The Catechism in a Year Companion,
Volume III Days 244-365
Petroc Willey
ISBN 9781954882669
eISBN 9781954882676
ASIN
I completed the Catechism in a Year in 2023, now in 2024 I am working through it a second time with these companions. I loved the three volumes of the The Bible in a Year Companion, Volume I, Volume II, Volume III and have greatly appreciated the first two volumes in this series.
The description of this volume states:
“Get even more out of The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)!
The Catechism in a Year Companion takes Catholics through the chart-topping podcast The Catechism in a Year (CIY) with daily summaries, transcripts of Fr. Mike’s daily prayers, and extra content for each episode.
It’s the perfect way to remember what you’re hearing and to learn even more about each section of the Catechism!
The Companion presents daily content for each episode of the podcast, including:
• The proprietary Catechism in a Year Reading Plan
• “Reflect on the Faith,” where readers will find a summary of the key points and highlights of Fr. Mike’s commentary on the daily passages
• “Take It to Prayer,” where Catholics will be able to pray the daily prayer alongside Fr. Mike and the rest of the CIY community
• “Dive Deeper,” which features unique content related to each day’s readings, from images and Q&As to prayer prompts and ways to live out the teachings of the Church in the day-to-day
In addition to the daily content, each volume of the Companion will provide an introduction and review for the sections of the Catechism it covers. Written by Dr. Petroc Willey, Professor of Theology and Catechetics at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and Ann Koshute, these sections will offer Catholics a preview of the days ahead and a recap of the days completed.
Volume III of The Catechism in a Year Companion covers days 245–365 of The Catechism in a Year podcast.
This sought-after guide to the chart-topping podcast The Catechism in a Year is coming to you thanks to many collaborators, including:
• Fr. Mike Schmitz
• Dr. Petroc Willey
• Matthew Doeing
• Ann Koshute
• and more!”
And father Mike states in the introduction:
“IGod wants to be involved in our lives.
What is our response to that?
After all, “God loves you” is not just a nice thing to say. It is true, and that means a number of things.
For one, it means that you matter. Even if your life hasn’t turned out the way you had hoped; even if you haven’t been loved in the way you long for; even if your life seems smaller and less significant than other people’s lives … you matter. The God who made this world and “all things visible and invisible” also made you. And he made you on purpose and he made you for a purpose. Because of that, we can choose to either live “off purpose” or we can choose to live “on purpose.” Every time we say no to God’s will in our lives, we are choosing to drift away from the reason for which God made us. Every time we say no to God’s will in our lives, we are refusing to accept the truth that we matter and what we do matters to God.
In these final two pillars of the Catechism, we are faced with one monumental choice: either to accept and embrace the fact that we matter to God or to resent this truth and rebel against God’s will for our lives.
In these sections of the Catechism, we will hear that the God who made you and me wants us to follow him in a particular way. He does not want us to wander aimlessly, just attempting to figure life out as we go along. He cares about you and me too much for that.
Now, we can hear the commands of God and view them as a straitjacket that restricts our freedom. Or we can see the commands of God as the light by which he is guiding our lives to greater and greater blessing and authentic freedom.
Remember the first two pillars on the Creed and on the sacraments. This God to whom we have been introduced actually loves you. He wants the absolute best for you. He does not want to dominate or to manipulate. He simply wants your best. Therefore, he gives us the commandments because they are the best for us. And he further calls us into a life of prayer because he wants our hearts to be united to his heart.
As we enter into these final sections, do not forget this fact: the God who made you on purpose also gave us the Church so that we can know, for all time, that we matter to God … and how we live in this world matters to God.”
Each day contains the same three sections:
Reflect on the Faith
Take It to Prayer
Dive Deeper
But they very greatly in length. Reflect on the Faith is a summary of Fr. Mike’s commentary for the day. Take It to Prayer, you will pray along with Fr. Mike every day. The Dive deeper section varies greatly sometimes it includes and image , some a prayer prompt, some a challenge to live out. Each section also contains and introduction and overview by Dr. Petroc Willey, it includes teachings on the significance of the colour coding, key teachings and breakdown of sections and chapters. Also Dr. Willey offers a review at the end of each section.
A sample day is:
“DAY 277: Agnosticism and Graven Images
Reflect on the Faith
•There are different ways of falling into agnosticism. Some agnostics accept the idea of some kind of deity, while others simply claim there is no proof that God is real.
•With agnosticism, some decide that they can never know whether there is a God, while others simply do not care.
•“Agnosticism is all too often equivalent to practical atheism” (CCC 2128). If we accept that God exists, we should not live as though there is no God.
•The forbidding of graven images is part of the First Commandment, which rejects making any image of God.
•However, God sometimes allowed the creation of symbolic images that represented the saving of his people.
•The Incarnation of Christ is a revelation of God in human form.
•The seventh ecumenical council of the Church, held in Nicaea, explained why honoring images of Our Lord, Our Lady, and other holy beings is good because of the Incarnation.
•The deference we show to a holy card or a statue is for the person or being who is represented, not for the item itself. It is similar to the respect and affection we might have for a photo of a loved one.
•“The duty to offer God authentic worship” comes from the First Commandment, including belief, hope, love, adoration, prayer, and carrying out promises (CCC 2136).
Take It to Prayer
Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much for bringing us here to this moment, to this day, to day 277. Thank you. Also, Lord, thank you for bringing us to a place past not knowing, past being uncertain, past being “I’m not sure,” or even, Lord God, in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of not being sure, thank you for bringing us to a place where we can declare, “God, I know you are,” and “God, I know you are good.” Thank you for bringing us to this place of faith so that we can’t be—we’re not merely stuck in that place of not knowing. Lord God, you surround us with beauty. Help us to see you in beautiful things but not to stop in those beautiful created things but look through them to see you, Lord God. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Dive Deeper
What is a “graven image”?
During the Exodus, the Israelites, who had just been freed from slavery in Egypt, grew impatient waiting for Moses to return from Mount Sinai where he received the Ten Commandments from the Lord. So they created their own image of God in the form of a golden calf (see Exodus 32:1–9). The Israelites decided that their “god” should be an image of their own creation rather than the true God. God knew that his people—and we—would be tempted to grow impatient and stray from him, wanting him to be like us and turning to images of him of our own making—idols. The problem of the “graven” (formed or sculpted) image is that it reflects our view of what we want God to be, not the truth of who he truly is. In other words, we make our image of him into an idol. This is very different from the honor we give beautiful icons, statues, and paintings of Jesus or the saints. By the Incarnation, Jesus reveals the true image of God, allowing for artistic representations that help us draw closer to God and glorify him in all truth.
Key reading: St. John Damascene, On Holy Images; Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, May 6, 2009.”
Another sample day is:
“DAY 304: Male and Female
Reflect on the Faith
•God could have made us like the angels, but when he made human beings, he made them male and female.
•Since we are created in the image of God, who is love, we are called to love. Because he made us this way, we can do this, and we are responsible for doing this.
•The first command that God gave to the human race was to procreate, that the love in coming together as male and female would create more life.
•As you walk through life as a woman or as you walk through life as a man, your life is touched in every way by your womanhood or manhood.
•Your body matters. The human being is a body-soul composite.
•Every human person is either male or female.
•Even though the soul is not biological, the soul is so deeply united to the body that gender cannot be separated from the whole person. So a person’s gender is derived specifically from his or her biological body that he or she is born with, and it extends to the whole person.
•“Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity” (CCC 2333). If someone has a male body, he is a man; if someone has a female body, she is a woman.
•Men and women are not the same, and they complete each other.
•Men, you are good as you are made. Women, you are good as you are made.
•We walk forward with confidence not in ourselves but in what Christ’s plan is in our lives and what his plan is for the salvation of the world.
Catechism Paragraphs 2331–2336
Take It to Prayer
Father in heaven, we give you praise, and we thank you. I thank you for bringing us to this day. Thank you for bringing us to this moment. Thank you for bringing us to this sixth of your commandments. We ask that you please open our hearts, open our minds to be able to accept, to receive your teaching, to receive your commands, to receive your guidance, and to receive the wisdom of what it is not just to be human, but to be male and female, what it is to have a body and to live in that body. Lord God, we ask you to please pay attention to our prayers. Pay heed to our prayers. Lord God, meet us especially in places of woundedness and places where we’ve failed, in places where we need your grace, whether that be your grace of mercy and forgiveness or your grace of just strengthening, encouragement, hope in the midst of discouragement. Lord God, meet every person who’s listening to these words right now. Meet them with your grace, and give them yourself. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Dive Deeper
As Catholics, how should we view the current social trend concerning gender identity?
In the opening paragraph to its third part, “Life in Christ,” the Catechism urges us to remember who we truly are and to recognize our dignity (see CCC 1691). This is placed right at the beginning of the part because of its importance: everything in the Christian life hinges on this recognition, and the journey toward understanding our amazing dignity will take our whole life. We were in the mind of God “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4), and he pronounced our creation to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31). We are each a beloved child of the Father, a unique, unrepeatable person whose worth is so great that God the Son gave his life to bring us safely home to the Father. We can therefore trust the good God with our identity, for he has bestowed on us an unimaginable greatness (see Psalm 8). Our creation is intended, not a mistake. And being a man or a woman is an essential and unalterable part of the good identity God intended for us.
Key readings: CCC 356–357, 362–364, 369–370, 1691, 2333–2335”
I hope those sample chapters gives you a feel for each of this days in this companion.
This is an excellent resource from Father Mike and Ascension. Most days I have listened to the pod cast in the morning. And then on my first coffee break at work, I read through the day. I love praying the pray that Father Mike prayed that day, and I love the going deeper sections. I believe this is a must have resource to support your Catechism in a Year journey. This is my second time through the podcast and I see it being a frequent journey going forward. If you are listening to the CIAY pick this up as a supplement to that journey. And if you are looking for something to read next look into the Sunday Homilies Series from Ascension by Father Mike.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan!
Books By Father Mike Schmitz:
Made for Love: Same-Sex Attraction and the Catholic Church
The Sunday Homilies:
Set Apart: Living for Heaven Here on Earth
…
Contributed to:
Pray, Decide, and Don't Worry: Five Steps to Discerning God's Will
Don't Be Afraid to Say Yes to God! Pope Francis Speaks to Young People
…
Audio Talks by Father Mike Schmitz:
Living Life by Design, Not by Default
Love - Sacrifice - Trust He Showed Us the Way
From Love, By Love, For Love
True Worship
The Four Last Things
Jesus Is …
Changed Forever - The Sacrament of Baptism
We Must Go Out - The Sacrament of Confirmation
…
Books by Petroc Willey:
A Year with the Catechism: 365 Day Reading Plan
Become What You Are: The Call and Gift of Marriage
The Pedagogy of God: Its Centrality in Catechesis and Catechist Formation
The Joy of the Gospel: A Companion Guide to Evangelii Gaudium
…
