Day 275: Superstition, Idolatry, and Magic (2025)

The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

Ascension

Foundations Of Faith, Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Catholic, Scripture, Fr Mike Schmitz, Christianity, Fr Mike, Catechism In A Year, Father Mike Schmitz, Catechism, Catholic Doctrine, Religion & Spirituality, Tradition, Catholic Church, Catholic Teachings, Catholic Faith, Ascension, Catholicism, Bible, Father Mike, Spirituality

4.9 • 11.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Superstition, idolatry, divination, and magic are all things we can encounter in our daily lives, and, with Fr. Mike, we unpack how they break the first commandment. Fr. Mike reiterates that superstition represents an “excess of religion” and can affect the worship we offer to God. He points out that we can be superstitious even in our Catholic practices. He also explains that idolatry consists of divinizing anything that is not God. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2110-2117.

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's Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast,
0:09.6	where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down
0:13.7	through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in New Year is brought to you by
0:17.0	Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 275. We're reading paragraphs 2110 to 2117. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the 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 a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash cI. And you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Quick thank you to everyone who has supported this podcast. Thank you for your prayers. Like I do mean it. I say that I'm praying for you. I literally am every single day. Thank you for your prayers. And thank you for your financial gifts. We couldn't do this podcast without you today as we're continuing this first commandment. I just, it's so good. We have a couple more days of this commandment. But this day is, they're all great, aren't they? Today we're going to talk about
1:12.4	what is it? What does God mean when he says, you shall have no other gods before me? What is
1:18.6	idolatry? What's the danger of idolatry to our hearts? What's superstition? Now, superstition is
1:24.0	something that, man, that sneaks in so many places in our lives where we can say okay
1:29.1	you know the black cat thing or the don't walk under a ladder don't open an umbrella inside but there's
1:33.8	also other little mini superstitions meaning we give a power that belongs only to god to something that's
1:41.3	not god and then idolatry is giving you know worship or our heart or whatever it is that belongs to god to something that's not God. And then idolatry is giving, you know, worship or our heart or whatever it is that belongs to God to
1:47.8	something that isn't God.
1:48.8	We're also going to look at divination and magic because those are, I mean, in some ways,
1:53.9	in some ways and more of our people are attracted to that notion of divination and magic.
1:59.2	So we're going to talk all about that today in order to prepare our hearts.
2:02.5	Let's pray.
2:05.3	Father in heaven, we love you.
2:08.0	We love you and we receive your love.
2:10.3	We acknowledge that you are the giver of every good gift.
2:14.2	You're the God of the universe and you know our names.
2:17.0	You're the God of the universe and you have called us to be yours. You are the God of the universe and you know our names you're the God of the universe and you have
2:18.5	called us to be yours you're the God of the universe and every hair on our head is counted or God
2:25.4	every every strand of DNA you know and who we are matters to you what we do matters to you help what we do matters to you. Help us to fully belong to you.
	...

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