The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Fr. Mike makes the case that, before you claim a certain “style” in practicing the faith, you have to master the basics. He tells a story about when he was learning guitar. The teacher told his students to hold their guitar on an angle with their left knee higher than their right. This way they could play all kinds of music. Some of the students decided they wanted to hold the guitar their own way. This limited what they could play. Living the Faith is the same way. If you’re told to do something and don’t, is it because you can’t do it, or because you won’t? When practicing the Faith, you may say you’re not into prayer, or service, or witnessing about Jesus, but all these things are essential to growing in holiness. The saints are all different, true. Their fruit was unique, but the soil where they flourished is the same. Every saint started with prayer. They all did service, they all talked about Jesus. Fr. Mike recommends that we take advantage of all the riches our Catholic Faith gives us: the Rosary, Ignatian meditation, lectio divina, charismatic prayer, and so on. Let’s not limit our experience of God by saying some tradition is not our style. Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Fr. Mike explains how even partial healing from the wound of sin is still worth the effort. Don’t give up just because you know your sins will leave some stains and scars. God’s mercy can do amazing things in your life, even if it is just partially healed. No matter how massive and unforgivable you think your sins are, God’s mercy is infinitely greater. St. Thérèse of Lisieux said if you took all of the sins in the world throughout all of time and tossed them to God, it would be like flicking a drop of water into a raging inferno (paraphrased). Nonetheless, justice demands for sins to have consequences. God forgives the eternal effects, but there will be temporal consequences. We shouldn’t let those temporal consequences prevent us from living the life God wants us to live. God can use anything we give him. Just because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

When we pray “lead us not into temptation”, it may seem like God has the capacity to tempt us. But that’s not the case. God does not tempt us, but he can and sometimes must put us through tests. Here are a four helpful ways to look at this part of the Our Father: Tests reveal things to us. When God tests us, it reveals how much faith, hope, and love we have in God and for God. Tests also strengthen us. As St. Paul says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). When we say, “lead us not into temptation”, what we’re really asking is “God, please don’t test me beyond my ability.” Trials will and must come, but when they do, we should ask God for no more than what we can endure. While God may not tempt us, the evil one does. God tests us by allowing the evil one to do what he does—so we can benefit from the strength and self-revelation that comes from the test. Hopefully this helps you say this part of the Our Father with more understanding and stronger intent.Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Fr. Mike describes exactly how God works with us, even though God’s ways are not our ways. It’s like when a person you’re living with asks “What do you want for dinner?” and you say, “Whatever you want.” He then starts offering suggestions, but you turn them all down. After a few minutes of back and forth you both notice that what you really meant was not, “Whatever you want,” but, “You tell me what you want, and then give me the freedom to choose among those options.” This is a lot like the process God uses when you tell him, “Lord, just do what you need to do in my life.” People may not like the process, but it often works. When we tell God “just do whatever you want” more often than not he tells us to choose from a list of options. He respects our free will. If you ask him to purify your heart, that’s going to require breaking it so he can heal it. Trust the process, even if it’s going to hurt, and God will lead you to greater things. Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Fr. Mike gives us some advice about how we should respond to the coronavirus pandemic. He begins with the story of the recent pilgrimage he took to Israel amid the coronavirus outbreak. Israeli authorities were quarantining people in the country and canceling all flights except for citizens. Fr. Mike had to rush with his pilgrims and tour company to figure out what to do about their scheduled pilgrimage. At the very last minute, the tour company found a flight to Istanbul that allowed eight pilgrims, including Fr. Mike, to flee Tel Aviv. After successfully making it back home, he found that the original flight they had booked home was never cancelled. Moral of the story: everything’s a gamble. Some people, deeply convicted to speak the truth, may believe the reaction to COVID-19 is all for nothing, and that there is no need to cancel flights and even Masses. To those people, Fr. Mike asks, are we just being a critic toward those who have to make difficult choices? Worry, anxiety, fear and living in the what ifs won’t solve anything. Faith in God is the answer, faith that everything will turn out all right in the end. Some say this virus is a result of our faithlessness, and a call to repentance. Others say our reaction to it is an example of faithlessness. One thing is for certain: this is a call to faith as all adversity should be, but it is also a call to repentance as it should remind us of our frailty and mortality. How coincidental that we should be reminded of these things during Lent, which begins by telling us “You are dust and to dust you shall return,” and “Repent and believe in the gospel.” We can find a positive and negative side to any situation. How can we find the blessings amid this adversity? Pray. Be grateful. And cover your mouth when you cough.Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

A great way to make this Lent even better spiritually is to offer up not only something you chose, but also to offer up your inconveniences. Give God those moments when you’re stuck in traffic, or when someone says something bitter to you, or when you have to run an errand you just don’t want to run. Offer up those inconveniences that you didn’t choose, and God will make you stronger in them. Intentionally receive these moments, and let them provide the opportunity to die to self. The Lenten commitment we chose is an active mortification, but these inconveniences you didn’t ask for are passive mortifications. They’re powerful because we have no control over them, and yet we can have control over what we do with those moments. Accepting these passive mortifications is a way for us to grow in freedom, because through them we learn to accept and live graciously in the moments that would otherwise have control over us. In the words of St. Paul: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Colossians 1:24). For full episode shownotes, visit AscensionPress.comSupport The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Starting strong is easy, but staying strong—perseverance—is a mark of holiness. It’s easy to be excited about a new relationship, ministry, job, or school, but enduring through the dull times when that newness wears off is difficult. Fr. Mike is not trying to downplay the importance of starting strong with a commitment, whatever it may be. It’s wonderful to be determined when a commitment is new, but to stay strong is a test of will power that many do not pass. For those who do endure, the endurance builds character. See more from Fr. Mike at media.ascensionpress.comSupport The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Lent is about transformation, but that transformation will be incomplete if we make it about ourselves. Instead of aiming for self-mastery alone this Lent, what is the key to living this Lent for others? In 2 Samuel 7, when King David says he will build a house for the Lord, the Lord says to David through Nathan that he will not be the one to build the temple—but his son will. Learning from this story, we see that we may want to do a good and noble thing for Lent, but that doesn’t mean it’s what God wants us to do. Ask God what he wants from you this Lent. Discipline is great, but there’s a step after that: being generous. Asking God what he is asking of you, instead of deciding on your own, is a step from discipline to generosity, from self-mastery to deeper relationship. Aim to do your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving out of generosity.Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Why is Ash Wednesday not a holy day of obligation? A holy day is a day that has been consecrated for God, so in that sense Ash Wednesday is a holy day. At the heart of a holy day of obligation, however, is the Resurrection. For this reason holy days of obligation are times to celebrate and feast. Even in the midst of Lent, we feast on Sundays to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. You may have noticed, Holy Thursday and Good Friday also are not holy days of obligation. This does not diminish their importance, though. It simply makes no sense to celebrate these days as obligatory feasts because they are supposed to bring to mind the death of our Lord and also our own death—our physical death, and our death to self in order to avoid spiritual death. God does not force us to take up our cross and follow him, but he does invite us. With that said, what better place to go to start Lent than to Mass? It is the beginning of a long journey, and we need the strength the Lord can give us through the Ash Wednesday readings and the Eucharist. And what better way to remind ourselves of the whole point of Lent, that we are dust and to dust we shall return, so we ought to repent and believe in the gospel. Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation, but a holy day of invitation. For further reading, Fr. Mike mentions the story where Elijah, in a deep slumber, is awoken by a “messenger” who tells him to get up and eat. This story can be found in 1 Kings 19.Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

Just because you desire something deeply doesn’t mean it’s God’s plans for you. Sometimes our desires and God’s will are different. Our desires are not predictors of the future and they’re not the voice of God. We are supposed to tend to our desires and discern what is being revealed through them, but letting them dictate your path in life is not wise. Especially when it comes to romantic relationships, we tend to favor the decisions that would give us our desire. If the person you desire keeps coming up in prayer, it’s because you keep bringing him or her up. Don’t fool yourself. At the heart of this desire is probably a good longing for marriage and a family. Acknowledging the desire for what it is will help you make a more clear-headed decision regarding it. You may also have a desire to pursue a certain career path. If you want to sing, for example, do you want to spend every day singing and live the life of a singer? When you acknowledge the realistic lifestyle your dream job would entail, it often brings sobriety to your desire. If the desire still does not subside, don’t automatically assume it’s because it must be your destiny. Examine your past, your conscience, and the things that have influenced you. Examine the things that may have brought about this desire. This examination will teach you valuable things about yourself. Our desire for goodness and holiness is a good thing. We have these desires so we can learn more about what’s deepest in our hearts. So next time one of your recurring desires come back, go deeper and ask yourself, “What does this desire really reveal about me? What do I really want at the very core of it?” Bring it to prayer and God will reveal something very profound, as he has often been known to do.Support The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast