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

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Prayer is "grace and grit," as Fr. Mike phrases it. In this section, one of Fr. Mike's favorites in the Catechism, we hear that "we pray as we live because we live as we pray." This living and praying is a battle in which we must confront our failures and accept the Holy Spirit's grace and aid. Prayer requires humility, trust, and perseverance on our part. In this struggle, we must battle against distraction, ourselves, dryness, and temptation. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2725-2731. 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 families with journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 348, we reading paragraphs 27, 25 to 27, 31. 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 slash the IY. You can click follow or subscribe on your podcast, tap for daily updates in daily notifications. Today is day 348. It is a day I've been longing for waiting for, looking eagerly for,

you're looking eagerly too. I don't know, today paragraph 2725 to 2731. We begin today my favorite section in 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 with our R-C-I-A class, you know, the right of Christian initiation for adults, the people who are becoming Christian, becoming Catholic, I 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 2725, 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 a response, right? When we pray, we're responding to God's initiation. Our God's initiative is the word. And so it's a gift of grace and it's a determined response in 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 I'm trying to do as well, this should be simple. It should be piece of cake. In fact, the image I had in my head was it should be like getting into a warm hop to 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 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, prayers difficult, that makes sense. If that's 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 in our part. It always presupposes effort. If you have found yourself having difficulty in prayer, you are in the right boat. 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 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 gonna do 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. And then Father and Heaven, have 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 face.

We thank you for 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 of how the ways in which you have surround us, you fill us with your grace. And we so often are completely unaware of how 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 present. You are always active for all the times that we have failed to 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 to the name of the Father and of the Son, the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 348, we're reading paragraphs 27-25-27-31. 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 wiles 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 habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in His name. The spiritual battle of the Christians' 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 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 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 prize 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, Velocolia, is caught 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 indignity that is ours as sinners.

Our resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmerited 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, liturgical 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 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 conversion. There we have it, paragraph 27, 25 to 27, 31. You guys, 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 first thing it says, it's a gift of grace, prayer is, and a determiner 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 2726, 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 and into holiness. We do not white knuckle 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 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.

It's the great figures of prayer and the old covenant before Christ, so 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 questions, so good, the church and Jesus himself, all teach us this. Prayer is a battle. So good. He asked the questions, so good, the church asked the question against whom. Well, here's the answer.

Two forms, I mean, maybe many more, but here's two, against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter who does all that he can to turn men away from prayer, away from union with God. Think about this. Prayer is a battle against me. Prayer is a battle against me. It burns a battle against myself because what happens? Well, I have the thought to pray.

It even says this. It says this later on. And paragraph will hit tomorrow, paragraph 27, 32, 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 wilds 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 does not want what God wants, what God wants is for us to have union with him.

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 27-25 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 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 the picaticism 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, 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 conviction, that 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, 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 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, regularly pray 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, and we spent a long time looking at the commandments, looking at how God is calling us to have our 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 quote uses quotes, the spiritual battle of the Christian's new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer. It's the new life and new prayer they have to be connected. I cannot consistently live out of the spirit of Christ. I cannot consistently live out of 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 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 the church says right here in prayer, prayer of 27, 26. Says one, some people view prayer as a simple 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 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 not prayer either. Still others, this is good for us. Reduce prayer to ritual words or postures. Also, I said my prayers. I made this out of the cross.

I genuinely reflected. I, whatever the ritual words, or ritual postures, those are actions. 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 through the motions. I need to put my heart into this. Now, go as I want 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 De Bay 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 De Bay in Father Thomas De Bay had a book I think was called Prayer Primer. And it was a question answeranswer book on prayer in one of the times. One of the questions was something along the lines of, you know, I'm a mom or I'm a dad, I'm busy, and I just don't have time to pray. And Father Dubay, who's the most gentle person I've ever met in my entire life, just like a full of life, full of joy, but also I don't ever heard him speak a word of 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 can be a mediocre mom. You can be a mediocre dad. No big deal. And it was one of those like, oh, there you go in the priest like priest, I'm so busy, I can't pray.

That's no problem. You can be a mediocre priest. That's it. We realize here in paragraph 2726 that sometimes even us Christians, we unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation of 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 realized 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 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 brings us closer and closer to him. We're merely cooperating with him.

Now as we keep moving through this section, paragraph 27, 27 highlights that oftentimes we can have a mentality of this present world. This is, for example, someone have it, that only that is true, which can be verified by reason in science. And you maybe to 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 scientific study where 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 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? And 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? 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 prized 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 into prayer. Lord, help me do this next thing. Okay, I'm going to go into prayer. Lord, I need to give a homily. 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 oftentimes, the ways of this world, the mentality of this present world, invades my prayer in this way. When 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 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 prayers was to help us become better businessmen or better doctors or better plumbers or whatever the thing is, prayers meant to help us be better Christians.

And yes, hopefully, hopefully being better Christians helps us become better in those other areas of our lives. But its primary goal is not to be productive. Going on, I love this last one in paragraph 2727. It says, still others exalt sensuality and comfort as the criteria of the truth, 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, filicolia 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 is so important for us to realize this. Now, finally, here we have 27.28. 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 gonna read to this section of battle of prayer, it's gonna be responding to 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 have 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 this, maybe this. Mostly though, it's complaining about not being heard. Well, maybe it is. Maybe it is. Mostly, though, it's complaining about not being heard or disappointed or saddened over not being heard according to our own will. Like, I know, I came 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 sensitive about that, but there's something about this that these are difficulties in prayer. Who did pride? Stiffened by the indignity that is ours as sinners.

And that's the reality, right? Man, I want to be first. I want to be right. I want to be the one 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 his level of his own. As the Lord God himself, the only divine being 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 resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmerited gift. That can also, I can perceive that as failure in prayer. But all those things, again, the periods of dryness, 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? Well, good does it do to pray? Because you might hear these words today. And as I said, I hear that

the battle of prayer, awesome, let's do this. prayers always involves effort. That's great. Let's do this. Purs always evolves effort. That's great. Let's do this. And you might hear it and say, oh, 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 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 here we are. Distraction. Not be bothered by distraction. To not sit about hunting down distractions, but just realize when you're distracted calmly

and gently, bring 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? Now, dryness is normal. But the first question when I experience 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, no, I don't have any awareness that I've said no to God's will. 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 want to use this trinous in prayer to purify my heart? Lord, in fact, the Lord God will use that trinus in prayer to purify your heart. This is the moment is

a ces here. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus and his agony and his tomb to be able to show up again and again, even in the midst of trinus 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 getting any gifts, right? There is no bless, this is dry. This feels empty. I'm here for 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 in 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 no thing obvious, if there's nothing obvious, then be a peace. Lord God, use this dryness to purify my love for you, because 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 Macchi. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you