Day 210: The Sacrament of Holy Orders (2026)
episode
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
17 min
1 speaker
5 chapters
transcribed 2 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, my name is Fr.
What sections of the Catechism are we reading today (paragraphs 1533–1538)?
We're reading paragraphs 1533 to 1538. We're just starting a new section on the sacraments of mission, sacraments of at the service of the community, holy orders and matrimony.
What are the 'Sacraments at the Service of Communion' and why do they matter?
So good. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a foundations of faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com. You can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Also, speaking of notifications, I want to make a little note myself, a note to thank all of you who have supported the production of this podcast with your prayers and financial gifts. could not do this without you. We could not get to day 210 without you. Also, I know I mentioned this yesterday, but it kind of is a big deal.
It seems like a really big deal for me. It is a big deal to me, but it seems like a big deal that anyone, I mean, that here we are on day 210 and you keep pressing play. So good. Incredible. We have 155 days left, right? That's good math. I think that's good math. And yet we're way, way, way past the halfway mark. This is good. We're cooking with gasoline right now, as some people say. I don't know. I've heard it said. We're just hitting chapter three, the last section on the sacraments. And then after this is how we live. What does that moral life look like? How do I live like Jesus Christ in this world? But today we're going to launch into the sacraments at the service of communion. And so A couple of things to keep in mind.
We're going to be talking about, obviously, let's look at the first three sacraments, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist. We talked about that. The other two sacraments we just covered on sacraments of healing are those anointing of the sick and sacrament of reconciliation. These last two sacraments, holy orders and matrimony, are directed not necessarily toward our own salvation. They're directed toward the salvation of others. I love this in paragraph 1534. If they do contribute to personal salvation, it's through service to others that they do so, right? So it's almost like the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That God gives out his gifts of his Holy Spirit for the buildup of the church. It's actually meant to be for others.
And yet when a person exercises them faithfully, just like when a person exercises any gift faithfully, we grow in holiness, right? Because if we're saying yes to the Lord in the exercise of any gift, whether that gift be writing, reading, teaching, serving, doctoring, lawyering, garbage picking up, or mighty works, prophecy, words of knowledge, all those things, whenever we're using God's gifts for God, it sanctifies us. In this same way, in a similar way, we'll say it like that. Holy orders and matrimony, those are not sacraments for the person who receives the sacrament, right? They're not the sacrament for the married couple or for the priest or bishop or deacon. They're the sacrament for the building up of people.
It's that sense of, I like to say it like this, that the two sacraments are sacraments of discipleship. There are two ways, not the only two ways, but there are two ways in which the Christian goes out into the world. We're going to start here today with the sacrament of holy orders after the first three paragraphs. We're just going to launch two paragraphs in. I do want to make a note that at the end of paragraph 1536 on holy orders, it will remind us that way, way back in paragraphs 874, we talked about the institution and mission of that apostolic ministry. We talked about how the church is apostolic, all of that. And we talked about that then. So this is like a big connection between that moment starting in paragraph 874 and this moment starting in these paragraphs, paragraphs 1533 and following.
That's where we're at. So that's what we're going to talk about now. Gosh, that's a lot of words. Let's say a prayer and let's launch in.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–0:27
2
What sections of the Catechism are we reading today (paragraphs 1533–1538)?
0:27–0:40
3
What are the 'Sacraments at the Service of Communion' and why do they matter?
0:40–10:36
4
How do Holy Orders and Matrimony differ from the sacraments of initiation?
10:36–11:20
5
Why are Holy Orders and Matrimony described as 'directed toward the salvation of others'?
11:20–17:17