Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz

Episode: 123137 – Waiting Well: Praise While We Wait
Air Date: December 13, 2025
Host: Fr. Mike Schmitz

Episode Overview

In this Advent homily, Fr. Mike Schmitz explores the experience of waiting, particularly during the busyness of the Advent season. He discusses the spiritual challenges of “hurry” and impatience in a culture preoccupied with rushing and getting to the next moment. Through Scripture, practical insights, and moving stories of the saints, Fr. Mike teaches that the antidote to impatience and complaining is learning the deep, transformative practice of praise—especially in difficult and in-between seasons.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Reality of Hurry During Advent

• Fr. Mike describes Advent as a season marked not just by waiting, but by hurry and frenzy:
  • “‘Hustle and bustle’—I think the only time I’ve ever heard the phrase is in relation to this season we’re in right now.” (04:00)
• He reflects on the deeper message beneath our rush:
  • “What are we saying when we’re in a hurry? We’re saying, ‘I’m not where I’m supposed to be right now,’ or ‘I don’t like where I am right now.’” (05:30)
• Rushing often becomes the default solution:
  • “My answer—maybe all of our answer—when we’re hurried is just go faster. But just going faster doesn’t always work.” (07:20)

2. The Inefficiency and Risk of Hurriedness

• Fr. Mike explains the law of diminishing returns when it comes to speeding (both literally and metaphorically):
  • “If you increase your speed by 10 miles an hour, at a certain point, the time you save actually diminishes, but the risk increases.” (09:15)
  • "For every mile per hour you go over 50, you increase your chance of getting in an accident by 1%." (09:50)

3. God’s Solution: Internal Transformation

• Contrasting human solutions ("give me what I want") with God’s solution ("make me who I need to be"):
  • “My solution is external. God’s solution is internal: ‘Help me become someone I need to be.’” (11:00)

4. Learning Patience from Scripture

• Reflecting on the letter of St. James:
  • “Be patient. That’s the call for every one of us.” (12:05)
  • “Patience means you have the capacity—you’ve become the kind of person who can endure long suffering.” (13:30)
• Using the metaphor of the patient farmer who understands and respects seasons:
  • "A farmer acknowledges that there are seasons. He’s not worried when it’s not yet time for crops." (15:00)
• The story of Asian bamboo as a metaphor for unseen growth:
  • “For the first few years, nothing happens above ground... but after three or five years, that bamboo grows 90 feet in a few weeks.” (17:10)

5. The Danger of Complaining

• “If we choose to complain, we become really good complainers. Some people—that’s their spiritual gift: complaint.” (19:18)
• St. James’s prescription: “Do not complain, brothers and sisters.” (20:05)

6. The Power of Praise in Waiting

• Fr. Mike argues that praise is the opposite and antidote of complaint:
  • “If we want to learn to wait well, we have to learn how to praise.” (21:20)
  • “Praise isn’t a denial of pain. It’s a decision to trust God in the midst of pain and difficulty.” (22:05)
• Key definition:
  • “Praise is the declaration, ‘God, I have what I need, and I am where you want me to be.’” (22:38)

7. The Communal Strengthening of Praise

• Citing examples from Christian history—when individuals praise in suffering, it has ripple effects:
  • “It makes the hearts of those around us strong.” (23:10)

8. Stories that Illustrate the Power of Praise

a. Paul and Silas in Prison (Acts 16)

• “Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praising and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” (24:05)
• Their praise firmed not only their own hearts but also those around them.

b. St. Maximilian Kolbe in Auschwitz

• Recounts the story of Kolbe volunteering to take another’s place in a starvation bunker.
• The bunker, normally filled with cursing and screams, instead echoed with prayers and hymns led by Kolbe:
  • “From the cell where these unfortunates were buried alive, you could hear the sounds of prayers recited out loud and the condemned men from the other cells would join them... I was greeted by fervent prayers and hymns to the Holy Virgin Mary, whose sound pervaded the whole underground chamber. Father Maximilian would start them out and everyone would join in.” (27:25-28:10)
• Even in agony and impending death, Kolbe never complained but encouraged the others, embodying steadfast praise and hope.
• “One of the SS guards remarked, ‘This priest is really a great man. We have never seen anyone like him.’” (32:05)
• Kolbe’s praise and firm heart inspired and uplifted the condemned men around him in their final days.

9. The Relational Nature of Praise, Joy, and Hope

• “Praise is relational. Joy is relational. Hope is relational. Christian trust is putting our trust in another.” (35:00)
• “Because Jesus Christ is the light that has come into the world, I can praise him now. Because Christ has conquered darkness, I can have joy right now in the in-between.” (36:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On hurry:
  • “How strange it is to be in a hurry. And how sad we become when we’re rushed.” (05:00)
• On patience:
  • “Patience means becoming the kind of person who can endure long suffering.” (13:35)
• On seasons and unseen growth:
  • “If you knew the season you’re in—isn’t the season to have what you want—would you be more patient? Or would you still just complain?” (18:00)
• On complaint:
  • “Some people, that’s their spiritual gift: complaint.” (19:18)
• On praise:
  • “Praise is the declaration, ‘God, I have what I need, and I am where you want me to be.’” (22:38)
• On Christian hope:
  • “Christian hope is putting our hope in another. And Christian praise is knowing that Jesus Christ has come into this world.” (35:10)

Key Timestamps

• Opening and Setting the Theme (00:02–04:40)
• The Problem of Hurry and False Solutions (05:00–11:15)
• Learning and Practicing Patience (12:05–16:00)
• The Example of the Farmer and Asian Bamboo (16:00–18:30)
• Complaint Versus Praise (18:30–22:10)
• Definition and Power of Praise (22:30–23:30)
• Paul and Silas in Prison (24:00–26:00)
• Story of St. Maximilian Kolbe (26:00–33:30)
• The Relational Nature of Hope, Joy, and Praise (34:30–36:20)
• Conclusion: Becoming People Who Wait Well (36:20–end)

Summary Flow

Fr. Mike’s homily moves from an observation of our hurried culture—especially evident during Advent—to a deeper spiritual diagnosis: we are impatient, fixated on “getting there,” and risk missing God’s work in the present season. Using vivid metaphors (the farmer, the bamboo), he shows how patience is an internal virtue cultivated over time, often beneath the surface. The antidote to complaint isn’t denial of suffering, but honest praise—trusting God right in the “in-between.” He highlights how the firm hearts of saints like Paul, Silas, and Maximilian Kolbe in the harshest circumstances reveal the world-changing power of praise. He ends by urging listeners to practice praise as relational trust in Christ, making our own and others’ hearts strong as we wait for him.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, recognize the season we are in, refuse the shortcut of complaint, and become “the kind of person who can wait well”—one whose heart is strengthened in praise, even (or especially) in the hardest waiting.