The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

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What's The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast about?

Faith, pop culture, and headline reflections from Fr. Mike Schmitz.

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LAST EPISODE

“Is This a Sin?”

01.14.2021

If you begin to sin but don’t follow all the way through… is it still a sin? It depends. We’re offered two different scenarios. In one, the person is prevented from sinning due to external factors that make it impractical ...

The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast episodes:

01.14.2021 “Is This a Sin?” If you begin to sin but don’t follow all the way through… is it still a sin? It depends. We’re offered two different scenarios. In one, the person is prevented from sinning due to external factors that make it impractical ...
01.07.2021 What It Truly Means to Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin What do you think of when you hear the phrase, “Love the sinner, hate the sin”? To some, maybe it’s something that their parents would say to them when they heard them gossiping. Maybe it’s something you were taught in ...
12.31.2020 Struggle Is Necessary It may sound counterintuitive, but choosing the harder path may make our life easier. Here’s why: When caterpillars go into their cocoons for hibernation, they struggle against the barrier of the cocoon for months on end, trying to get out. ...
12.25.2020 If You Think This Year Was Supposed to Be Different We might have had different plans for this year, but were they really supposed to happen? We all wonder whether we’re actually following God’s will for us, but the reality is that, unless we are directly going against the Lord ...
12.17.2020 The Most Important Part of Any Conversation It’s those last five minutes of conversation with someone that makes them feel like a number or like a known and loved individual. We’ve all had conversations that makes us feel like the other person doesn’t really care to be ...
12.10.2020 Answering Your Questions About Mary and Her Immaculate Conception Truly loving Mary will never lessen our faith in God, or take attention away from Christ. Here’s why: The Church has 4 dogmas regarding our Blessed Mother. They are… Jesus gave Mary to all of us as our Mother during ...
12.03.2020 When You Don’t Understand the Bible Oftentimes in Christian media we see what Fr. Mike dubs a “Hallmark” version of following Christ. There’s struggle and hardship, but then God’s grace comes in and cures everything, making everything nearly perfect for the characters in the story. While ...
11.26.2020 The Absolute Necessity of Saying "Thank You" When was the last time you told God “thank you”? We live in an extremely hectic world, full of distractions, complaining, and longing for things we don’t have. And while it can be good to look at the things we ...
11.19.2020 Let Yourself Wrestle with God Have you ever felt like God really wanted you to do something, but you just weren’t ready for it? Maybe it’s a big life change, a relationship, or a vocation, but there’s something holding you back from saying yes to ...
11.13.2020 Living Life Through the Lens of Scripture We all see the world through our own lens. The media we partake of—the news we read, the podcasts we listen to, the videos we watch—shapes that lens. But Fr. Mike says there’s one thing that should be shaping our ...
11.05.2020 The Virtue That Takes Virtue to the Next Level Fr. Mike introduces us to the virtue that makes other virtues excellent: magnanimity. If someone asked you what the most essential virtues are, you might say humility, faith, hope, or love. But have you ever heard of the virtue of ...
10.29.2020 Regret vs. Repentance Fr. Mike talks about how to regret things we’ve done without staying stuck in the past. Have you ever heard the saying “don’t regret the past, because it’s made you into the person you are today?” Maybe you’ve heard something ...
10.22.2020 Why Married Couples Must Be Open to Children Do you have any “expectations” when you think about marriage? A lot of us probably think of marriage as broadly the same thing: two people coming together in love to spend the rest of their lives together. But when we ...
10.15.2020 Why You Can’t Put Your Faith in People Have you ever been shaken by a scandal in the Church? It’s hard not to have been, especially amidst scandals on a major scale or ones involving people we’ve looked up to and loved. When these things come to light, ...
10.08.2020 Why Are We So Divided Right Now? Is it just us, or does the world seem a bit divided right now? Human beings were not only created with a unique purpose, but also created to live in community. However, there are two things that can disrupt this ...
10.01.2020 Which Is Better? The Rosary vs. The Chaplet “What if I don’t have time to pray both The Rosary and The Divine Mercy Chaplet?” Deciding how to spend your time in prayer can be difficult, especially when you’re deciding between two powerhouse prayers like The Rosary and The ...
09.24.2020 Is It Ever Okay to Give Up? You may have seen the movie Rudy. Its eponymous protagonist is a not-so-athletic college football player who spent years taking hits and practicing with his team, only to see a few moments on the field. Those short moments, however, left ...
09.10.2020 The Real Answer to Why God Allows Suffering Playing a video game called Injustice helps Fr. Mike explain the real answer to why God allows suffering. In Injustice, Superman becomes a totalitarian dictator in his attempt to try and eliminate evil. Batman tries to tell him, in trying ...
09.03.2020 What It’s Really Like to Be a Catholic Speaker Many people ask Fr. Mike, “How do you become a Catholic speaker?” The quick answer is “Get baptized and start talking.” Of course this implies that you live out the promises of your baptism. When you do that, people will ...
08.27.2020 How to Get Real Friends How many real friends do you have? Honestly, many people we call friends would probably better qualify as pals or buddies. The first step to getting real friends is to recognize how we are all made to be gifts of ...
08.20.2020 If You’re Not Feeling Loved If you’re not feeling loved by someone you love, take courage in the story of Leah in Genesis. Jacob, Leah’s husband, did not love her. In fact, what’s even worse, he loved her sister, Rachel, instead. Leah named her first ...
08.13.2020 Freedom from the Fear of Death Wearing masks, not wearing masks, and all the mixed emotions that have come with the coronavirus reveal that—as a society—we lack freedom from the fear of death. Maybe you know someone who has died from the virus, or someone who ...
08.06.2020 Believing in a God Who Allows Evil It may sound foolish to believe in a God who allows evil, tragedy, suffering, and disasters. But God never promised to rid the world of these things. He promised us hope: “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love ...
07.30.2020 Why Are Some People So Annoying? We all have pet peeves. We all get annoyed by things that really don’t matter much, whether it’s someone chewing with their mouth open, or someone whispering the Rosary in an Adoration chapel—which are two things that used to be ...
07.23.2020 How Certain Is Your Faith? Is your faith certain enough to stand up against the doubts and different ideas out there? Fr. Mike shares insight about certainty from Dr. Montague Brown, professor of philosophy at St. Anselm College, New Hampshire. Dr. Brown says certainty is ...
07.16.2020 Who You Are vs. Who You’re Called to Be Fr. Mike recalls the speed math tests he took in second and third grade. He finished them in decent time, but his cousin—who was in the same class—finished them way faster. In fact, his cousin was the fastest in his ...
07.09.2020 How to Share the Gospel (and How Not To) If you want to know how to share the gospel, it’s important to have the love and courage to not just give answers and corrections, but to ask questions. It is in asking questions from the heart that you convey ...
07.02.2020 Striving vs. Abiding In the spiritual life, it’s difficult to know whether striving to do God’s will or just abiding in him is better. But why can’t we do both? Fr. Mike tells the story of a perpetually active student athlete. His inability ...
06.25.2020 Finding Balance in Your Walk with Jesus Rigidity and laxity are difficult obstacles to avoid when trying to find balance in your faith life. When we treat Christianity as a project, that leads to rigidity. When we treat Christianity like a projection, that leads to laxity. If ...
06.18.2020 Make Small Sacrifices for a Big Change Making small sacrifices is not just for Lent, because sacrifices and penance are necessary. As Christ said: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). And ...
06.11.2020 Family: Your Shortcut to Holiness Fr. Mike explains how being at home with our family is one of God’s favorite ways to make us holy—if we are honest about the areas where we need to grow in our relationships with family members. Fr. Mike has ...
06.04.2020 Special Episode: Reconciling the Body of Christ (with Fr. Josh Johnson) In today’s special podcast, Fr. Mike Schmitz sits down with Fr. Josh Johnson to discuss racial division in the Church and how Catholics can strive to restore unity in the Body of Christ. Fr. Josh emphasizes that he is not ...
05.28.2020 How to Practice the Presence of God Throughout the Gospels Jesus says, “Remain in me” or “abide in me,” which—in simplified terms—means whatever you do, invite Jesus along. Ask him to “come with.” This is a way to grow in your relationship with him, but it’s also ...
05.21.2020 The Benefit of the Doubt When someone says something hurtful to you, it is wise to give them the benefit of the doubt. What does that mean? It means ask yourself, “Do I firmly believe that this is a person of good will?” If so, ...
05.14.2020 How Do You Pray with the Bible? You know you should be praying. But do you ever wish someone would show you how? Fr. Mike starts by showing us how to pray with the Bible with a time-honored method called lectio divina. For full shownotes, please go ...
05.07.2020 The Christian Solution to Vanity Vanity is not what many people think it is. It can come in many forms, and is not necessarily an infatuation with yourself. Vanity is an inordinate preoccupation with what other people think about you—which is different. It’s important, to ...
04.30.2020 4 Essentials for Every Catholic In a previous episode, Fr. Mike said that all Catholics grow in the same “soil” together, but the fruit we bear is unique. But what is this common soil? What are the essentials for every Catholic Christian? “And they devoted ...
04.23.2020 How to Deal with Your Partner’s Sexual Sin Fr. Mike talks about how to navigate discussions with your partner about sexual sin—whether it’s pornography, masturbation, or other impurity. It’s important to realize that sometimes a person doesn’t have a right to know everything about you immediately. Keeping this ...
04.16.2020 Have You Mastered the Basics of Your Faith? Fr. Mike makes the case that, before you claim a certain “style” in practicing the faith, you have to master the basics. He tells a story about when he was learning guitar. The teacher told his students to hold their ...
04.09.2020 Healing from the Wound of Sin Fr. Mike explains how even partial healing from the wound of sin is still worth the effort. Don’t give up just because you know your sins will leave some stains and scars. God’s mercy can do amazing things in your ...
04.02.2020 Does God Ever Lead Us into Temptation? When we pray “lead us not into temptation”, it may seem like God has the capacity to tempt us. But that’s not the case. God does not tempt us, but he can and sometimes must put us through tests. Here ...
03.26.2020 God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways Fr. Mike describes exactly how God works with us, even though God’s ways are not our ways. It’s like when a person you’re living with asks “What do you want for dinner?” and you say, “Whatever you want.” He then ...
03.19.2020 How Should Catholics Respond to the Coronavirus Pandemic? Fr. Mike gives us some advice about how we should respond to the coronavirus pandemic. He begins with the story of the recent pilgrimage he took to Israel amid the coronavirus outbreak. Israeli authorities were quarantining people in the country ...
03.12.2020 Offering Up Your Inconveniences A great way to make this Lent even better spiritually is to offer up not only something you chose, but also to offer up your inconveniences. Give God those moments when you’re stuck in traffic, or when someone says something ...
03.05.2020 How to Start Strong and Stay Strong Starting strong is easy, but staying strong—perseverance—is a mark of holiness. It’s easy to be excited about a new relationship, ministry, job, or school, but enduring through the dull times when that newness wears off is difficult. Fr. Mike is ...
02.27.2020 How to Live This Lent for Others Lent is about transformation, but that transformation will be incomplete if we make it about ourselves. Instead of aiming for self-mastery alone this Lent, what is the key to living this Lent for others? In 2 Samuel 7, when King ...
02.20.2020 Why Isn’t Ash Wednesday a Holy Day of Obligation? Why is Ash Wednesday not a holy day of obligation? A holy day is a day that has been consecrated for God, so in that sense Ash Wednesday is a holy day. At the heart of a holy day of ...
02.13.2020 When Your Desires and God’s Plans Are Different Just because you desire something deeply doesn’t mean it’s God’s plans for you. Sometimes our desires and God’s will are different. Our desires are not predictors of the future and they’re not the voice of God. We are supposed to ...
02.06.2020 Even More Questions from the Internet about Priests Fr. Mike follows up on his episode “Answering the Internet’s Most Asked Questions about Priests” with answers to even more questions from the internet about priests. Here he answers questions like: How do you bless holy water? Are priests allowed ...
02.04.2020 BONUS: Telling the Story of God’s Love Fr. Mike speaks about evangelization, new media, and telling the story of God’s love at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. Addressing future pastors, he tells them “the heart of your formation is to become a dad” to your parishioners. ...

Older episodes

The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast

What's The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast episodes:

“Is This a Sin?”

What It Truly Means to Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin

Struggle Is Necessary

If You Think This Year Was Supposed to Be Different

The Most Important Part of Any Conversation

Answering Your Questions About Mary and Her Immaculate Conception

When You Don’t Understand the Bible

The Absolute Necessity of Saying "Thank You"

Let Yourself Wrestle with God

Living Life Through the Lens of Scripture

The Virtue That Takes Virtue to the Next Level

Regret vs. Repentance

Why Married Couples Must Be Open to Children

Why You Can’t Put Your Faith in People

Why Are We So Divided Right Now?

Which Is Better? The Rosary vs. The Chaplet

Is It Ever Okay to Give Up?

The Real Answer to Why God Allows Suffering

What It’s Really Like to Be a Catholic Speaker

How to Get Real Friends

If You’re Not Feeling Loved

Freedom from the Fear of Death

Believing in a God Who Allows Evil

Why Are Some People So Annoying?

How Certain Is Your Faith?

Who You Are vs. Who You’re Called to Be

How to Share the Gospel (and How Not To)

Striving vs. Abiding

Finding Balance in Your Walk with Jesus

Make Small Sacrifices for a Big Change

Family: Your Shortcut to Holiness

Special Episode: Reconciling the Body of Christ (with Fr. Josh Johnson)

How to Practice the Presence of God

The Benefit of the Doubt

How Do You Pray with the Bible?

The Christian Solution to Vanity

4 Essentials for Every Catholic

How to Deal with Your Partner’s Sexual Sin

Have You Mastered the Basics of Your Faith?

Healing from the Wound of Sin

Does God Ever Lead Us into Temptation?

God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways

How Should Catholics Respond to the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Offering Up Your Inconveniences

How to Start Strong and Stay Strong

How to Live This Lent for Others

Why Isn’t Ash Wednesday a Holy Day of Obligation?

When Your Desires and God’s Plans Are Different

Even More Questions from the Internet about Priests

BONUS: Telling the Story of God’s Love

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