The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 333: The Psalms

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

The Psalms are essential and powerful prayers. Through praying the Psalms, we are giving praise to God and expressing our belief while simultaneously nourishing our faith. In the Psalms, we are reminded of God’s love, faithfulness, and presence, even in the dark moments of our lives. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2590-2597. 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 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. This is day triple three, and a 333 were reading paragraphs, 2590 to 2597.

As always, I'm using the ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a foundation 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 slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe to your podcast app for daily updates. And the notifications because today is day 333.

It's nugget day. I mentioned yesterday that we didn't talk too much about the Psalms that section there. So after we read the in brief, after we read the nuggets, I thought, let's go back and take a look at yesterday's paragraphs on the Psalms. You're not not like overly deep dive, deep dive, but let's investigate how about. So today we're just going to enter into this nugget. So we call upon our Heavenly Father. We call upon Him in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Father in heaven, in this name of your Son Jesus Christ, we ask you to please, please receive our thanks, receive our praise. Lord God, the Psalms, the Psalter, is gift to us so that we can praise you, the way you deserve. These prayers are your gift to us so that our hearts have a way of expressing the truth and the depths of our hearts, but also reaching the truth and the heights that is you. That's what's true about you and who you are. So we thank you. When we ask you to please help us not only pray and when we're praying exemplariously, Lord,

God, help us to pray. Well, we don't know how to praise we are, but also when we pray the Psalms, Lord, God, help us to pray the Psalms not in an empty way, not in an hollow way, but help us to pray the Psalms in a way that is alive and dynamic. Where your words change our hearts, as often as we read them, as often as we utter them or sing them. But your words change our hearts, let your words become our words, and your heart become our heart. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.

In the name of the Father, in the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is day 333, reading paragraph 2590-2597. In brief, prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God, or the requesting of good things from God. God tirelessly calls each person to this mysterious encounter with himself. Prayer unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation as a reciprocal call between God and man. The Prayer of Abraham and Jacob is presented as a battle of faith marked by trust in God's

faithfulness and by certitude in the victory promised to perseverance. The Prayer of Moses responds to the Living God's initiative for the salvation of his people. It foreshadows the Prayer of Intercession of the unique mediator, Christ Jesus. The prayer of the people of God flourished in the shadow of the dwelling place of God's presence on earth, the ark of the covenant, and the temple, under the guidance of their shepherds, especially King David and of the prophets. The prophets summoned the people to conversion of heart, and while zealously seeking the face of God like Elijah, they interceded for the people.

The Psalms constitute the master work of prayer and the Old Testament. They present two inseparable qualities, the personal and the communal. The extent to all dimensions of history, recalling God's promises already fulfilled and looking for the coming of the Messiah. Prayed and fulfilled in Christ, the Psalms are an essential and permanent element of the prayer of the Church. They are suitable for men of every condition and time. There we have it, paragraph 2590, 2597 little nuggets there today. So let's go back to paragraph 2585 just because, you know, yesterday we read the section on the Psalms but didn't really talk too much about it.

So let's highlight the fact that it says this, it says that these are sacred books and they reveal to us the development of the Psalms. So a deepening in prayer for oneself and in prayer for others. So it says in paragraph 2585, it says, thus the Psalms were gradually collected into the five books of the Psalter. In Psalter means praises. The Masterwork of Prayer and the Old Testament. The Psalms were gradually collected into the five books of the Psalter, in Psalter means praises. The Masterwork of Prayer and the Old Testament.

Now, this is very important for us. Remember, remember, praise. How important praise is in our relationship with the Lord. How important praise is in our relationship with God. Remember, Judah. Judah means what? Praise. But Judah go up.

Let praise go up first. And so we can realize that when we pray the Psalms especially, I mean, not just at the beginning of the day, at any time, but there are many, many Psalms of praise. And it is incredible, an incredible way to start one's day, or each anytime during one's day, to give God praise and to do that through praying the Psalms. So incredible.

Now, it goes on in 2586, and highly so the fact that the Psalms, they both nourish the people in their faith and also expressed the people's faith. It is one of those kind of situations where the Psalms both, and this is what happens to us now, the Psalms, they teach us how to pray and the Psalms can become our prayer, right? They nourish us, they feed us, but they also become the thing that expresses the depths of our heart. And this is so important because what do they do? It says here expresses the depths of our heart. And this is so important, because what do they do? It says here that the prayers of the Psalms,

they recall the saving events of the past, yet extend into the future. So, recognize that the Psalms remind us of God's goodness. They remind us of God's faithfulness. And if you ever read the Psalms, like almost every other one is, remember God, this is what you've done, this is what you've done, and this is what you've done.

Reminding the people, okay, this is what God has done, is what he's done. And it reminds us that, okay, the God who is faithful in the past is faithful now, and we'll be faithful in the future. It's so important for us to understand this, and so important for us to realize this, prayed by Jesus himself.

You know, Jesus himself prayed the Psalms, and he fulfilled the Psalms, and they are essential to the prayer of the church. They're not, remember we already talked about this. This is not one of those situations where we say, all the Old Testament is dead and defunct is no longer useful for us. It's no longer true. It's no longer a part of our patrimony.

No, it is still the Word of God. And we pray the Psalms because they remain the Word of God. Even though Jesus Christ prayed them and fulfilled them, they remain an ever-present and ever-powerful way to pray. Now I love this, 2587. The Psalter is the book in which the Word of God becomes man's prayer. This is so important. It's the book in which the Word of God becomes man's prayer.

So how did I express this? I might have mentioned this before. I might have mentioned that as a priest, I made a promise that I would pray the Psalms, the liturgy of the hours, five times a day. So we have morning prayer, we have daytime prayer, evening prayer, night prayer, and then a thing called the Office of Readings. I did not really get into this. It was not something that I was really inspired by.

I think I would go to the Psalms and like, I would pray them as best I could. Well, sorry, that's not, that's a lie. I would pray them. I would read through them. And I would say, okay, this is the prayer. But I remember not being very inspired by them. I remember reading the Psalms, praying the Psalms, and not being overly moved by them. It was just kind of like, okay, this is, these are the words and I'm praying them. Kind of like I mentioned yesterday about external worships, and kind of going through the motions. But here's the incredible thing. The more and more I prayed the Psalms, the more and more they became my prayer.

That's why prayergraf 2587 says, they're the book and the Psalter, right? Psalms is the book in which the word of God becomes man's prayer. So one example was I was on a silent retreat at one point and it was in the middle of January, somewhere in the middle of the winter. I remember it was incredibly cold. Like so cold, you can hear trees cracking because it's just so cold and so silent. I remember leaving this little hut I was in with no running water and no electricity. And it was warm enough, but it was pretty rustic. And went out, kind of walking on these trails.

And I just wanted to talk to God. There was something inside of me, and every word that I thought of, everything I thought of, was not enough. It wasn't capturing this moment, it wasn't capturing what I was going through. And then all of a sudden, I found myself just from memory, because I had been for years at that point, I was ordained, and for years, I've been praying these Psalms every single day, multiple times a day. I just found myself and for years I've been praying these Psalms every single day, multiple times a day. I just found myself praying the words of one of the Psalms. And it just, I just started and it just kind of kept flowing. And it kept being one of these things where I was talking to God in the words of God.

And I discovered that that Psalm actually captured the depths of my heart, more than I could have captured the depths of my heart. And it I could have captured the depths of my heart. And it was just one way that again, we go, I mentioned yesterday, sometimes belief affects behavior and sometimes behavior affects belief. I've been praying the Psalms too many times. And again, very externally too.

I mean, I want to be better, but here we are. We do our best, we do what we can. But it had gotten into my bones and the word of God became my prayer. And it's just remarkable how that's what can happen with the Psalms. Because God, come to my assistance, I do not know how to pray as I ought.

Holy Spirit, come and teach me how to pray. I do not know how to pray as I ought. And so praying the Psalms is incredible like this. And actually, and the Psalms are great because they're not just certain kinds of prayers. Like all you get is praise. Well, no, in paragraph 20, 588, it highlights this. It highlights that there's many forms of prayer in the Psalms. It says, whether hymns, they can do songs or prayers of lamentation or Thanksgiving. Sometimes are individual, sometimes are communal, sometimes a royal chance, sometimes there's songs of pilgrimage or wisdom meditations.

All those different kinds of prayers, lamentation, thanksgiving, individual, communal, songs of pilgrimage, meditating on God's wisdom, they all can meet us in any given season in our life. It says, though a given Psalm may reflect an event of the past, it still possesses such direct simplicity that it can be prayed in truth by men of all times and conditions. Just one last thing I want to highlight before we conclude today, it's in paragraph 2589, and it is maybe the kernel, or maybe the golden thread that goes through every one of the psalms of prayer. It even says this, it says, there are certain constant characteristics. Again, all those different kinds of prayer,

limitation, Thanksgiving, et cetera. There are certain constant characteristics that peer throughout the Psalms. So here's a couple, simplicity. Just remember we talked about this. How important it is when we pray to be honest, just simply be honest. Also, spontaneity in prayer.

You can guess we are praying, someone's prayer they wrote down, but this prayer is spontaneous. Next one is, every one of the Psalms is like this. It expresses the desire for God Himself through and with all that is good in His creation. And so it talks about creation, it talks about the desire for God, it talks about the desire for God, talks about the desire for good. How about this one? The distraught situation of the believer who,

in his preferential love for the Lord, is exposed to a host of enemies and temptations, but awaits upon what the faithful God will do in the certitude of his love and its submission to his will. That's if there's a line to be underlined today, that is the line to be underlined today. The distraught situation of the believer that because you have chosen the Lord,

you now find yourself amidst a host of enemies, host of temptations, but to wait upon what the faithful God will do in the certitude of his love and its submission to his will. This is when it comes back to what we talked about before, humility and trust. That, yeah, I've got to have chosen you and it's led me to a place sometimes of great blessing and sometimes a place of hardship, sometimes a place of rejection, sometimes a place where now I have all these enemies and temptations because I've chosen you and yet at the same time

Here is God who continues to be faithful and he will do something in the life of the person who waits upon The certitude of his love and his submission to God's will and this is the the heart the kernel the golden thread that constant characteristic That goes through almost all of the Psalms. This is the constant characteristic that is meant to go through our prayer as well. This trust, this humility, I know God. Yes, I may have been led to this place of distress, this place of trial, this place of challenge. But I know the God who led me to this moment will lead me through this moment. And that's true for all of us.

We need to hold onto this in our prayer, this constant characteristic of simplicity, humility, trust, and confidence that even in the darkest of days, in the darkest of moments, God is still with us. And that's expressed in all the Psalms, which is one of the reasons why it's so good to pray the Psalms. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Michael. Can I wait to see you tomorrow? God bless.