← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 353: The Lord's Prayer (2025)
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Diving into the Lord's Prayer, we look at the origin, meaning, and significance of this prayer. The Catechism reveals the Our Father as "the summary of the whole Gospel" as it includes all that we believe. Fr. Mike helps us understand that this prayer focuses our hearts on the Father and prioritizes our desires. As we begin this prayer in the Father's name, we know who we are addressing, and we know we can trust the Lord as our Father. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 2759-2764.
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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 in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 353, reading paragraphs 2759-2764. 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 because, you know, why not do that in the last 12 days or whatever it is by visiting ascensionpress.comciy and lastly, you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app. But at this point, who even knows? Who even knows what you're going to do? You know, unpredictable. That's what I'll say. All the catechism in your people, unpredictable. Actually, you're not. It's the opposite of unpredictable. Because here we are in day 353, and you're here, as always, you're the most reliable, predictable people I know. This is incredible. You know, I don't know. At the end here, I'm getting punchy. And as we enter into today, section two, the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father. Today we're just teeing up the ball because we're recognizing the fact that here is Jesus who is praying in a certain place, and his disciples come up to him and ask him, lord, he teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And then in response, Jesus teaches them the Lord's Prayer, right? The prayer that we call Our Father. Now, a couple of the things that we're going to go through here in paragraphs 2759-2764 is paragraph 2760, which I think is fascinating. You know, a lot of times when you're talking between Catholics and non Catholic Christians, a lot of times what happens is they talk about the hey, you guys drop out in the prayer. You guys cut out the. For yours are the power and the glory forever, or for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Well, fun fact, campers. We're going to find out something incredible, I think really remarkable, or at least interesting. We'll Say it like that. Interesting about history. And that's coming in paragraph 2760. How did those words for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. How did that get into the Lord's Prayer and what is its proper place in the context of the Lord's Prayer? Also, we're going to highlight the fact that here in Article 1, it is declared that they are Father is the summary of the whole gospel. That's a quote from an early church father named Tertullian. The Our Father is the summary of the whole gospel. That in it is. I don't want to say everything you need to know about to be a Christian, but in it is contained. You know, we've been talking for 352 days up until today about the creed and life in Christ and the way we worship and also how we pray. The Lord's Prayer encompasses all of those things and encompasses all we believe about God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, even if it doesn't explicitly mention the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Lord's Prayer encompasses what it is to have a life that is centered on Jesus and follows the Holy Spirit. The Lord's Prayer even puts in priority, like the first things first. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, puts God first and it is a revelation when it comes to revealing who it is that we are. In fact, there's a quote from St. Augustine we're gonna hear today in paragraph 2762. It says, Run through all the words of the holy prayers in Scripture, and I do not think you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord's Prayer. And so that is what we're going to do today. We're going to begin looking at the Lord's Prayer. In order to do that, let's take a moment and pray. We pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask you to please reveal your fatherly heart to us through power of the Holy Spirit. Draw us closer to your fatherly heart. Help us to trust in your fatherly heart, Lord God, help us to have the heart of your Son. Help us to love what you love. Help us to hate what you hate. Help us to choose what you will and help us in all ways to love you with everything we are and our neighbor as ourself so that you may be glorified and your presence, your power, your spirit, your sanctification may be known and present to all of our brothers and sisters that this world may be sanctified by your will and by our cooperation with your will. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 353. We are reading paragraphs 2759 to 2764. Section 2 the Lord's Prayer Our Father Jesus was praying at a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. In response to this request, the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his church the fundamental Christian prayer. St. Luke presents a brief text of five petitions. While St. Matthew gives a more developed version of seven petitions, the liturgical tradition of the church has retained St. Matthew's text. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Very early on, liturgical usage concluded the Lord's Prayer with a doxology in the Didache we find for yours are the power and the glory forever. The Apostolic Constitutions add to the beginning the kingdom, and this is the formula retained to our day in ecumenical prayer. The Byzantine tradition adds after the glory the words Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Roman Missal develops the last petition in the explicit perspective of awaiting the blessed hope and of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then comes the assembly's acclamation or the repetition of the Doxology from the apostolic constitutions. Article 1 the summary of the Whole Gospel the Lord's Prayer is truly the summary of the whole Gospel, since the Lord, after handing over the practice of prayer said elsewhere, ask and you will receive. And since everyone has petitions which are peculiar to his circumstances, the regular and appropriate prayer, the Lord's Prayer is said first as the foundation of further desires at the center of the Scriptures. After showing how the Psalms are the principal food of Christian prayer and flow together in the petitions of the Our Father. St. Augustine, run through all the words of the holy prayers in Scripture, and I do not think that you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord's Prayer. All the Scriptures, the law, the the prophets, and the Psalms are fulfilled in Christ. The Gospel is this good news. Its first proclamation is summarized by St. Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount. The prayer to Our Father is at the center of this proclamation. It is in this context that each petition bequeathed to us by the Lord is illuminated. As St. Thomas Aquinas stated, the Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of prayers. In it we ask that only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them. The Sermon on the Mount is teaching for life. The Our Father is a prayer, but in both the one and the other, the Spirit of the Lord gives new form to our desires, those inner movements that animate our lives. Jesus teaches us this new life by his words. He teaches us to ask for it by our prayer. The rightness of our life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer. All right, there we have it. Paragraphs 2759 to 2764. This is so good. We're going to break down. Well, we're not going to break down. The Catechism has already broken down the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father, but let's give us the context. Actually, again, the Catechism is going to continue to give us a context. But let's recap. So here are the apostles, the disciples, the they see Jesus praying and they say, lord, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples. And now there's some words that Jesus says before he gives them the Our Father. And we're going to focus on those words in days to come. But right now we just have this heart, the heart of the prayer and the heart of the prayer. Of course we're going to get to this in a day or two, are the first words we recognize that we immediately turn to Abba, right? To Our Father, to dad. This is the critical. This is so important for us. We've mentioned this the last number of days, how important it is that we know the one to whom we are speaking. This is just. It's vital. In fact, if we get this wrong, if we get the identity of God wrong, we'll get everything wrong. We don't know that God is our dad that we can trust, right? Then what are we going to do? We're going to even look at gifts with suspicion, much less crosses or burdens. But when we know that God is Our Father, everything changes. Everything changes. And so again, in the days to come, we're going to continually be reminded of that. Which brings us to paragraph 2760. I mentioned this is going to be kind of interesting. I think it's pretty interesting. It's interesting for all of those who have ever, if you're Catholic, you've gone to a non Catholic service, or if you're not Catholic, you've gone to a Catholic Mass. Because here we're praying the same prayer. We're praying the Lord's Prayer. And then what happens if you're at a Catholic Mass, we pray together and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And then if you're the non Catholic person, you launch into for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Meanwhile, the Catholics are waiting for their priest to pray a kind of a prayer on their behalf. And only after that do we say, for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. And the big question is, hey, Catholics, what's up? Like, why did you change our Father? Why did you change the Lord's Prayer? Well, Here in paragraph 2760, we realize the backstory, the backstory is in the Scriptures. The prayer ends with and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil done. But very early on, when Christians were praying in the liturgical context, right when they were praying together, they would end that prayer with a doxology and that the Didache, which is known to us as the teaching of the apostles. There is the line, for yours are the power and the glory forever. And then another book, Apostolic Constitutions, adds to that, for yours are the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. And we have that now. That's what we have even to this day. Now Byzantine tradition adds after the glory the words Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So for yours are the kingdom, the power and the glory, Father, Son and Holy Spirit forever. And these are just basically, you might call them liturgical accretions. They are, let's say this, it's nicer liturgical developments where here is the core prayer that Jesus gave us and the body of the Church, the family of God wants to give God even further glory and so has added to the end again, haven't changed the prayer, hasn't changed the essence of the prayer, but just gives God glory at the end of this prayer. For yours are the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And that is why we have the difference when you go to a non Catholic service and they launch right into for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. And if you're not Catholic, going to a Catholic Mass, that's the reason why the Church has the priest interjecting a Prayer in between the body of the Lord's Prayer and the for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. And now you know the rest of the story. I hope that makes sense to you. So article one continues. We teed it up. We've talking about here is Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer. He gave us the Our Father. And then here the church is making this pretty big statement. And this pretty big statement comes, as I mentioned, from an early church father named Tertullian, where he says the Lord's Prayer is truly the summary of the whole Gospel. He goes on to say, since the Lord, after handing over the practice of prayer said elsewhere, ask and you will receive. And since everyone has petitions which are peculiar to his circumstances, the regular and appropriate prayer, the Lord's Prayer is said first as a foundation of further desires. Now I love this because not only is this the summary of the whole gospel, you know, we mentioned that quote from St. Augustine who said, go through all the words in holy prayers in Scripture and you're not going to find anything in them that's not contained and included in the Lord's Prayer. That's, that's amazing. That's incredible. It's a center at the center of the Scriptures, but also it centers our hearts in the proper way. And what, what I mean by that is here is Tertullian who says that the Lord's Prayer is said first as the foundation of further desires. And this is what God wants to get to, right? God wants to get to our hearts. God wants to in fact, even so change our hearts, that he reorders our desires. And this praying, the Lord's Prayer, it does that. It's meant to do that among other things, it's meant to reorder our desires so that, yeah, first things first and last things last and all the middle things in the middle. And that's why St. Augustine later on says the Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of prayers. This is in paragraph 2763. In it we ask not only for all things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them. Remember that word ethos, the inner world of a person. What draws our hearts and what repels our hearts in the Our Father. As we continue to pray this, what it's meant to do is it's meant to reorder our lens, reshape our lens, how we see the world, God, ourselves. But Also what we desire and in what degree we desire them. I love this paragraph 2764. I mean, just buried kind of here in the middle of this introduction. It says the Sermon on the Mount is teaching for life. That's. Remember the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, six and seven. Awesome. The Our Father is a prayer. But in both one and the other, the Spirit of the Lord gives new form to our desires, those inner movements that animates our lives. Again, that ethos, right? That what. What draws me to something, what repels me from something else. And so in the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah, I'm trying to live this way. In the prayer of the Our Father, the Spirit of the Lord is meant to give new form to our desires, giving us a new heart. Right. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we get this new heart in baptism and the sacraments continually renew those that new heart in us. But when we pray, the Lord is teaching us how to live this new life by his words. And he teaches us to ask for this new life, to ask for this new heart by our prayer. And I love this last line here in 2764. We'll conclude here. The rightness of our life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer. That's just powerful. The rightness of our life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer, which is one of the reasons why we want to get that first word right. Our Father. That first word. Our Father. Abba. Dad. To know the one to whom we are praying. To know him. To know we can trust him. To know that he is good. To know that as a good dad, he sometimes says no. As a good dad, he sometimes allows us to experience what we would not want to experience. Why? Because he knows that he can do a greater good. When we go through suffering, he knows he can do a greater good. And we cling to him in the midst of darkness. But he is our dad, and we have to get that beginning word right. And if we don't, we won't get any of it right. The rightness of our life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer. And so we just pray today, right now. We pray that God reorients our heart and changes our hearts. That he helps us to love more and more what he loves and to hate more and more what he hates. And we pray together. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.