← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Best Thing Fr. Mike Learned From His Parents
00:06:48
Looking for a powerful book recommendation? Look no further. Fr. Mike’s new book Unshakeable is all about living a life of virtue in the midst of chaos. Fr. Mike shares why he dedicated the book to his parents, the best advice they ever gave him, and the four simple words that can change everything: “Trust in the Lord.”
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I have the book Unshakable, which I can hold up with one hand because I can't use the other arm because I have shoulder surgery. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents. So I have a book. Not just I own a book, like I wrote a book. It's called Unshakable Building a life of Virtue in a World of Chaos. You know, there's an inscription. They always ask, hey, would you want to put a dedication to this? So I did, and it's to my mom and dad who built a life of virtue in a world of chaos. And someone asked me about that. They said, what's some of the best things or some of the greatest things your parents taught you? If they're the ones who, you know, built a life of virtue in a world of chaos, what are some of the greatest things they ever taught you? That's a struggle because they taught me so many things. I'm going to share two. I want to share the thing about my mom and the other things about my mom too. And then my dad had this rigorous honesty thing, but also there's faith. And so I'm not sure what to. How about three? Three with maybe a little bonus one. My mom, she was a nurse, trained nurse, and worked as a nurse, helped my dad through medical school. And then she became a stay at home mom. She would get up before all the rest of us and start making breakfast. And then she packed our lunches and then made our suppers and stuff. And she just so consistently did that. It was one of those situations where I remember, I remember identifying my mom's love, like, with her making food. I didn't realize that not every mom did that. Not every mom, you know, made breakfast for their kids. And I just, I took it for granted a lot. But then fast forward when I was ordained and I was invited over to people's houses and they'd say, oh, we're going to serve such and such a kind of food. In my head I'd be thinking, ah, that's just. I hate that kind of food. And then I go there and it would taste so good. And the more and more I had meals at other people's houses, I realized, oh my gosh, my mom's a bad cook. So she cooked all the time for us and she wasn't very good. And then a couple years ago, a number of years ago now, my sisters, my two older sisters, they were like, oh, yeah, mom hates to cook. Wait, wait, what one? My mom cooked for us all the time. Number two, she wasn't good at it. Number three, she. She didn't actually even like it. And the fourth thing is, I had no idea. I had no idea a. That she was bad. Cause I just. You know, my mom. Of course, I love your mom's cooking. I had no idea she didn't like doing it. She just did it. And here's one of the most incredible things. Again, this. Building a life of virtue in the world of chaos is about love. Love. So often, this is just. It hit me after she passed away. So often love is just showing up, not showing up perfectly. Not showing up as the star, not showing up as the expert chef. But to be able to love is a vastly greater talent, skill, ability than to run a marathon or to cook well. And that's. My mom did. I don't care. I don't care that she wasn't a great. I mean, there was a lot of food that were like, oh, this is really good, Mom. We like this. It wasn't like. It was awful, but she loved really, really well. Number two, my dad, he and I had a conversation, and he reminded me of this. I was interacting with some people, like, when it came to Newman, and it came to, like, you know, the diocese, and we're trying to build a Newman center and a church. And I said, you know, in some of these conversations, I left out this kind of critical detail. And I just had to have a conversation where I included the whole thing because I thought the detail would be embarrassing. Like, that I thought the people who know more than me would say, father Mike, why would you ever do that kind of thing? I'm like, I don't know. I just said yes to this person invited me to do such and such. I thought they would think it foolish. And so I had just not shared it, you know, because how we do. I didn't lie. I just didn't share all the details. And then I did. And then I was like, you know, I have to. I have to say all the details. So I said, all the details, and I told my dad this story, and he said, oh, yeah. I said, we call that rigorous honesty. And I was like, oh. And he said, yeah, yeah. He just. He said at one point, you know, you can realize you're dancing around the thing that needs to be said, but when it needs to be said, it needs to be said. And so if there's something my dad taught me, my mom taught me, love is sometimes love is just showing up. My dad taught me rigorous honesty, rigorous honesty just to Tell the whole truth. If you can tell the whole truth, just tell the whole truth. Regardless of if it embarrasses you, regardless of where it leads, just tell the truth. Rigorous honesty, third thing, it has shaped my heart maybe more than any other phrase in my life. In the last year of seminary, I was getting a chalice. Right? You get a chalice as. As a priest, and not always, but sometimes your parents pay for the chalice if they can. And so I had ordered this chalice and it was being made for me. It's. If you've ever tuned into our livestream masses or online masses, that's the chalice. It's kind of a tall one. And at one point they said, what do you want for the inscription? And I said, well, I don't know. And they said, well, who's paying for the chalice? I said, my parents. And they said, well, call your parents and ask them what they would like inscribed in the base, on the bottom of the chalice, underneath it. So I. Okay, great. Hung up the phone, called my mom, said, mom, what do you think you want inscribed on the underside of the chalice? She thought for a half a second. How about this? Trust in the Lord, Love mom and dad. Great. Nailed it. That was it. That was it. Trust in the Lord, Love mom and dad. Whenever I receive our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist, his precious blood, I always try to angle the chalice so that when I tip the cup up, whoever's sitting in the front row can see those words that has defined my life. If anyone says, hey, would you sign something for me? If you ever got this book Unshakable, and you say, would you sign it for me? I will say your name. Trust in the Lord, Father Mike. Because, yeah, that's just. That's everything. Everything. And those three things. Sometimes love is just showing up. Rigorous honesty and trust in the Lord. I said three and a half or three plus. And that would just be like. They just set me on a road so I could know Jesus and where I would learn the heart of the Father. Yeah. So those things, they're there. Sometimes love is just showing up. Rigorous honesty, trust in the Lord and put me on the path. So hopefully I can also do what they did. Build a life of virtue in the world of chaos. Anyways, from all the Seder Ascension presents. It's a weepy Father Mike. God bless. So I don't know, how do I start? Let's start again. Take two. Building a life. Virtue. Building a life of. Easy for me to say, you know, it's. Come on, it's not too. I mean, it's not like, you know, you could read it. You could read it in a. Someone asked me, but. Asked. Asked me. My goodness. Okay.