Day 338: Intercession and Thanksgiving (2025)

Summary

The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

Episode Summary: Day 338—Intercession and Thanksgiving

Episode Date: December 4, 2025
Catechism Paragraphs: 2634–2638

Episode Overview

In this episode, Fr. Mike Schmitz dives into the forms of prayer known as intercession and thanksgiving, continuing the Catechism’s exploration of how Christians communicate with God. He explains how these prayers situate us within the communion of saints and reveal the heart of Christian life—fostering a spirit of community, empathy, and gratitude in all circumstances.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Intercession: Sharing in Christ’s Prayer

• Definition & Practice

  • Intercession is “a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did.” (04:41)
  • Jesus is the one intercessor with the Father, especially on behalf of sinners.
  • When we intercede, we participate in Jesus’ ongoing mediation.

• Biblical Roots

  • Since Abraham, intercession has characterized “a heart attuned to God’s mercy.”
    • Fr. Mike highlights Abraham’s plea for Sodom and Gomorrah: “He is interceding on behalf of the people because he has a heart like God’s heart. It’s just remarkable.” (05:50)

• Communion of Saints

  • In the age of the Church, intercessory prayer expresses and strengthens the “communion of saints”:

    “We belong to each other. That’s one of the reasons why we know that we can pray for each other.” (06:35)

  • Intercession extends everywhere: for all people, rulers, persecutors, and even those who reject the gospel.

• Praying to Saints: Catholic Practice Explained

  • Fr. Mike addresses common objections:

    “Sometimes…non-Catholic Christians…say, what’s up with…asking saints to pray for you? Because that seems like it goes against the Bible that says, don’t communicate with the dead.” (06:56)

  • He clarifies:
    • The Church condemns forbidden practices like necromancy and séances.
    • “God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the living, not of the dead.”

      “All those who die in Christ are not dead, but they are alive.” (07:20)

    • Asking the saints’ help is not conjuring the dead but participating in Christian love through Christ.

• Communal Nature

  • Every Christian asks others for prayer:

    “You will not find a Christian who says, no, no, no, listen, you just talk to God alone. Of course, every Christian would say, of course, I’ll intercede on your behalf.” (07:47)

  • This extends to the saints in heaven, who, “having been made righteous by the grace of God…are in his presence at this moment.” (08:45)
  • “That should also bring joy to us in our lives, that we’re called to intercede while we’re living, to pray for each other and to pray for the needs of people close to us and people far away from us.” (09:19)

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2. Thanksgiving: Prayer at the Heart of the Church

• Core of Christian Worship

  • “Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church, which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is.” (09:28)
    • Fr. Mike notes Eucharist literally means “thanksgiving” in Greek.
  • Christ sets creation free for the Father’s glory, and our thanks is a participation in this return.

• Transforming Every Moment

  • “Just like our prayer of petition, every event and every need can become an offering of thanksgiving.” (10:24)
  • St. Paul’s exhortation:

    “‘Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.’ That comes from 1st Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 18.” (10:42)

  • “If we’re going through a rough time…God, thank you for this time. This is purifying me. If we’re going through grief…God, I thank you.” (10:50)

• Thanksgiving in Grief

  • Reflecting on sorrow and loss, Fr. Mike shares:

    “The depth of that grief…I think, in so many ways matches up with the depth of our love…the more we loved, the more we feel the loss.” (11:10)

  • Even amid grief:

    “…there’s room for thanksgiving. Because even when I don’t have that person, the reality is I only have this sense of loss because I loved…because they were such a great gift.” (11:29–11:56)

  • The challenge and invitation:

    “How can I actually find God’s presence? How can I actually find God’s goodness? How can I actually find the gift in the midst of the grief…and to truly give thanks in all circumstances?” (12:22–12:37)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Intercession and the Communion of Saints

  “That’s just part of what brings joy to the saints in heaven is their ability to pray for us, their ability to intercede on our behalf.” (09:14)

• On Thanksgiving Among Loss

  “I only have this grief because they were such a great gift. And there’s something about that that can lead us to a place of thanksgiving in all circumstances.” (11:56)

• Practical Takeaway

  “My invitation for all of us today, right now, is what am I thankful for in this moment, in this season?...How can I actually find the gift in the midst of the grief? And to truly give thanks in all circumstances? Because we know that this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us.” (12:06–12:37)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:42]—Reading from the Catechism: Intercession & Thanksgiving
• [04:41]—Fr. Mike’s Commentary: Intercession as sharing in Christ’s mediation
• [06:35]—Explanation of the communion of saints & praying for others
• [07:47]—Addressing objections to asking saints for prayer
• [09:28]—Introducing thanksgiving; Eucharist as thanksgiving
• [10:42]—Scriptural roots: “Give thanks in all circumstances…”
• [11:10]+—Reflection on grief, love, and the surprising place for gratitude

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Final Thoughts

This episode provides a profound look at two central Christian practices—interceding for others and cultivating gratitude. Fr. Mike’s gentle, relatable approach brings out the spiritual richness of these forms of prayer, inviting listeners to let every circumstance become an occasion for meeting God, and to allow both joy and sorrow to shape their hearts in love and thanksgiving.

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“Please know I’m praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.” (12:49)

Transcript

[A]

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 338. We're reading paragraphs 2634 to 2638. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a 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 ciy and you can click follow or subscribe to your podcast app for daily updates. In daily notifications, Today is day 338, paragraph 2634 to 2638. We said this before. Yesterday we talked about blessing, adoration, petition. Today we're talking about prayer of intercession and prayer of thanksgiving and just what a. What a gift. I mean, just essentially, what, five short paragraphs at the same time. We're talking about something that we, hopefully we do on a regular basis. Remember, we're in the section on the prayer of the church. Basically, here is prayer from all the way back to the beginning of time. And then how God reveals himself to Abraham and Moses and David and all the prophets. He reveals himself through the prophets, how God reveals himself in the fullness of time in Jesus, and not only reveals himself, but reveals what it is to be in relationship with him, what it is to talk with him, to converse with him, to pray. And now here in the age of the Church, the Holy Spirit has been given to us, so we can actually pray. We can bless the Lord, we can adore the Lord, we can petition. Remember yesterday we talked about this to ask, beseech, plead, invoke, entreat, cry out, even struggle in prayer. And today we're talking about prayer of intercession and prayer of thanksgiving. So as we launch into this kind of prayer, let's do it. Let's call upon our Heavenly Father as we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory in your name, in the name of your, you, Father, you, Son, you, Holy Spirit, we.

Lift up our voices in our hearts. We gently turn our hearts towards you, embracing every moment, embracing everything you allow to come our way. We turn our hearts to you, our minds to our attention to you, and embrace everything that you are and everything that you've brought into our lives. Lord God, we pray for others and we give you thanks this day. In Jesus name we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day three. 38. We're reading paragraphs 2634 to 2638.

Prayer of intercession Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners. He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. The Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Since Abraham, intercession asking on behalf of another has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy. In the age of the church, Christian intercession participates in Christ's as an expression of the communion of saints. In intercession, he who prays looks not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others, even to the point of praying for those who do him harm. The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely. Thus the Apostle Paul gives them a share in his ministry of preaching the Gospel, but also intercedes for them. The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions for persecutors, for the salvation of those who reject the Gospel. Prayer of Thanksgiving Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church, which in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew and to make it return to the Father for his glory. The thanksgiving of the members of the body participates in that of their head, as in the prayer of petition. Every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. For you continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

All right, there we have it. Paragraphs 2634-2638 A couple things to highlight. Let's go Back to prayer intercession. Before we talk about thanksgiving, there's something that's just so simple in paragraph 2634. It reminds us intercession is a prayer of petition. So it is petition, but it's just praying for others. Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. And that is, that's remarkable that we get to. Every time we intercede on behalf of others, we're participating, we're sharing in the fact that Jesus is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners, which is remarkable, right? Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and man. The we get to participate. We have a share in his mediation in some mysterious way by this intercession. And so it's incredible. 26:35 Highlights Abraham. It says, since Abraham intercession, which is again really simply asking on behalf of another has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy. Remember the story of Abraham? We referenced it a couple days ago, Abraham at Sodom and Gomorrah, he, he had asked God, he interceded on behalf of the people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah before the Lord. And that's a heart attuned to God's mercy. Remember, if there are 50 people there, Lord, if there's 40, if there's 20, if there's 10, that he is interceding on behalf of the people because he has a heart like God's heart. It's just remarkable. Not only that I love this. In the age of the Church, this is still paragraph 2635. In the age of the Church, Christian intercession participates in Christ's intercession as an expression of the communion of saints that we belong to each other. That's one of the reasons why we know that we can pray for each other. You know, Obviously, clearly in 2636 it highlights that St Paul talks about, you know, the need to intercede on behalf of one another. He asks for prayers for himself and tells ensures that he prays for others. We know that we can pray for each other, we can intercede on behalf of each other. And that we should intercede on behalf of each other reminds us that it's good for us to ask for the saints to pray for us. Now sometimes you have non Catholic Christians and maybe some of our brothers and sisters who are listening, who are not Catholic, and they say, yeah, actually what's up with the. This whole like asking saints to pray for you? Because that seems like it goes against the Bible that says, don't communicate with the dead. Well, couple things to remind us of. Yes, in answer to that, the church is definitely on the side of the Scriptures, which tells us to not communicate with the dead. So that would be things like necromancy, that's seances. Those things are condemned. So we do not do that. And yet Jesus reveals to the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus reveals to the Sadducees that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the living, not of the dead. And all those who die in Christ are not dead, but they are alive. And when we pray to them, asking for their prayers on behalf of us or behalf of someone else, it's not the same thing as communicating with them. It's not necromancy, it's not seance. It is praying in the spirit of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, those who have died and now live in Jesus. And again, let's go back to this.

Any Christian, every Christian asks for others to pray for them. Every Christian says, hey, my mom's going through something. Hey, my kids are sick, could you please pray for them? You will not find a Christian who says, no, no, no, no, listen, you just talk to God alone. Of course every Christian would say, of course, I'll intercede on your behalf. No one in those moments says, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's one mediator between God and man. The man, Jesus Christ. No one says that then. But when we say, hey, yeah, I have a devotion to St. Anthony. I have a devotion to St. John Chrysostom. I have a devotion to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. And so what that means is I will regularly ask for their prayers. Sometimes we have our non Catholic brothers and sisters who will say, that's condemned. And yet it's not because we belong the communion of saints that as it says in letter to the Hebrews, we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, these cloud of witnesses of those who have gone before us and now live in the presence of God. We also know that James says, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and who is more righteous than those who have been made righteous by the grace of God and are in his presence at this moment. And so of course, we have the communion of saints, and they of course intercede on our behalf. That's just part of what brings joy to the saints in heaven is their ability to pray for us, their ability to intercede on our behalf. And so that should also bring joy to us in our lives, that we're called to intercede while we're living, to pray for each other and to pray for the needs of people close to us and people far away from us. Now, the other prayer we talked about today is prayer of thanksgiving. And I love this. 26:37 says, Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the church, which in celebrating the Eucharist. Eucharist is Greek for thanksgiving or eucharisto, right? Greek for thanksgiving. Eucharistia reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew, make a return to the Father for his glory. And this is. This is just like prayer petition. Every event and every need can become an offering of thanksgiving. And isn't that remarkable? In all things, give thanks. St. Paul even says that very, very clearly. He says, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God for you. That comes from 1st Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 18, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So just like our prayer petition, every event and every need can become an offering of thanksgiving. That if we're going through a rough time, God, thank you for this time. This is purifying me. If we're going through grief, God, I thank you. I mean, this is. This is something I was just reflecting on with some of our students here. We're talking about sorrow, we're talking about grief, we're talking about loss. There's something powerful about grief that it can break us, it can break our hearts. Obviously changes our lives when we lose someone.

But the reality, in so many ways is the depth.

The depth of that grief.

I think, in so many ways matches up with the depth of our love.

You know what I mean? That sense of the deeper we loved, the deeper the sadness and sorrow, the deeper the grief, that.

The more we loved, the more we feel the loss. And so in some ways. In some ways, we can even. And again, it's not to short circuit our emotions. It's not to say I don't really feel what I feel. But in some ways, even in the midst of grief and even in the midst of loss, there's room for thanksgiving.

Because even when I don't have that person or that whatever that opportunity was, whatever the thing was that I missed, whatever that thing is that's causing me grief, whatever that thing is again or person that.

Is causing this broken heart, the reality is I only have this sense of loss because I loved. I only missed them because they loved. Me, they love me back.

I only have this grief because they were such a great gift. And there's something about that that can lead us to a place of thanksgiving in all circumstances. I think that's powerful. Every event and every need can become an offering of Thanksgiving. So my invitation for all of us today, right now, is what am I thankful for in this moment, in this season? Can I look at my life and genuinely not just pretend? Okay, God, thank you for this horrible thing I'm going through. But how can I actually find God's presence? How can I actually find God's goodness? How can I actually find the gift in the midst of the grief.

And to truly give thanks in all circumstances? Because we know that this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. For us, it's a tall order, but at the same time, it's what we are called to. And so please know I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.