How to Improve Your Prayer Life (with Fr Mike Schmitz) | Colloquy #1

hey you're very welcome to colloquy a series by cult amore I'm Katy ASCO and today I'm joined by father Mike Schmitz he's a college chaplain at the University of Minnesota Duluth and he's a very well-known priest in the Catholic world our conversation is all about contemplative prayer and how to reach yourself in an interior life please enjoy today we're talking about contemplative prayer but first father might could you just talk to us about the importance of prayer in general why is it important to pray yeah no thank you so much that's a great question because I mean it's one of those things where I think that uh I think it's a lot like exercise or eating your vegetables like a huh that's people like no I know I should be I think it's very rare for a person who is who is a father faithful faithful follower of Christ to do not understand it should not realize that they should be praying every day I think we all kind of get that it's just like you know yeah I give it I should be moving every day I should be exercising I should be eating right I understand that sometimes we approach it with those same kind of the mentality as those other shoulds of just kind of like is something that no one really likes doing but you have to do it anyways or it's something that you maybe you do like doing but you find it difficult to see someone up the willpower to actually get it done and so gosh and yet and yet there's in even what I just said there there's so much what I mean by that is it's not just a chore like prayer is not meant to be simply another thing to do and yet even though I know it's something I have to be doing I should be doing so many of us don't ever rarely make the time to pray in fact you know you can talk to people who like yeah and they know they're convicted in the depth of their heart that I need to be praying and like how are you praying well you know maybe before I go to bed like you know pick a pad or another you know saying our Father once a Hail Mary and you know maybe reading a chapter out of Scripture or something like that's good I said it's not a not a bad and a bad thing but also recognize that okay so what else did they also tell me is that they'll also always often fall asleep during that time I'll be super drowsy in that time and I'm like yeah well because it's really hard to stay like when you're lying in bed at the end of the day trying to read or trying to pray and so that even gives a sign of how I would like to start which is this when it comes to prayer we might know we need to do it but to what degree are we convinced that it's not just another thing we need to do you not just know that sure like exercising or eating your vegetables but it is it is giving God your first fruits like when I frame it in that context that prayer is giving God your first fruits then a lot of things change for me so what I mean by that is this there's this biblical concept going all the way back to you know the Old Testament where you get have the crop and yeah this much of the crop is you take it in but the the first of the crop you know maybe a first tenth of the crop or something like this that goes to God or you have makes you maybe raise animals and same kind of thing like the first of these animals that one goes to God it's the first fruits and to live life that way where God gets the first choice God gets whatever it is right off the top it changes things because if God gets the first fruits then um and I'm okay with that how am I going to be I have a generous heart when it comes to that is then there's less room for resentment because it's it's the end of the day right like oh gosh you know I have to pray at the end of the day God wants this last piece I can't go out with friends because of this I can't stay up later because it because this I have to go give God prayer now those are like giving God your leftovers and not only is it qualitatively giving God leftovers but also interior Lee there's that sense of ragging as I said resentment that can build up and that can become that is it inside because he's taking something that's mine you know when you have firstfruits it's no I'm giving him something that's his and that's that's the concept that firstfruits is that oh no this whole thing is belongs to him but he only wants me to give a little piece of it back to him and and again just can I'll stop after this little piece but when we have this those firstfruits mentality verses the leftovers mentality is that I look at my day 24 hours in this day and every single second of it is his but he I'll just no no you I'm gonna let you have like stewardship over all of it as part of that I'd like you to share a portion of that with me hey so here's God who's bequeathed us with 24 hours every day says no every second belongs to me but I'm gonna let you be the steward of that every one of those seconds and I'm just asking that you share at least a part of that with me and so it's helpful for me to do that right away like to have that sense of like the one of the very first things in the course of the day it's not the first thing in the day first for me personally the first thing I do every day is is exercise but after that is that time of like the firstfruits gift to the Lord and because the great thing about that is once I get that first fruits and give that to him is any other time during the day where I'm drawn into prayer invited to stop and pray it gets to be like extra gets to be just like out of joy it gets to be like I don't have you ever had this experience where like maybe you are training for something and you got that work I've done but later on you're like it's cool for a walk like yeah I just get to just enjoy the fact that I get to go outside today I get to enjoy the fact that I can move either this isn't this isn't training this is an exercise this is just for fun and same thing is the case for prayer when I give God those first fruits any other time in the course of the day is like this is just because I have a relationship with the Living God and I get to actually walk in that relationship at any moment and he's that got the first fruits already and that's that's like great group fantastic but now everything else is just gets to be the joy of living in relationship with God which again coming back to this is it's not like exercise or dieting in that sense was just there's something I have to do it's good for me it's not just a chore it's not just a burden it's not just an expectation or a duty it's I get to be and relate I mean if you ever stop to think that the god of the universe who I mean just he's literally infinitely more than us for no reason other than he loves us personally wants us to spend time with him but just makes a canna makes no sense if you really stop and think about it I had the only sense it makes is that he loves us and that is is I don't just why would we not want to spend time with a God like that I absolutely love that and I think you actually already touched on it yourself but I think one of the biggest questions Catholics have when it comes to prayer is quality versus quantity so I think with very good intentions we can ask ourselves like should I pray for an hour every day knowing that for most of that hour I'll probably be pretty distracted or should I try and just do 20 minutes a day when I know my attention span can definitely handle that and maybe to be more focused or attentive prayer so how would you advise someone in that situation yeah that's a great question thank you I would say that more important than duration and more important than intent or more than intensity is consistency so the key word V key word is consistency so I I do so that so that first there's gonna be the second things but the first thing is gonna be the most important thing when it comes to prayer is am i doing this regularly no not perfectly you have to have to make that that point because sometimes people think they start believing that I have a friend his name's father Ben but before father Ben it was father Ben he was just Ben and Ben had said this he told this to a group of our junior high kids at one of our camps he said he's inviting them to read their Bible and he said I have to tell you this though the hardest day to read your Bible is the day after the day you don't read your Bible same when it comes to prayer the hardest day to pray is the day after the day you don't pray because it's like life I ruined my streak you like I ruined this you know I was I was good for all week and then I I kind of I failed on Saturday and so now I don't know it's Monday again just know to be able to pick it back up and say I'm praying again that consistency not perfection but consistency is the number one number one number two would be the duration I remember when I was in high school what what do you call it you call it high school secondary school when I was in secondary school when I was in secondary school I had a conversion to the Lord and I was reading these books about Saints and I said that the Saints would spend you know hours a day in prayer and in fact there's a there's a priest from the United States his name's Archbishop Fulton sheen and fulled machine actually in in retreat for Irish priests is where I had this tape set and and he was like the strongest proponent and advocate of a one-hour holy hour every day and so like okay Wow so as high schooler like how do I make in how her and so I tried that kind of thing in turn I could do one hour on Saturday but during the school week I would have a certain amount of time and when I got to college you know I'm like okay I'm in college now there's a chapel on this campus that is open to me virtually around the clock there's no real actual reason why I can make a holy hour everyday and so that was kind of the thing it's like Archbishop Fulton sheen says Nick a holy hour actually make a holy hour Jesus says can you not watch us be one hour seems like there's something good about 60 minutes and since that was really good for me but it since then I also recognize that there were days where I didn't go to visit the buses after and I didn't go to pray because I couldn't make it a whole hour I was like only have 30 minutes while I might as well not go like that is wrong that was incorrect of me I did learn that one that if 60 minutes is too long then half an hour is wonderful and if half an hour is too long then 20 minutes is wonderful and 20 minutes is too long and 15 minutes is wonderful but it has to be long enough that I can settle myself and actually enter into prayer and that's a--that's the key thing at some point you have this this piece of like it's too short no not too short big clarification not too short in the sense that it's not worth it like only can pray for two minutes before I go to sleep I might as well not like no no no keep doing that still do that but when you're set your day up or when you're preparing for like okay how long am I gonna pray for this week or this season in my life to be able to choose a number a that can be consistent with but also a number that is that I know is gonna be long enough for it to bear fruit in my life and and what I might mean for that is I need some time I just need time to call myself I mean time to be able to like open up the word or open up a book from a saint or some spiritual reading and like not rush through it not speed through it but let it speak to me and then in a non rushed way just spend time with the Lord so yeah that's in 15 minutes then that is amazing and if that is 40 minutes that's great that's fantastic but consistency is number one and secondly it would be um after that consistency what is the amount of time that you recognize for yourself that you need to uh to not be rushed not just kind of pop in and say I choose how you doing great to hear you good to see ya okay I gotta go and then race off but to be able to actually cultivate a relationship with the Lord because that's that is going to be the key is it help I was reading an interview that you gave earlier in the year and you quoted a friend who said said something like Catholics aren't taught to pray they're taught to repeat which I thought was very interesting can you just expand on that idea for us yes yes into that question that quote I mean goes both ways in the sense that so as Catholics were not taught how to pray were taught how to repeat in in the set insofar as a cup here's the positive part of that that we are taught how tricky we're taught um first and we're taught the rope prayers that memorize the prayers and we know them really really well I mean so well that I mean there are people that I will talk to who will not have gone to confession in decades I mean 40 years who if I ask them but you know your act of contrition at the end of the can they go to confession you react to tradition yeah and they'll be able to say it like wow that's amazing that is that worked like that that that learning how to repeat worked same kind of thing when it comes to when all other memory is gone for people on their deathbed they still novi our father they still know the hell marry like that's that's not a bad thing so being taught how to repeat is a good thing in fact Jesus teaches us how to repeat not only that but in prayer sometimes I don't know what to say like that and that can be a real thing I just don't I mean that kind of Jesus I already kind of did my verbal yes I call it in America verbal vomit so I apologize I don't wanna like be gross but I was like oh the audience I'm not sure if they know this so just yeah kind of steal out the words and then it's like what else do I say now I don't know I don't know if you go in a purse you just don't have the words like I don't know how to capture this well in those cases to have memorized some prayers is beautiful it's powerful in fact I remember you know praying the Psalms as a pre sweet we make a promise about to pray the Psalms like five times a day and at first when I did not like it that's like oh my gosh here we go again and and when I realized it was that over so much time of being exposed to the Word of God that there were so many times in the Psalms where where I was really realizing okay gosh God your word is saying the words I would want to say if I had the words to say what I want to say and so to have memorized prayers is not a bad thing obviously so that's one thing but as Catholics were taught not how to pray how to repeat when it stops there though when it stops that like say this after me you know repeat after me and it ends there then we lose out on the fact that no this is supposed to be a relationship this is supposed to be an actual an experience of intimacy and experience of joy spirit of sorrow where you actually can bring your broken heart to the broken heart of Jesus like all those elements of like really being able to communicate with the Lord sometimes gets missed because oh no I was taught how to repeat but I never learned that that was meant to be a stepping stone or the beginning not the end and I think too many of us we say oh no I said my purse oh yeah everyday I say three hard fathers three Hail Marys and three glory beasts and that's I pray every day like that is wonderful and that's if that's all you can do I had to tell you um I was gonna mention this earlier there was a time in my life when I had committed to something like that like this is every day I know I can really spread those things because I mentioned that Holy Hour in college and whatnot but there's some ups and downs through the whole through that whole lot that time of my life and there were some days where like getting into bed I'm like oh shoot I haven't prayed all day I'm gonna pray those whatever they were you know three our Father sweet hell marries three and even that was I would I would I would want to encourage people to do that that sense of like even if I didn't take time away to be with the Lord at the last minute the last thought it might in my mind before I go to sleep is oh wait I haven't prayed is not to say well then that I've messed up this day I'll pray tomorrow but to jump outta bed quick kneel down and just even say those three prayers or say those four whatever the thing is because that impulse that drive that or that that tug on our hearts toward the Lord is it's always an invitation to this you can stop and say yep the rest of the day might have been a train wreck but you're not disqualified that yeah you might have even like there's some times I know so many people like I just came back from being out and I did a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have done but now the world wants me to talk to him I don't want to be hypocrite like well he does want you to talk to him and if you come approach the Lord as you actually are not as you're pretending to be did you not a hypocrite hypocrite is someone who pretends co-creating forget if someone is in pretending to come to the Lord but if you come to God the last moment of the day even after having done terrible things but you come to him as truly yourself knowing that he truly knows who you are that's not being a hypocrite that is being a weak human being who is is prone to choose sin but also has the ability to choose God so that's super encouraging encouraging for me so sorry kitty where was I be the first went on that tangent okay we were talking about how sometimes as Catholics you know we repeat instead of yes oh sorry good yes it's right and you're taking that next step is the first part okay repeating isn't awful but we're meant to like grow and it's kind of like this um do you have we have in the States occasionally we'll have these things called etiquette dinners you've ever heard of an etiquette dinner what did you what did you think of that was it like a bunch of new things or was it for you like oh this is just how you eat definitely learned a few new things but yeah a lot of it is kind of taught when you grew up in Ireland I don't know that's yeah hmm was I imagined that if you know different cultures would have different kind of like rules and so that's that's the the analogy for me is so we take our students through an etiquette that our seniors are graduating seniors in university we take them through this etiquette dinner and some of them look at it as like okay these are these rules like oh my gosh all these rules you need to hold your knife and fork like this and you can't talk like this we even have like a here's etiquette for your cocktail hour you know social hour before the dinner and everything and here's how you hold your plate and usually talk to people just kind of like a and sometimes people if they're just original initially this is the first exposure to this or even it kind of first exposure to kind of getting dressed up a little nicer and being in a more formal setting it can just feel like a bunch of rules and can just feel like a bunch of arbitrary okay do this don't do that say this don't say that but it's meant those etiquette rules are not meant to hem you in they're meant to give you a certain freedom they're meant to give you a certain confidence and they're meant to give you just a baseline and what I mean by that is if I know kind of these standards of etiquette I know like okay this is this is uh how you can approach a person at a at a cocktail party or here you proaches someone or harity push your food at at a dinner you have a freedom like oh no I'm doing I'm doing that I have freedom now because there's a I'm staying within kind of the parameters of what's I guess socially acceptable in this moment so now I can now be free to communicate how I would like to communicate I can now be free within those parameters to just relax and enjoy myself there's a there's a freedom there what I recognize here is the parameters and there's also that sense of I wanna say this I know that I remember keep questioning myself I don't have to keep questioning is what I'm doing okay is what I'm doing that okay I have a confidence and their confidence is is like no hey I'm supposed to be here and be if even if all those fails I am doing what I should be doing and there's that confidence there so think about those two elements when it comes to prayer as well they're the recite or the memorized prayers they can give us a certain kind of freedom like okay I know that these are parameters I know I can kind of speak to the Lord this way that I also can all because what happens when we pray to our Father what happens when we pray the boy baby what happens we pray the Psalms or the other pers the church gives us is we learn how to address God and and not just only in these words but like oh if there's words like this there's things that I think God asks us to talk to him in a certain way yeah come come with your sorrows come with your broken heart come to me with your needs what do you want for me like that kingdom come that will be done give us this day like oh the bring me your requests it gives us a certain freedom and also gives us a confidence that um God your infinite and I am so fine I got you know everything I don't nothing but it gives us a confidence of being able to approach God because it's you have stooped down to us and if all is fails I have these these words that aren't mine but I can make them mine so it needs to be both right so that that memorized prayer that is meant to like grow into those prayers of freedom those prayers of confidence that come from our heart but also memorize first date gets actually come from our heart too and that's that's I think the key is it's all about relationships and that makes sense because the Catechism talks about the three different major expressions of the life of prayers so the first is vocal prayer which is what we've just talked about having those wrote prayers that you can go back to that can be really comfortable and familiar I'm really really helpful then there's meditative prayer and then there's contemporary prayer which is our main topic for today and it's one of the reasons I actually really wanted to talk to you Father right because two years ago when I was training to be a focused missionary you came and visited us and you talked about divine intimacy and you said things just about prayer that really opened my eyes and have been prepped and packed in my prayer life to this day so you're talking about how contemplative prayer is the highest form of Prayer and how we can really enter into this place of rest and silence with God and I was actually very new for me because before that my prayer was mostly centered around asking God for things or wrote prayers or at least not just not with a specific emphasis on finding that place of rest and silence so can you just speak into what is contempt of prayer and why could it be regarded as say the highest form of Prayer yeah that's a great question also thank you for saying that could can I ask you could I before I answer could I ask you would you mind sharing how had it how had that changed your uh your experience of prayer well I mean yeah quite massively because before as I said I think was kind of like and they talked about this a lot at training it came up quite a few times I talked about the gumbo God who you kind of you put in a coin you expect to get out a gumbo and that's kind of this transactional relationship with God that it can be very I guess easy to have at the beginning of your journey of Prayer and that's definitely where I started and it was a good place to be also in Ireland I think there's definitely a tradition and a culture of devotions and of real prayer that's kind of what's very popular in the church here and I think it's a shame that sometimes it can then be seen the contempt prayer is really difficult or even elusive it's kind of like this thing that you can't really put your finger on so I kind of have had come from that tradition from that culture and I was maybe somewhere in the middle of my journey of prayer was still definitely developing a lot and growing a lot very fast and because I had been to my first focus conference only what like three or four months before becoming a focus mission so it was all very new and just learning so so much about prayer so it was kind of yeah fast tracked into really understanding what prayer is and but then to hear about this kind of prayer where you just you're not asking God for anything you're not like trying to say certain words you're just finding peace and silence and rest that word rest especially was really new and exciting I think for me and challenging as well because I didn't really feel comfortable with that kind of prayer I thought like how can I even get my brain to switch off completely and and yeah to that place with God so it was a challenge it was something not entirely new like I definitely knew about that type of Prayer but I hadn't ever prioritized it and I'd come from a tradition that as I said was very much based on rote prayer and devotions and things like that so yeah that's there's a lot to the answer no that was fantastic thank you no thank you for sharing that because I think I think you just gave a lot of context for people for people to you know after hearing this to understand what we're really talking about I think and I yeah Wow so good to Katie I I think one of the one of the first things that would when it comes to and yet not noted here's like kind of your active your meditative prayer your contemporary prayer I like the gumball image where I'm thinking about the John chapter John chapter 5 and in Matthew Luke's Gospel also it talks about after Jesus feeds the 5,000 it said he sent the disciples across the Sea of Galilee while he himself went up the mountain well the hill to pray and he spent the night in prayer and that seems Wow Jesus would often do this he'd often spend the entire night in the prayer spend in long periods of time in prayer and we would I don't know if we've ever stopped and asked the question well how did he pray then like what would he why would Jesus go to pray why would Jesus go to pray he's God why would God go to pray with God the Father because I know why I go to pray I go to pray as I go to pray for inspiration I want to get I want to get inspiration from the Lord I want to get something I want to get direction I want to go what's the next step I don't know what the next step is I want to get information like I want to know something or I want to get something I just want to get I go to and have God's prayer petition or maybe then I go and I the per petition it might be like more prayer of repentance like so I'm asking for his forgiveness but every single time that I would go to pray it's because that I want inspiration I want information I want confirmation what I did or I want an answer I want Direction Jesus as God didn't need any of those things why would he go to the Father he wouldn't go to the Father for any of the reasons that I would go to the Father he would go to the Father no those those aren't bad things to pray for obviously but why would he go to the Father what was he going to get and I think in some ways the answer is he was going to get the father he was going to just be with him and if there's any image for contemplator prayer that I can imagine that comes from you know Scripture it's that little glimpse of here's Jesus who spends the night multiple nights in the course of his even active ministry in his life and I'm gonna go away I just want to spend time with my father not because I need to get recharged cuz imagine he was pretty charged up being divine you know but because I desired to be in that union with him and um and it doesn't have to be looking for something it doesn't have to be trying to get something from it's just I want to go be with and if that still sounds kind of foreign and like how can I ever possibly do that like how do you put that into my own how to put into words like how do you get to this place of just being quiet in God's presence and just get him like I don't I don't know well I would say I love the one of our missionaries here she had shared this with me I was like that's really it's really powerful I'm gonna share a couple words in a second so me well I'll say right now she said when you go in prayer a templated prayer can often look simply like this see you're in adoration maybe that you Chris isn't exposed but in the tabernacle is our Lord or maybe just you in God's presence and you look up and you're simply there to behold just just to just to see him here's Jesus on the mountainside just just there to behold the Father I'm simply there to behold and so that that can be that kind piece of just like I'm just here and then the next part it's a concurrent though it's at the same time it's I'm also simply there to be held so these two things of just kind of like again they don't have to be super active they're not clear your mind and just go into a nothingness it's not go to a achieve this kind of void that's it's a whole different kind of prayer it's not Christian prayer but Christian prayer praying like Jesus is I'm showing up what am I gonna do I'm going to behold and I'm going to be held and I found that sometimes it really helps me especially if I'm really really busy in prayer because that's temptation all the time I bring this book in this little notebook into prayer because I'm like I I will often have the distracting thoughts and this helps me like okay write down the distracting but now I can go back but sometimes it's hard to slow down and so just to remind myself up two movements of just okay I'm just seems to hear God yesterday this moment you just want me to behold you and also God during this moment you just want me to be held and that's not all of what contemplative prayer is for any one of us that can be a really powerful Avenue into it and what I was gonna say and I could with ordre me to say this in is a lot of times a contemplation happens kind of at the end of prayer that's really when we typically imagine it's gonna happen so if you're familiar with Lexi o Divina there's force more or less four steps sometimes people say five steps Alexia first as we read that's Alexia part then we meditate on what we for we think about Luna red that's meditate Co then we pray we talked to God about that that's alright Co and then after all of them that's going back and forth right you go back to reading then the thinking and the talking and back to reading and thinking but at the end of that is we just kind of settle ourselves and contemplate him that con-tem-plat-- Co the fifth one people say is you know Axio or making action what's your next step but that often times comes at the end of having heard his word and thought about it and talk to him about it is contemplation but in reality in a relationship yeah sometimes that happens right so you're talking with a friend or maybe there's someone you like deeply loved you know romantically and there's this sharing of each other sharing of thoughts sharing of things and then sometimes it's just like afterwards like huh just being here just just want to be here no to sit in silence with you net makes sense because that silence will come after things have been spoken after things have been shared and said but this whole truth of I'm simply here to behold and simply here to be held that can have all happen any point in prayer in fact one of the ways you can do that is even just going into prayer to start with that to start with okay my mind is going a thousand miles an hour or sorry a thousand fifteen hundred km/h 8 km/h and I just want to start this off floor by just you are here I want to behold you and have all these things like I should be here I should actually go to the next thing that no K Lord I'm simply here to be held by you and that oh gosh I think if we did that more Katie I think a lot of us would would see prayers being less of a chore and of a duty and less of a thing we need to accomplish something in or check the box on and be more like oh that's right this is all about the relationship this is not just about my thoughts about how I'm doing is also about Lord I'm just here for you and to be held by you so any is that better absolutely I think so often prayer and it's terrible to say it but it can be seen as a chore and sometimes it can feel just checking a box and sometimes that's just the reality of making a commitment and sometimes it's just gonna feel a little bit like that but to remember that it's a relationship and to actually get to that place where you're yearning for prayer that's that's just yeah it's so so beautiful how do you think people can deal though with dryness because it's something I've encountered I'm pretty sure pretty much everyone with a very life is oh yeah how should people deal with that dryness when that hits especially if they're getting to this place of contemplative prayer and they're really you know getting somewhere in their relationship with God it's all going well yeah it's just I feel like that's when that's often when dryness hits when you're kind of on your peak and yeah it just gets really difficult so how would you advise someone who's really really struggling with dryness in their prayer oh yeah well I think the first thing is to note that that's normal like the first thing is to realize oh dryness and prayer is not necessarily I hate saying like it's nothing special like it's but at the same time I mean it's but not that you're not something special but the sense of like oh this is what's supposed to happen that conviction I don't have to panic this is what's supposed to happen is I wish someone had told me that right I wish someone had told me that because you even said it kitty I love how you said it to you said well no part of this the chore part of the duty or the obligation or the difficulty in prayer sometimes is the fact that I made a commitment and sometimes it's hard to keep your commitments to be able to say it's simply like you said it so simply and so clearly I was like oh yeah powerfully though yeah whenever we made a commitment we've also obligated ourselves to something and it's gonna be difficult at times and it's gonna feel like a chore at times even if the commitment was he had I committed to at least three tracksuit cookies a day and I gotta honor that commitment like at some point that would still be a chore like why do I have to eat chocolate chip cookies today so past that is to say why is it necessary like oh sorry because I hope I said this dryness is normal and dryness is necessary this is really really important it's normal because have literally every Christian who has become a praying Christian has gone through dryness sorry when I say gone through dryness it sounds like you get through it and you do not dry anymore no every we we go through dryness but after it we learned what it's what to do in dryness then it's not so bad anymore in the sense that like oh no like I know what's happening and I'm not gonna panic and God is doing something in this redness that's why I said so it's it's normal and it's necessary why is it necessary I think you've probably had this experience I know I continue to is there are times when I want to I was like God help me love you just for you like I know CS Louis he has this yet he and his poem that talk about the mercenary heart like Lord I've always had a mercenary heart a heart that will go to the highest bidder essentially and and sometimes we were really honest with ourselves we realize okay we ask the question Jesus have I come to you simply because I don't want to go to hell like him am i choosing you and your will because I simply don't want not you not your will I don't want to be abandoned and so am i choosing you out of selfishness am i choosing you because I'm a mercenary because we're like I don't want that though lord I want to love you for your sake and that's great that's fantastic how do we get to that point how do we get to the point where we actually love God for his own sake well what happens what's necessary is for that love would be purified and so I go to prayer beacon and in prayer I'm getting this consolation of like this is good this is this is uh I'm getting in I'm getting insight into the Lord and I'm getting these consolations of grace and I'm loving him and that's real love I'm really choosing him but I'm also choosing myself I'm also choosing the consolation also choosing kind of a gift not just the giver so at some point what God has to do because he wants us to grow he wants us to have the heart that's been purified what he has to do necessary what he has to do is yes to take those consolations away he has to allow it to be dry yes so he has to allow it to be difficult not to test us like we'll see what they'll do now like you know if they're gonna quit on me but but because he needs us to have the kinds of heart that he has and Jesus has the kind of heart that says father let this cup pass from me I don't want this what I want what you want and I'm willing to do whatever it is you want even if it means my death and my suffering and so for us to be able to say that at the end we have to say that on those little moments those daily moments in dryness for like I'm not really getting anything out of this you guys like yes this is the key moment this is the moment you actually get to say you love me not because you're getting something back but because you just simply love me for my own sake some periods of dryness and difficulties in prayer they're normal and I wouldn't as say just don't panic just to keep showing up but also recognize that they're necessary because God's doing something and this is kind of the the the ultimate thing is that whether there's consolation and there's a great grace is there or whether there is this dryness and they don't feel anything in all those circumstances and all the situations God is doing something and and if we have that conviction if we have that that certainty we have that faith that declares this like no even in my dryness I don't feel anything but I know God is doing something why I don't feel anything then no I actually I feel even like worse I feel a lot banned and by God God's doing something in that moment that he couldn't do without that moment because if we really trust him as our good good dad then we know that even when I'm experienced in dryness in prayer it's not because he's being arbitrary or because he's just kind of he's gone it's because he's doing something in this and he's doing something in that dryness and in that feeling of desolation that he wouldn't be able to do deeply in our hearts unless we had I'm also quite aware just at this time of pandemic that people might be feeling really cut off especially from say the Blessed Sacrament like but it can be a big part of people's prayer life um it might be where they go to really focus on Jesus and it really helps to direct their prayer so is there anything you would say to any words of encouragement for people who really are struggling at this time not just to you know grow in their prayer life we're just simply to keep going with where their ass yeah a great question I have to whoa couple things one is so was it seen agustin it was somebody at one point someone holy who once said he's someone holy once said something along these lines and they said that you actually were either or always either growing or or dying when it comes to our spiritual lives there's no such thing as standing still there's no such thing as like it's kind of sustaining we're either pursuing the Lord or we're falling back because I've been that too good but it's just like I would say that what's that mean it's not like we're going to get our terms right I mean in terms of like wow Lord you always are there that there's nothing neutral to the soul that in any given moment everything can be be used as a tool that you're just trying to draw me to your heart and so in in terms in these 10 terms like I believe that God is probably growing more people right now without access to the sacraments immediately and maybe maybe people were growing when things are just kind of normal maybe I don't know because because I don't Katie do you guys have your church is open like people can people go and visit the churches and pray it's a bit of a mixed bag some churches are open a lot of them aren't so it kind of depends on where you are yeah yeah do you guys have access to confession again in some parishes yes they're being very creative and I don't but I don't think in every single parish that's my understanding gotcha okay yeah because I'm just curious because there's that um same in our diocese here in Minnesota we are our das as an administrator said keep the churches open even longer I make sure people are spaced out and whatnot and have even more opportunity for confession now they tried to do that and like some people are being creative like drive-thru confessions and from us we have a backyard here and there's a fire pit and so I just sit on one side of the fire pit and someone sits on the fire good compassionate outside but I think three things one is what I was kind of trying to make that point of being able to say that every God can use everything that God wants to use everything and that there's a thing called the sacrament of the present moment and the sacrament at the present moment States essentially that God is not in the future of he is in the future we're not there any guys not in the past well he is the past but we're not there the only place where we and God are is right here and right now which means that I'm not waiting for quarantine to be lifted I'm not just waiting for this tiller to grow in holiness but God wants to use this moment even wants to use my hunger he even wants to use my my longing for him to to make me holy even wants me to use the dryness to make me holy and so we the second the first moment number two there is this thing called the Liturgy of the hours which I mentioned praying the Psalms five times a day the Liturgy of the hours is is a way of praying the scriptures that every priest and monk every deacon every Bishop how most religious sisters and brothers and a lot they people have committed themselves to pray with the church in fact it's the official prayer of the church and so I recommend in this pandemic especially um my little sister she she contacted me she said what do I do we can't go to masks and all its kind of things I was like Sarah liturgy hours is the official prayer of the church like what are the mast will masses very it's the most powerful prayer known to the world but the liberty of the hours is the official prayer of the church it's often as someone picks up footage the hours and prays it they are uniting their prayer with the entire prayer of the universal Church and so like this is a way in which we just can come participate and be united not just with our local parish and our priest who's gonna be praying this every day couple times five times a day we're also united with the church throughout the world and so that's another massive way to grow and the third I just I've been convicted more and more I mean the Rosary obviously I can't say enough but our lady in the pre indoors rate but I won't the third thing is the chaplet of divine mercy and something about the chaplet of my mercy especially in a season where we can't have acts we don't have access to the mass is is massively important that's what's important because because at the mass we're not simply there to receive our Lord in the Eucharist although that's fantastic and a massive acute stop saying that a huge gift thumb is not only over there to receive the Lord we're also there to give God worship we were there to offer up the sacrifice of the son to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit what do we pray we pray the chaplet of divine mercy saying Eternal Father I offer you the body and blood soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son our Lord Jesus Christ and until my for our sins and those of the whole world what we're doing what the chaplain does is it extends the prayers of the mass into the rest of your daily life extends that worship that belongs to the father that is his alone the sacrifice of the son offered up probability spirit and extends that so at any given moment the lay faithful all the faithful we can we can participate in the worship of the mass even if we're not at the mass by offering up the chaplet of divine mercy it's it's just a gift that the Lord gave us through st. Faustina to be able to participate in that and grow and hopefully when we get to back to mass we will have formed our hearts in such a way that we recognize what God wants me to do here is he wants me to offer you the body blood soul and divinity of your dearly beloved son that's helmet for our sins and those the whole world we could have asked and so I think those are those are three ways that to really really grow during this time one to know that God uses everything to litters to the hours and three is the chaplet amazing well father Mike I know you're a busy man so thank you so so much for taking the time to talk to us oh my gosh I am so honored Katie thank you thank you a ton I'm really grateful for you and I'm so grateful for you and what you're doing now and being having been a focus missionary and just yeah thank you so much for responding to the Lord's invitation that he's just placed on your heart and responding to him with your whole life I'm just yeah just so grateful for you well thank you absolutely YouTube you

Channel: Called to More

Views: 114,395

Keywords: Catholic, Prayer, Fr Mike Schmitz

Id: ThuUE2Ra0IE

Length: 48min 17sec (2897 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020