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 entire Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day one. You guys, welcome. Just a few reminders before we get started. 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. It's going to be word for word. We're good there. You can download your own Catechism into your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress. Com/cyy. Lastly, you can click Follow or Subscribe with your podcast app for daily notifications. That seems like something that, I don't know, is worth saying. I'll say it today. Today, we'll be reading on day one. Gosh, you guys. Here we go. There is this thing called the prolog at the very beginning of the catechism.

It's 25 paragraphs long. Paragraphs aren't massively long, but they're just bullet points. Well, you'll get the gist if you don't have the Catechism in front of you. Essentially, the prolog is 25 paragraphs long. Basically, it's like Syllaby Day. I feel like today is like Syllaby Day, today and tomorrow. Today we're reading paragraphs one through ten, and then tomorrow we'll read the remaining paragraphs. But it gives a lay of the land. But it's not just Syllinvest Day. Syllinvest Day is okay, here's what you'll be reading, and here's how this is all going to be very boring. My goodness, you guys, the prolog is among the most beautiful stuff written. I'm blown away by this because what we're going to talk about today is we're going to talk about what is God's plan for human beings. That's where they start. The very first paragraph in the entire catechism begins by saying, Here is the massive revelation of God to humanity. It's just so good. The first three paragraphs are just here's the story of salvation. Here is who God is, here is who you are, and here is God's plan for us. Then it goes on to say, Okay, so since we know that in those first three paragraphs, what do we do with it?

And that we call that Catechesis. We're talking about Catechesis, which is handing on the faith or teaching the faith. We'll be talking about that. Catechesis is an education and faith of children, young people, old people. We talk all about that. Then basically, in the last couple of paragraphs of today, in the prolog, the church then says, Okay, so because of all this and based off of people who are really, really smart and really holy for the last 2,000 years, what we said about doing is we said about writing a new Catechism. That's where we are right now. That's what we're going to hear about today. Let's say a prayer and just dive in to today. Oh, my gosh, Father in heaven, we give you praise and thanks. You've made us. You've made us for yourself. We are restless. Our hearts are restless until they rest in you. God, what is your plan for us? What is your plan for us? Generally speaking, what's your plan for us personally this day? Lord God, we just open our hearts to you today and open our minds to you. God, remove any sense of intimidation, remove any sense of fear, remove any sense of even resistance to what it is that you've revealed in your scriptures.

In your courses and through the teachings of your church for these last 2,000 years, open our hearts and our minds today as we begin this journey so that, again, without fear, without resistance, without any hesitation, we can just launch ourselves into your arms today. What is it that you want for us? What is it you want from us? What is it that you can do in us this day if we just open our minds and open our hearts to you? Lord, reveal the answer to this. Reveal yourself to us in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Okay, so one thing to keep in mind, again, just a little note, is there's a document called Catechese Tridente that was written in 1979. The first paragraphs will reference that document quite a few times. That's what you're going to get. Here we go. Beginning of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the prolog, paragraphs 1-10. Prolog. Jesus said, Father, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. St. Paul writing to Timothy said, God, our savior, desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

St. Peter preaching on Pentecost in Acts the Apostles said, There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved than the name of Jesus. The Life of Man to know and love God. God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men scattered and divided by sin into the unity of his family, the church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent His son as redeemer and savior. In His son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the Gospel saying, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always to the close of the age.

Strengthened by this mission, the apostles went forth and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Those who, with God's help, have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the good news everywhere in the world. This treasure received from the apostles has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer. Handing on the faith, Catechesis. Quite early on, the name Catechesis was given to the totality of the church's efforts to make disciples, to help men believe that Jesus is the son of God, so that believing they might have life in his name, and to educate and instruct them in this life, thus building up the body of Christ. Catechese Tradendi wrote, Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people, and adults, which includes, especially the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way with a view to initiating hearers into the fullness of Christian life.

While not being formally identified with them, Catechesis is built on a certain number of elements of the church's pastoral mission, which have a catechedical aspect that prepare for Catechesis or spring from it. They are the initial proclamation of the Gospel or missionary preaching to arouse faith, examination of the reasons for belief, experience of Christian living, celebration of the sacraments, integration into the ecclesial community, and epistolic and missionary witness. Catechesia Tradendi also wrote, Catechesis is intimately bound up with the whole of the church's life, not only her geographical expansion and numerical increase, but even more, her inner growth and correspondence with God's plan depend essentially on Catechesis. Periods of renewal in the Church are also intense moments of Catechesis. In the great era of the Fathers of the Church, St. Lee bishops devoted an important part of their ministry to Catechesis. St. Thidro of Jerusalem and St. John, Christostom, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, and many other fathers wrote catechetical works that remain models for us. Catechese Tridente also wrote, The Ministry of Catechesis draws ever-fresh energy from the councils. The Council of Trent is a noteworthy example of this. It gave Catechesis priority in its constitutions and decrees.

It lies at the origin of the Roman Catechism, which is also known by the name of that council and which is a work of the first rank as a summary of Christian teaching. The Council of Trent initiated a remarkable organization of the Church's Catechiesis, thanks to the work of holy bishops and theologians such as St. Peter Kinesias, St. Charles Boromeo, St. Taribias of Mangrovejo, or St. Robert Bellerman. It occasion the publication of numerous catechysms. It is therefore no surprise that catechesis in the Church has again attracted attention in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, which Pope Paul the sixth considered the great Catechism of modern times. The General Catechedical Directory in 1971, the sessions of the Synod of Bishops devoted to evangelization in 1974 and Catechesis in 1977, the Apostolic exhortations, Evangelia nunianae in 1975 and Catechese Tridente in 1979 attest to this. The extraordinary Synod of Bishops in 1985 asked that a Catechism or compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals be composed. The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, made the Synod's wish his own, acknowledging that this desire wholly corresponds to a real need of the Universal Church and of the particular churches.

He set in motion everything needed to carry out the sin that Father's wish. Okay, so that is 10 paragraphs. You probably caught on as we were reading. There was that sense of like, if we're going to quote from scripture, I'm just going to mention that, or if we're going to quote from Catechese Jordane, we're going to mention that thing. But oh, my goodness, you guys, here is the structure and the flow of these first 10 paragraphs. Those first three, so good, God infinitely perfect and blessed in himself in a plan of shared goodness, freely created man to make him share his own blessed life. From that, he says, for this reason that every time and in every place God draws close to man, which is incredible. Just this declaration of such goodness, not only this, but goes on to say that he calls us to seek him. We know this. We know that every time we seek the Lord is actually a response. It's a response to his initiation, his initial offer of grace. But goes on to say that we're called to share in his blessed life. That next paragraph says, So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen.

And it says, Okay, so that's what happened. Here's Jesus who enacted the salvation of the world. But so that the world could be saved because not just those 12 people, not just those initial disciples, but so that salvation could go to the world, Christ sent forth the apostles. They did that and they went forward. Then paragraph three says, Those who, with God's help, have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it. If you've said yes to Jesus, are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the good news everywhere in the world. In three paragraphs, here is the Catechism that says, okay, here is God's plan. Here's how we fulfilled that plan in Jesus and by sending us the Holy Spirit. Here's how that plan was carried out throughout time by the commissioning of the apostles and their successors. But even now, here we are, goes on to say, it says, All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation by professing the faith, by living in it, in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer. This is something I just want to highlight for all of us.

The reason why, maybe you went through the Bible in a year, last year, the year before, the reason why you're going through the Catechism, I think, is not just because you want to have head knowledge of who God is and head knowledge of who we are as belonging to the Lord. But I think it's because you recognize, just like I do, you recognize, Okay, I need to also be converted. I need heart transformation. I don't just need more information, I need transformation. Because why? Because the Lord is sending you out. This is the key. The Lord is sending you out. It's made very, very clear in that paragraph here. All Christ-faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation. Not just priests, not just bishops, not just missionaries, not just nuns, not just the super religious people, but everyone who is a disciple of Jesus is called to pass on the faith. What is that called? What's handing on the faith called? That's called catechesis. That's what you find in the Catechism. That is so, so powerful. I love how the catechism spells out how do we do this? How do we hand it on from generation to generation?

Well, one is by professing the faith. One is actually by sharing with words. Secondly, by living it in fraternal sharing. Then third and fourthly, by celebrating it in liturgy and in prayer. You might have noticed that the Catechism is made up of four pillars, and those four pillars are the creed itself, that what we believe, then it's how we live the moral life, then it's how we celebrate the liturgy, how we worship, and then how we pray. There it is right there in the very third paragraph. It talks about how we hand on the faith is not just by saying out loud, but also by living it, also by worshiping, also by praying, which is so good. Then from paragraphs four to paragraph 10, it talks about, okay, based off these first three things, this initial truth about how good God is and that he just made us to know Him, to share His very life. We have to pass that on to other people, paragraphs 4-10, then go on to say, Here's why we made this book. Here's why we made the Catechism. Because God is so good that we cannot keep this hidden.

God is so good that as an updated message for modern times, for modern minds, for modern eyes and hearts and ears, for modern people, we have this new Catechism because it's so important, so important to make disciples and so important to equip those disciples with the true teaching. I love this because it says in paragraph six, it says, While not being formally identified with them, Catechesis is built on certain number of elements of the church's pastoral mission, which have catechedical aspect, which is they either prepare for or they spring from it. It lists a couple of things here and I just think this is cool. It says one, the initial proclamation of the Gospel or missionary preaching to arouse faith. Yeah, we need catechiesis to have any, epistolic preaching or missionary preaching. Secondly, the examination of the reasons for belief, especially there's so often... I remember I went to college expressly studying theology because St. Peter, in the New Testament, he says, Always be ready to offer a reason for your hope. Be able to be ready to defend your faith, essentially. That's reasons for belief. Then the next one, though, is experience of Christian living, which is so important because, again, this is not just about information, about transformation.

How do we live? It goes on to say the celebration of the sacraments. Next one is integration into the ecclesial community, like through baptism, through Holy Communion, through Confirmation, and Apostolic and missionary witness. How are we living and how are we going out into the world with the gospel? Here we are concluding day one. As a takeaway, that question that we asked at the very beginning of the day is the question we continue to ask. What is God's plan for human beings? What is God's plan? Not just for humanity in general. What's God's plan for you and for me? That plan is to know Him and to share intimately in His life. By that knowledge, we're moved by love of God to share that, to share Him with everyone we meet in whatever way we can. That's the call, that's the challenge, that's the invitation that we're starting on this first day of the Catechism in a year. You guys, this is going to be a long journey, but I know that you can make it. I know that we all can. So stick with it. Keep pressing playing for it. Oh, man, keep praying for me.

I'll be praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Hi there. I just wanted to hop in real quick to tell you about a great way to listen to both Bible in a Year and Catechism in a Year. It's called the Ascension app. Not only does the app contain the entirety of both podcasts, it also includes transcripts of each episode, the full text of the Great Adventure Bible and the Ascension Catechism, over 1,000 answers to tough Bible questions we couldn't get to in the podcast, bonus content from the Bible and your companion, and so much more. This app really enhances the experience of the podcast and helps you get more out of the Bible and Catechism. I highly encourage you to check it out in the App Store. Just search Ascension app or text the letters APP to the number 7131-1 to get a download link sent directly to your phone. Thank you so much again for being part of this community and God bless.