Day 244: The Virtue of Charity
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Ascension
4.9 • 10.8K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2023
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
The greatest of all the theological virtues is charity. Fr. Mike explains that charity, or love, is to love God above all things for his own sake and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This includes loving our enemies and also obeying God's commandments, two actions that are not always easy. Most importantly, today's readings remind us that true charity is not loving the Father as servants in fear or as mercenaries looking for a reward but rather as his beloved children responding to him who "first loved us." Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 1822-1829.
This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB.
For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy
Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to The Catechism in a Year Podcast, |
| 0:09.2 | where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down to |
| 0:13.6 | the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by Ascension. |
| 0:17.1 | In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church discovering our identity |
| 0:22.0 | in God's family as we journey together toward a heavenly home. This is day 244. We are reading |
| 0:26.8 | paragraphs 1822 to 1829. As always, I am using the ascension edition of the Catechism, |
| 0:32.4 | which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version |
| 0:36.1 | of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year |
| 0:39.8 | reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and you can click follow or subscribe |
| 0:44.8 | on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications, because today it's day 244. |
| 0:49.7 | As I said, we're reading paragraphs 1822 to 1829. Yesterday we talked about the virtue of hope |
| 0:54.0 | before that. We talked about the virtue of faith. So guess what class we are talking about? |
| 0:59.1 | The virtue of charity. One thing right off the bat, I think it's worth acknowledging that charity |
| 1:03.8 | is love, but it's a very particular kind of love. In paragraph 1822, it says, |
| 1:08.3 | charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake |
| 1:13.2 | and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. So as we launch into love, as we launch into charity, |
| 1:19.1 | let's call upon the God of love and that triune God, the Trinity Father, Son, Holy Spirit, |
| 1:24.0 | and ask him to be with us to give us his Holy Spirit, to give us his blessing, to give us his love |
| 1:29.0 | in this moment. We pray, Father in heaven, we know that you are love. We know that you are the |
| 1:33.8 | fullness of everything that we desire. We know that you're the source of all love and that none of |
| 1:39.1 | us can actually love without you because you are love. In this moment, Lord God, we ask |
| 1:44.4 | you to send your Holy Spirit of charity, your Holy Spirit of love into our hearts that we can love |
... |
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