A year with “A Catechism in a Year Podcast”

“You’re reading the Catechism?” That was my incredulous reaction, over twenty years ago, to a college friend who was in the midst of a cover-to-cover reading of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism, I thought, was a reference book, a depository of facts that, with the help of its excellent index, provided a springboard for understanding Church teaching more deeply. It was not meant to be read straight through—it was not a story.

In 2023, the Catechism in a Year Podcast (CIY) proved me wrong.

The Catechism is a story, the story, as stated daily in each CIY episode’s introduction, “of God’s plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith.” In this story, the introduction continues, we discover “our identity in God’s family as we journey together to our heavenly home.” What God’s plan is and how we make this journey form the plot of the Catechism in which 2865 paragraphs covering every aspect of the Catholic faith find their unity.

To help showcase the Catechism as a story rather than a mere reference book, Ascension took the standard text of the Catechism that is widely available in print and online and color-coded it according to its four “pillars,” or parts: divine revelation and the creed, worship and sacraments, the moral life, and prayer. A foldout insert presents these four pillars, along with each’s subareas: sections, then chapters, then articles, so that, at a mere glance, the “plot” of the Catechism is immediately apparent. In the book itself, before each article, there are boxes that list the upcoming sources referenced (biblical and ecclesiastical) as well as key terms (from simple ones like “homily” to fancier ones like “epiclesis”). These features, along with running section and sub-section headings, comprise the Ascension Edition of the Catechism’s “foundations of faith approach.” What was once a daunting reference book is now a user-friendly and visually appealing textbook.

Yet the physical book is ancillary to the CIY, which is the reading of the Catechism in its entirety, divided over 365 days. Each day begins with a preview of the day’s four-to-ten chosen paragraphs, the reading of the paragraphs themselves, and then a brief, thoughtful commentary with practical import on these paragraphs.

The charm of the CIY, as with its predecessor, the Bible in a Year Podcast, is the passion, love, humor, and genuine faithfulness of its narrator Father Mike Schmitz.

As Father Mike repeats throughout the year, the purpose of the CIY is not “information transfer.” It is, rather, about transforming our hearts to make them more like Christ’s own heart. “All of the Catechism is meant to affect our lives. It is meant to bring us to a place of conversion,” Father Mike says on the final day.

Each of the four pillars plays a role in hastening our transformations. The first, on God’s revelation, presents God’s mind-boggling love for us and His plan to save us. The second, on worship and sacraments, explains how we come into direct contact with God as we praise Him for His goodness. The third, on the moral life, teaches us how to live in a way worthy of God. The fourth, on prayer, instructs us on how to open our hearts to God so that we may live in union with Him. If we keep the Catechism at a distance, and let it resonate only in our heads but not change our hearts, then, as Father Mike—who is also the author of Made for Love (Ignatius Press, 2017)—says with heartfelt emotion, also on the last day, “we may be wasting this incredible opportunity. Because God loves you so much. You need to know that.”

The last day is not the only day that emotion seizes Father Mike’s voice. When speaking about Mary as the mother of the Church (“We give God praise because she is not only the mother of the Church; she is your mom, and she is my mom. And so we are grateful, so grateful.”) and when recalling his recently deceased mother when discussing the duties of parents, Father Mike’s inspiring zeal for God and for souls cuts through the speakers.

Each day, Father Mike’s commentary is deeply spiritual and sensible. He meets his listeners where they are—surrounded by a world that has abandoned God—to lift them out of the malaise and into the relationship with God that we were made for. Following the challenges issued by the Catechism, he repeatedly challenges us to reject sinful practices and to give more of ourselves to God. On numerous occasions, especially during the third pillar on the moral life, he calls the Catechism’s words “convicting” in the sense of “admonishing.”

“Every one of these Commandments has something convicting us,” he says on Day 283. “Convicted” is also used in the sense of “strong religious belief,” as with the Third Commandment, for example: “You might be someone who is convicted, very convicted, deeply convicted about the need, the necessity to live up to the obligation, the commandment to go to Mass every single Sunday.” The two senses of the word point to the purpose of the CIY: to transform hearts in and by the truth of Christ as taught by His Church.

Indeed, Father Mike’s most convicting insights come when discussing the Ten Commandments, though his commentary on prayer is not far behind. Catechism 2059 declares, “The gift of the Commandments is the gift of God Himself and his Holy will.” To this, on Day 270, Father Mike adds:

These Commandments are coming from the heart of God and they reveal the heart of God. That’s why we say, ‘Lord, I love your law.’… If God didn’t care about us, He wouldn’t care what we do…. But God, in revealing His law to us, in revealing His will to us, He has also revealed that, actually, you matter. Your choices matter. Your life matters.

Each of the sins against the Sixth Commandment that the world today calls good, Father Mike refutes in no uncertain terms.

CIY also reveals Father Mike’s deep love for the Catholic Church, which grows contagious from his fervent belief. When discussing the nature of the Church (Days 114-128), when analyzing the First Commandment and the “social duty of religion” (Day 274), and when discussing “our daily bread” in the Lord’s prayer (Day 362), he makes stirring appeals to embrace the gift of Catholicism and for non-Catholic listeners to join the Church. I found his concluding commentary on Day 274 particularly moving: “Catholicism is God’s gift to the world. Is that bold to say that? Is that arrogant to say that? I don’t think so. But if God Himself established a religion, then why would we keep it to ourselves? If this is true and this is good and this is beautiful, then we have to bring it to the public square. That is the social duty of religion.”

In addition to Father Mike, a different expert introduces each of the four pillars in dialogue with him. Jeff Cavins, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Dr. Mary Healy, and Sister Miriam James Heidland each preview the forthcoming key ideas. The conversations with Healy and Heidland on the two pillars most likely to scare contemporary listeners away—the moral life and prayer—are so powerful that I recommend inviting those skeptical of the faith to start with these two (Days 230 and 328) before igniting Day 1.

With so many people seeking meaning and purpose in a dreary secular world, and with too many Catholics at a loss for why their faith and their Church are the way to Christ, the CIY provides both information and motivation to generate a transformation of heart that can set the world ablaze. If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Allow Him to convict you.