we continue to to learn to listen and to respond to your voice to your your call and your will in our lives we ask that you please help us to have courage courage to let this time not just be a time of information transfer but a time of transformation not just a time of data collection but a time of conversion Lord God help us to put into practice the lessons and the teachings that you've imparted to us help us to live these help us to live the life of a

2:41 disciple the life of a beloved son or daughter the life of a friend of the bridegroom Lord God help us to live this life by the power of your spirit in Jesus name we pray Amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen it is day 352 we are reading paragraphs 2752 to 2758 in brief prayer presupposes an effort a fight against ourselves and the Ws of the tempter the Battle of prayer is inseparable from the necessary spiritual battle to act habitually according to the spirit of Christ we pray as we live because we live as we pray in the Battle of prayer we must confront erroneous conceptions of prayer various currents of thoughts and our own experience of failure we must respond with humility trust and perseverance to these Temptations which cast doubt on the usefulness or even the possibility of prayer the principal difficulties in the practice of prayer are distraction

3:44 and dryness the remedy lies in faith conversion and vigilance of heart two frequent Temptations threaten prayer lack of faith and AIA a form of depression stemming from lack aesthetical practice that leads to discouragement filial trust is put to the test when we feel that our prayer is not always heard the gospel invites us to ask ourselves about the Conformity of our prayer to the desire of the spirit pray constantly it is always possible to pray it is even a vital necessity prayer and Christian Life are inseparable the prayer of the hour of Jesus rightly called the Priestly prayer sums up the whole economy of creation and salvation it fulfills the great petitions of the Our father right there we have it paragraph 2752 to 2758 the couple nuggets in there man so good it's just beautiful let's just this is the review so let's review this incredible so 2752 reminds us that prayer presupposes an effort a fight

4:49 against ourselves and the Ws of The Temper remember that here we ah man we get so easily distracted we get so easily put off course I mean even when we have our priorities straight we have such concupisent right such weakened wills and darkening of the intellect that at any given moment we can just be blown off course and so one of the things we realize is we have to fight to stay on course I I mentioned before I think it was was was three days ago I don't know three or four days ago we first started talking about the Battle of prayer I mentioned that when I was growing up you know I would read stories and this is the thing I'd read stories about you know Saints going into prayer and they' they'd Park themselves in front of our Lord in the Eucharist and the description was I've said this so many times and the description was that you know hours would feel like minutes so I thought okay great I've read these

5:34 stories I that's where I should be I I heard all about how Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist that transformed my life and how all of these Saints would make at least a holy hour so I decided that one point when I was I guess high school that I would make one holy hour a week so i' go in front of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament at least one hour a week 60 minutes and I remember going there kneeling or sitting down and whereas it was ascribed those other Saints yeah hours would feel like minutes mine was the opposite minutes felt like hours I was just oh my gosh am I doing something wrong I remember because I said what I imagin would be is if you're praying well it's super easy if you're praying well it's just like slipping into a hot tub and it wasn't like that there was all these distractions like it says here there's always all this dryness like I don't know what's going on I don't know what

6:19 to do I didn't realize that in many ways prayer is very active you're engaged with Grace and so the image that kind of stemmed from this was rather than kind of slipping into the hot tub and just kind of floating there and kind of soaking in this Grace maybe it's a little bit more like swimming like okay here's a pool and the pool is filled with water that's Grace now in order to to float in order to move you have to engage with the water right you have to I mean if if you know how to swim you know this and a lot of times sometimes you just like you're you're you're calm you're just kind of Treading Water really easily maybe just maybe if you're really good at floating you just kind of like have to kind of hover your your hands a little bit kind of fan them out a little bit maybe kick a little bit but it's not a lot of effort but you're engaging with you're engaging with the water and if you want to move what do

7:05 you have to do you have to engage with more you have to you have to work and that became kind of an image of okay that's what prayer is if there was no water right if there was no Grace there'd be no swimming there's no there's no swimming if there's no water and there's no prayer if there's no Grace at the same time I have to interact with the grace I have to interact with these gifts that God is giving me and so I have to sometimes I can be calm in prayer and it's just there that contemplative prayer sometimes where it's merely just this kind of you know Fanning the hands back and forth you're engaged with it but it's it's minimal effort it's it's a gift it's easy and sometimes it's okay we're doing some kicking drills right now you know right sometimes it's all right we're wrestling in this prayer we're wrestling in this pool we're wrestling in this moment and I really like that image because sometimes you do

7:52 rest right sometimes in the pool it is warm and it's just calm and relaxing but you have to engage with the water and some sometimes prayer is like that sometimes you enter into prayer and it's just oh Lord I'm just resting here in your presence but you're engaged with his presence you're engaged with his grace and sometimes it is it's just here we're going to pick the rosary up and we're going to pray the rosary right we're going to do laps here we're going to pick the bavy up we're going to pray the litery of the hours we're doing laps here and I think there's something I like the analogy and so if I've sufficiently beat that analogy to death I'm okay with that because I think it works and I think that we're on to something here The Battle of Prayer in paragraph 27 52 is inseparable from the necessary spiritual battle to act habitually according to the spirit of Christ we pray as we live because we

8:37 live as we pray if there's another another note that we just need to be reminded of we pray as we live because we live as we pray remember that line that says that we don't want to act habitually according to the spirit of Christ we canot expect to pray habitually in his name so we have to let our hearts be converted that's one of the necessary requirements for prayer now at the same time God meets us in our weakness this is this is important God meets us in our weakness you don't have to be perfect before you start praying you don't have to have all your life sorted out before you start praying in fact that's kind of like you know we've heard people say this it's like saying I'm going to wait until I'm not sick anymore to go to the doctor I'm going to wait till I'm past this illness in order to go to the doctor like no we go to the doctor when we're sick and so you do not have to wait until you everything is in

9:19 order you don't have to wait until you're holy to start praying because actually it doesn't work that way and secondly because God just wants your heart he just wants your heart at the same time he do also desires our conversion and so that's it I can't think that I can approach the Lord in humility and trust and love if I don't actually try to walk in his name in humility and trust and love I'm striving to do these things even if we don't do them perfectly we have to strive to do them it's so important then paragraph 27:53 reminds us that in the Battle of prayer we have to confront erroneous conceptions of prayer which you know various currents of thought our own experience of failure and so the three critical ingredients the three critical elements that are necessary in our hearts are humility trust and perseverance all three of them are absolutely necessary humility of just okay God you're God I'm not and I'm

10:18 coming back to you as a beggar I'm coming back to you as someone who needs you I need what you're offering I'm not coming to you as the boss I'm not coming to you as the one who has the answers I'm coming to you as the one who needs you the next part is I trust you and I'm going to keep coming back perseverance this is so important humility trust and perseverance I will say this I will say that I said it before I'm going to say it again paragraph 27:56 reminds us filial trust filial trust is absolutely necessary the trust of a son or daughter with their father that that if I don't have this gift and I I I pray that every one of us has the gift of trust of the father if I don't have trust I will even I will even accept God's gifts with suspicion you know I'll I'll even accept God's blessings with maybe some cynicism or with hesitation and this is so key for us like you know have youever heard the

11:15 phrase waiting for the other shoe to drop I used the phrase recently and some of our students in college had never heard that they're like what does that even mean like but you know you know this you know what it means you're waiting for the bad news to come you're waiting for that that thing to happen and sometimes we as Christians when we don't trust the Lord that's how we are we're waiting or constantly even in the midst of blessings even in the midst of Good Seasons in life we're waiting for the other shoe to drop we're waiting for that bad thing to happen we're waiting for the bottom to fall out we're waiting for God to just forget about us that goes directly against how he reveals himself but if we have trust not only will will we receive gifts with gratitude but if we have trust in the father if we have this trust then we can even receive our crosses we can even receive dryness and distraction we can

12:03 even receive suffering we can even receive death and we know that he is a good dad it's one of the reasons why I think in so many ways Jesus in the garden his prayer to his father is the image right it's the model for all of our prayer why because here's Jesus in the garden and he says father ABA right Dad let this cup pass for me yet not my will but your will be done now in the first part of the prayer he reminds he talks to God as father as Dad he remembers like no not Tyrant not someone I can't trust someone who I know I can trust and I know loves me ABA dad then he says he's then he's honest let this cup pass from me I don't want this he he's honest in his prayer and this is what we're we need to be we need to be honest in our prayer so we know we're talking to the father ABA and then we're honest let this cup pass from me he doesn't say ah this is fine it's good it's it's okay no Jesus is incredibly

13:09 direct he is honest with his father let this cup pass for me and then this is the key he trusts him when he says yet not my will but your will be done if our prayer could look like that where we remind ourselves who we're talking to we are talking to our dad in heaven and then where we honest God here's where I'm actually at and then we have this trustful surrender yet not my will but your will be done if we pray like that on a regular basis we will be more and more like the Son of God who prayed like that in the last hours of his life and it's so important for us to have that ABA we talk to God as our Dad we are honest with him and then we TR trust him if we can pray like that we will pray like the son and that's what he wants us to do he wants us to pray like he prays so good you guys I'll tell you what I'm praying for you please pray for me my name is father Mike I cannot wait to see you tomorrow God bless

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Day 352: Summary of The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"?

Brother Mike Schmitz (Host).

What is "Day 352: Summary of The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)" about?

The discussion focuses on the "Battle of Prayer," highlighting the obstacles and misconceptions associated with prayer while emphasizing God's invitation for faithful engagement. Key points include the importance of perseverance in prayer and the call to respond with trust and love despite challenges.

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

3 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Brother Mike Schmitz, Catechism of the Catholic Church. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Day 352: Summary of The Battle of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)"?

The episode runs 15 min; the transcript is about 2,863 words in 16 timestamped sections.

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